Hi all

I hope this is the right forum as I need help with two things mostly network policies and user account control settings plus suggestions for software that may suit my needs (I can decide what is "best" on my own I just need to know what's available) but it all revolves around setting up a wireless network, so here goes.

In Short.
I need a bit of assistance setting up a wireless home network for many users with full policies and access rights/controls on each, able to log on to either of 2 (maybe 3 soon) desktops and access the internet (with restrictions on some accounts), their own files and any public folders/files of any attched computer/s plus (I will be buying next week...) a NAS drive. There also needs to be guest accounts for several laptops an Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and other possibly devices in the near future (wii, pda etc.) Think school/college style network setup.

The Explanation.
I have been brought up from a young age with computers so I know my way around or how to find it but I have never really done much with networking I have set up wired ethernet systems for friends and even seup simple restrictions (using poledit mainly) on a 98 system for a friends family pc a while back.

I have had our two desktops (one xp one vista but upgradable to xp if I need to) linked via ethernet cards (one sharing internet to the other) for a while now but have recently bought an xbox 360 and its getting to be a pain needing one system on for the others to access the net, so I decided to give in and go wireless I have bought an edimax wireless router with usb ports for NAS and print server and a couple of dongles and have successfully... To a point, set them up to see each other (vista gives access denied when trying to see shared xp folders but xp can connect fine)

Now our house is often full with friends/family often wanting to use the pc's and the internet, many of whom have wireless capable laptops. This got me thinking, if I can set them all up with user accounts with a full set of access rights and restrictions on the desktops, to include:
-Private "my documents" folder that can be accessed on either system but only seen by the user
-Access to the network drive and shared folders on any connected systems but not system folders (program files, windows etc.)
-Each user to have their own set of programs (no problem here)
-A network attached printer
-The internet
The net will need to be restricted well on some accounts as I know one of my friends has been using my PC to find porn sites but badly and ends up infecting everything with viruses. There will also be need for guest accounts (for the laptops) to connect to shared files and the internet, a Nintendo DS and the Xbox.

Any information on the software and bits I'll need to set this up and advice on how to go about doing it (as I'm not quite sure where to start at the moment). I don't need a picture drawn but I do need as much info as possible on what to do as I would like to get this right so I will no longer need to reinstall or correct fatal crashes every 4-5 months.

If it helps I will be reinstalling each desktop anyway (starting from a low level format to be sure) when I know what I am doing and have all the software I'll need ready so that I can image them both in a cleanly setup state just in case.


Appologies for the length of the post and thanks for reading, I look forward to your replies.


Belarin

Hi Belarin - Welcome to PCHF!!

The router you bought should meet most of your requirements. I will go through your list with a brief description of the setup requirements.

Private Documents
Refer to your Edimax router manual for how to set up file server, setup a folder for each users documents on the NAS, and set access list accordingly. Use map network drive on each pc to map the the docs folder for each user. Set My documents target to the folder on the NAS. You may also want to set the XP pc's to wait for network before login - this will prevent problems with the mapped drive not being available.

Access Shared Files/Folders on Pc's
You will need to setup a user on each of the pc's for sharing. You can either setup an account on each pc you want to share files or you could setup just one user called XPShare for example. Then you just have share the folders and give the user(s) the requried access e.g. read only or full control.

Network Attached Printer
Setup printer as per the instructions in the edimax manual.

Internet
Your router supports access control - but its only basic access control. For the person that likes to view pr0n you can pretty much only disable them from accessing the internet altogether. Otherwise you block certain sites based on his mac address but I think this would be near impossible. Another option is to buy software that restricts access to those types of sites but you would have to install it that persons pc or laptop which i don't think they'll allow you to do.

The other option is to get a router with Advanced Access Control like the Netgear Rangemax WPN824. This has parental controls, etc built in so you prevent access to offensive sites, allow internet access only at certain hours on various days of the week, for specified users, etc. You can also have virus/malware software installed enabled on the router. This saves you having to make sure that each pc has AV installed and updated. However this router does not have a print server builtin. But in the future if your looking for more control this would be a good option.

Guest Accounts
I would setup another account similar to XPShare, you can then allow them access to whichever folders, etc on the NAS or pc's you want as per above.

One other thing to note is that you will need to setup the users e.g. XPShare both on the PC's and the Router.

Please post back if you need help with any of the above or have any other queries.