Dummies, Wireless

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Part IV: Using a Wireless Network
� Those in the Power Users group can’t do as much as administrators, but
they can do a lot — as long as what they’re doing doesn’t change any of
the files that make Windows operate. In other words, power users can
add and remove software, users, hardware, and so on to a system as
long as their actions don’t affect any files keeping the system running
the way it’s running.
� The Users group is just that. Users simply use what the system has to
offer and aren’t able to do anything else. The Users group provides
the most secure environment in which to run programs, and it’s by
far the best way to give access to your resources without compromising
the security of your computer and network.
How do you know what kind of access you have? Unfortunately, that’s not an
easy thing to find out unless you’re an administrator. If you know that you’re
not an administrator, the only way to find out what you can do is by trying to
do it. If you don’t have the proper access to do something, you see a warning
message telling you exactly that — sometimes the message may tell you what
access you need to have to do what you want.
Adding users
For others to get access to what you have shared, you need to give them permission.
You do that by giving them a logon on your computer and assigning
them to a group — essentially adding them to the network as a user. The
group is then given certain rights within the folder you have shared; every
user in the group has access only to what the group has access to. For more
details on this process, we strongly recommend that you use the Windows
Help file to discover how to set up new users and groups on your system.
In Windows XP, creating users and adding them to groups is best done by
using the administrator logon. If you’re using an office computer and you’re
not the administrator or a member of the Power Users group, you can’t create
users. Talk to your system administrator to get permission and help in setting
up your machine.
We’re guessing that you’re the administrator of your home-networked computer
(it’s your network, right?), so you have access to the administrator
logon. Thus, you can set up new users by logging on to the machine as
administrator. As with the hierarchical folder permissions, user permissions
are hierarchal as well. If you’re a power user, you can only create users who
have less access than yourself (members of the Users group in other words).
By using the administrator logon, you can create any type of user account
you may need — including other administrators.
Unless you’re very comfortable with the security settings of Windows XP, you
should never give new user accounts more access than the Users group provides.
(For a description of user types, see the preceding section.) Keep in
mind that by creating these accounts, you’re also creating a logon that can