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I have an RN104, which is fitted with 4 x 3Tb WD RED drives, configured as one large RAID5 volume. It has firmware version 6.4.2.
The device is used to store about 10 years worth of Windows Media Center recordings. I don't use ReadyCloud or ReadyNAS Remote; the box (named 'Nelly') is just used to serve video to PCs, laptops and an XBOX 360 (running as a Media Center Extender) within the house.
All of the Media Center recordings are in a folder called VIDEO. The access permissions on this folder are set to 'Anonymous'.
I have another folder called MP4 which stores other movies. The access permissions on that folder are also set to 'Anonymous'.
Everything has worked fine to date and we've had no problems accessing the videos using either our Windows devices or the XBOX 360 Media Center Extender.
With the exception of the Media Center machine (which records TV programmes and runs Windows 7), all of our other Windows devices run Windows 10.
In order to stop the kids from accessing any video that is inappropriate to their age, I've tried to create a folder on 'Nelly' that only us parents can access - preferably via a password. Unfortunately my attempts haven't worked.
I created a new user account called 'Parents' and set a password. I then created a new folder called 'Restricted' and, I thought, set the permissions so that only the 'Parents' can access it.
When I browse to 'Nelly' (\\NELLY) in Windows Explorer, I can see the 'Restricted' folder. When I double-click on it, it prompts me for the password. When I enter the password, it tells me that I don't have permission to access the folder.
With hindsight, I wish I would have contacted NetGear's installation support team within the 90 day support period to help me set this up, although the thought only occurred to us recently. Unfortunately, I'm now about a week out of that period.
Apologies for posting such a simple request but I'm just baffled on how to set this up. Can anyone help?
Clearly the issue lies at the Windows client end, rather than the RN104.
By using the 'Stored Usernames and Passwords' list in Windows 10 (C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe keymgr.dll, KRShowKeyMgr), I've managed to set the correct level of access on the 'Restricted' share I'd set up on NELLY.
First, I hope you an external backup of your data, "10 years of recording", that's definitely worth having a backup on a USB HDD 🙂
About the permissions, there are two approaches, you can either set the permissions on separate shares, or set permissions on seperate folders inside the same share.
The first one is definitely easier, and I'd use the second one only if you have a genuine reason to not the use the first one.
If you set up your permissions on the share, you shouldn't use the file access permissions ("File Access") unless you know what you're doing, you'll surely end up with permissions issues.
So I'd advise you to have two shares, one for normal content, with Everyone/Anonymous access, another share for restricted content, only accessible for your user, and to use the "Reset permission" button under "File Access" to make you don't have wrong permissions set on the files. You already filter the access in Samba (Network access), no need to filter on the file level (unless you know what you're doing).
(I wish they'd remove that "File Access" tab from the GUI of the ReadyNAS. For most people, it's confusing. And it's not really useful, you can set advanced permission from the explorer anyway)
Many thanks for your help. I do have the Media Center recordings backed-up on a couple of USB drives.
I'm still not having any success with this. This is what I've done:
Created a new user called Superuser and set their password to password
Created a brand new share called Restricted Opened the settings window for the new share Clicked the Network Access tab I unticked READ/WRITE access for the Everyone user group I ticked READ/WRITE access for Superuser. The only other user with any other access is the default Admin user, who also has read/write access Clicked OK
I haven't opened the File Permissions tab at all.
When I open \\NELLY in Windows file explorer in Windows 10, the Restricted share appears. Clicking it brings up a window asking me to enter my network credentials. I enter Superuser and the password, but I just get an error message telling me that \\NELLY\Restricted is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource...
It also states that: Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user, using the same user, using more than one user name, are not allowed. Disconnect all previous connections to the server or shared resource and try again
I've also tried using nelly\Superuser as the username, which causes the domain to change to NELLY, but I still can't get access.
Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user, using the same user, using more than one user name, are not allowed. Disconnect all previous connections to the server or shared resource and try again
That's the problem! It's because Windows has really poor management of samba sessions.
Can you try to add your Superuser credentials into Manage Network Password, log out and log back in?
It also states that: Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user, using the same user, using more than one user name, are not allowed. Disconnect all previous connections to the server or shared resource and try again
This is a windows policy (nothing that Netgear can do about it). But there is a trick that will work.
Windows treats the NAS name and the NAS IP address as two different machines, so you can use different credentials for them.
So you could continue to access the nas using \\nasname for the open shares - but use \\nasipaddress to access the locked-down parent share. You will want to be careful not to allow Windows to remember the parent password. Even then the kids might still be able to access the parent share (for instance if you forget to close the window when you are done, or if Windows somehow keeps the session open after you close the window).
One approach is to set up two different user accounts on the PC, and switch to the parent account when you want to access the parent share (or any other local files you want to prevent the kids from accessing). That has the advantage of ensuring that you don't accidently leave the parent share open. It also lets you add the parent share credentials ot the NAS (again using the IP address) in the windows credential manager - using the Windows parent account password to manage access.
Clearly the issue lies at the Windows client end, rather than the RN104.
By using the 'Stored Usernames and Passwords' list in Windows 10 (C:\Windows\System32\rundll32.exe keymgr.dll, KRShowKeyMgr), I've managed to set the correct level of access on the 'Restricted' share I'd set up on NELLY.
