One issue is that most of them are not patched and secured for Internet use.
This tutorial are targeted to XP Home version and to the Guest Account issue. The Guest Account is installed by default and there is no easy way to "truly disable it" or enable password protection for that account.
I just turned off the Guest Account I’m safe! That is where you are wrong, the Guest Account is still running. You just can’t log into it using the windows GUI (Graphic User Interface).
The Guest Account are still running In the background because it’s an integral part of the network file and folder-sharing engine. This means that anyone on the Internet that can see your computer can see any file or folder that are shared with simple file sharing.
If you have a firewall running you are more secure because the firewall (when configured correctly) offers more protection (Firewall will be the next part of this how-to).
XP Home uses the Guest Account (even after you turned it off) to authenticate remote users and give them access to shared resources on your computer. This can now defeat the firewall because an authenticated user on a computer on the Internet can still log into your guest account without a password because they are authenticated.
OK, I’ll just hack the guest account and remove it! Wrong move, there are no safe way of disabling the guest account (that I know of) without crippling the computer. Or render it useless for future use.
What is the solution? Passwords protect the guest account! It can be done but you have to be at a command prompt.
Create a good password that are not easily cracked and it should be different from any other password used for regular user accounts. Creating a good password entails using “upper and lower case letters”, “numbers” and symbols. So if your name is “Anyuser Anywhere” and you use a password like Anyuser1 or aanywhere10 it can be cracked fairly easy.
Better choice is to substitute an “A or a” for the symbol @ like @nyuser1 or A@nywhere. It’s better but can still be cracked.
The best passwords are random but difficult to remember:
8 Character password
Password: 4T6Etie!
Phonetics: Four - TANGO - Six - ECHO - tango - india - echo - Exclamation
16 Character password
Password: fEsT4swucUjE?ehE
Phonetics: foxtrot - ECHO - sierra - TANGO - Four - sierra - whiskey - uniform - charlie - UNIFORM - juliet - ECHO - Question - echo - hotel – ECHO
Or you can go to (like I did for the examples):
http://www.winguides.com/security/password.php
Here is how to set the “Guest Account” password in XP Home:
- Start the command prompt. Click on Start, then All Programs, then Accessories and select Command Prompt or Click on Start, then Run and type <command> (without the <> brackets) and Click OK.
- Now you are at the command prompt window (Black background and the prompt normally starts with "C:\DOCUME~1\****>" or "C:\>" the path may differ on your computer but that does not matter.
- Now type this: net user guest <password> (replace the <password> part with the password you came up with.
- So using the password created earlier the command will look like this: net user guest fEsT4swucUjE?ehE
- Look at everything and make sure you write down the password, then hit the enter key.
Now you have created a password on the guest account anyone who tries to access files will be stopped, unless you give them the password
Disclaimer: be carfull when changing setting on your computer. If you are not sure what to do get help from someone who know or use Google to search for "Password Protect Guest Account".
Nils
Registry, what registry... <g> 