I have a question to ask about WAN/Local security.

There is a WAN I am registered on that has a server (maybe more than one, or one with multiple partitions or something, I don't know) hosting files that are to be accessed in the following ways: one drive contains your personal files and only you should be able to access them and another contains read-only communal files. This works fine, but the problem is that to access any of these drives, the local username and password are an administrator login, meaning that any user can access Control Panel etc. There is no proper network administrator, all network administration is done from one place, which is nowhere near where I am involved.

Another problem is that you can map various network drives that you shouldn't have access to.

Lastly, I am not allowed to change my own password, and I have been waiting for this to happen at the central admin place but it hasn't happened. My friend's password is known to many people that shouldn't know and whilst most of us wouldn't do anything wrong with it, there has been a problem with unauthorised access to his files. I have been waiting almost a year for my password to be changed with no information about if or when it will be changed.

We mainly use Windows 2000 computers with some sort of Novell network software.

I would be grateful to anyone that can suggest a solution to any of these problems, and I would pass on the information to the person that I think is most appropriate.

Thanks again!

Hmm... I can't really help you there. My school uses Novell Netware and students can't change their own passwords either. Except I was able to access mine by going to the network drive K:\ and some folder with a program from Novell.

On some of the computers that aren't locked down fully (this is a high school, btw) you can map network drives that you shouldn't have access to and you can disconnect network drives. But because most of the newer computers are protected with Deep Freeze, a simple re-boot keeps them set the same.

So what you are saying is that there is no full time Network Administrator? See, at my school, here is how network accounts are set up:
K:\
|
Users
|-Staff
|
Staff accounts - full access to network drives and features
|-GRADUATION YEAR
|--Student accounts - limited permissions (network drives)

But some accounts that are just guest accounts are placed in the staff folder with limited default permissions.

If you could find out who the main Network Administrator is (or if there's not one person, maybe the "head" of Network Administrations) you can point me to them and you can forward some information. I am not sure if what I said answered anything, but maybe it helped a little.

I'm 15 and already a home network admin and I work on my school's network too so I'd be more than happy to help!

[N]F