Introduction

Windows supports resource sharing that allows a group of users to share drive or printer resources over a network with no effort it's all managed by and hidden inside Windows. In the previous chapter, you saw how the basic Windows API could be used to access these resources; in this chapter I cover the ways in which you can detect, connect and use remote resources.

Logon and share security

Once you start to access shared resources available on a network, you need to understand how the various logon and validation processes work within Windows. The basic principles of Windows security are very straightforward and are explained in the following section of this chapter. Security within Windows NT server is taken to a new microscopic level and allows the server or an application to request authentication for a process, resource or communications channel. This level of security is controlled by a range of dozens of new APIs that are, unfortunately, out of the scope of this book we will stick with Windows 95.

One of the reasons why the process is straightforward is because security under Windows 3.1 x and 95 is simple. There are basically just two modes of operation user-level security, which is controlled by a central server that requires a valid username and password; and share-level security in which each resource is assigned its own password. These features are all available from VB; to make life easier for the user, Windows 95 includes...