Microsoft Access Protection - Book Links

Protect and Secure Your Database With The Operating System

Microsoft has an interesting article called "The 10 Immutable Laws of Security"
http://www.winxpnews.com/rd/rd.cfm?id=021119SE-10_Laws

Windows XP security - Comparisons between XP Home and Professional
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/techinfo/planning/security/whatsnew/default.asp

Links to many important resources for Windows XP Pro operating system
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/itpro/default.asp

Sharing files on Windows XP Home including hidden shares and firewalls
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp/filesharing.htm

Network File Sharing with Windows XP Professional
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp_filesharing/whole.htm

NTFS File security
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/security/accesscontrol.asp

How to setup a Windows XP peer-to-peer network
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=813936

Convert from Fat32 to NTFS volumes
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/itpro/managing/convertfat.asp

Configuring NTFS permissions
Click Here

Special NTFS Permissions
Click Here

Discussions on NT Workstation security
http://www.comptechdoc.org/os/windows/ntwsguide/ntwssecurity.html

Planning a secure environment for Windows 2003
Click Here

How LDB Files work and why you need delete permissions
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;208778

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;136128

Why you need delete permissions on a folder for Access LDB files.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;208778

Making an Access database read-only
http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/2002/articles/ac_ReadOnlyFiles.aspx

The workgroup information file and shortcut files.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/odeopg/html/deovrtheworkgroupinformationfile.asp

Encrypting documents on NTFS volumes
http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/pro/using/howto/security/encryptdata.asp

Using software restriction policies to protect against unauthorized software
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/maintain/rstrplcy.asp

Credential management for Internet passwords on Windows XP
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnnetsec/html/dpapiusercredentials.asp

Internet connection sharing
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/using/howto/networking/ics.asp

Comprehensive guide by Microsoft to help you protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/security/tips/pcprotec.asp

Keeping upto date with Windows Security patches

http://www.microsoft.com/security/

Keeping Upto date with Office Security patches

http://office.microsoft.com/officeupdate/

Adam Cogans tip on keeping service packs upto date using Windows 2003 server.

http://www.ssw.com.au/SSW/Standards/Rules/RulestoSuccessfulProjects.aspx#SUSAutomaticUpdates

For more information about Window security and NTFS file volumes, type NTFS into Windows XP and Windows 2000 Help.

Postings Since The Book Went To Press

How to setup a protected folder for an Access database using Windows XP  by Garry

How to protect your database when coding in VB.net etc.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/03/11/ProtectYourData/default.aspx

Give your computer a complete check out using the Micorsoft Baseline Security analysier (recommended)
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/Security/tools/default.mspx

Note: If you backup a computer across your network using folder permissions, you occasionally should review your backup logs to make sure that you have permission to copy a file. Sometimes permissions on files (mainly zip) are not inherited from the parent folder. To fix, right click on the parent folder ~ choose Properties ~ Choose Security ~ Choose advanced ~ Choose replace permission entries on all child object entries.

How to clear the Most Recently Used List
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/313454/en-us

Note: How to Set Individual File and Folder Permissions in XP Home

In Windows XP Professional, you can easily set file and folder (NTFS) permissions to control which users can access particular files or folders, either across the network or locally. XP Home Edition makes it more difficult, but it can still be done. You have to restart the computer and log on in Safe Mode. Now you can right click the file or folder on which you want to set permissions, right click it, select Properties, and click the Security tab. Here you can specify the accounts that should have permission to access the file or folder. Note that the file or folder must be on an NTFS partition for this to work.

Also try this Freeware tool
Set NTFS Security Whilst using Win XP Home
http://www.fajo.de/portal/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=6&Itemid

Note: You can hide your XP computer from showing up in the network browser (Network Neighborhood). Just click Start | Run and type this: net config server /hidden:yes.

A Note From A User Related

I thought your chapter on setting up File Permissions in XP to be quite thorough and clearly written. I haven’t got around to ordering the whole book, but it is on my to-do list.

I do have a question/comment on XP file sharing though. It is something I ran into a year or so ago when I first migrated one of my db’s to a WinXP machine. This particular office had six workstations, and every once in a while when they got busy (and everyone was working in the app) the last person in would get an error message along the lines of ‘Can’t connect to this file’ or ‘you don’t have the proper permissions for this operation’ or something. I was going crazy because it wasn’t the same machine every time, and was sporadic (or so I thought, I didn’t pick up the fact it was the sixth machine for quite a while). It turns out there is a limit of ten simultaneous connections to an XP workstation, and the machine counts the .ldb and .mdb separately, so you really only get five users connected to the backend.

Have you run into this?? Any way to get around it if you have?? I ended up installing Win2003 Server at this account, which had other added benefits so I wasn’t too upset. I just wish Microsoft had better documentation and/or FAQ’s about this. I never really found anything in the KB that addressed this. I find it hard to believe that there aren’t many offices with more than five users who have their backend on an XP machine. I suppose another option would have been to go back to Win 2000 on the ‘server’, but that seems counterproductive.

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