Enhance security on your Shared Folders

The HP Media Vault comes with different options for securing folders and files saved to the media vault. You can permit everyone on your network access to all your media vault’s files, or you can set the access levels on individual folders that contain sensitive information so that only you have access to those files.

The media vault’s two primary security modes are:

• Workgroup mode
• User-based mode

Workgroup mode

The media vault’s default security mode is workgroup mode, which is the lowest level of security for your Shared Folders. In workgroup mode, everyone on your network has equal access to all your folders. However, you can add one level of security in workgroup mode by password protecting your Shared Folders. With password protection enabled, network users must enter appropriate passwords before gaining access to the folders.

To password protect Shared Folders, see Modify a Shared Folder in workgroup mode.

User-based mode

User-based mode is a more restrictive security level because you grant "access privileges" for each defined network user on each Shared Folder.

To select user-based mode:

1. Double-click the HP Media Vault icon on your desktop.
2. Click Customize your HP Media Vault’s setting.
3. If the Welcome Screen appears, click Configure Device.
4. Click the Network Settings tab.
5. Click User-based mode.
6. Click Accept or Cancel. (If you click Cancel, the change from workgroup mode to user-based mode will not be accepted.)

As administrator, you must create usernames for each user. You must also assign one of the following three privilege levels for every user, for every Shared Folder on the media vault:

• Full access
• Read-only access
• No access

You can switch out of this mode by going to the Network Settings tab and selecting another mode.

Why switch to user-based mode?

Let's say you store all your financial files on the media vault. All your network users store their music files to the media vault so that they can download songs only once from the Internet. But you don't want all your network users to have access to your financial files. In this case, you would create separate usernames for each user giving them "Full access" to the Shared Folders containing music. You would then assign "No access" to these users on Shared Folders that contain financial files. (See Organize your files.)

• User-based mode requires a more thorough understanding of the media vault's networking features, and occasional maintenance of changes. Before deciding to enable User-based access mode, make sure that you understand the configuration screens. Before enabling this mode, read through each topic in the Configure your HP Media Vault section.