Restrict directory access on network

And it won't, at least not without a lot of aggravation. No, you can use XP Pro as a Workgroup server but its ACL's (Access Control Lists) are relegated to local Users & Groups and can be manipulated by disabling Simple File Sharing on each machine and assigning permissions through full NTFS control. My take? Don't bother. You'd be better off with a Windows Server product. It would offer you the type of control you're looking to achieve and more.

If you purchase any Microsoft Press manual for Office 2003 products there is a CD in the back of each one that offers a 180-day trial of Windows Server 2003. This I think would be your best bet. That way you have six months to decide if that is what you really desire before spending the amount of cash a server product will set you back. HTH :)

Just a quick note here on the Trial Pack of 2003 SBE it only supports a 5 site License so anymore will not be connected at the same time.

You could always try one of the Linux or BSD server applications but if you have had no experience with these it will be a high learning curve but it just might work out cheaper than the cost of the Full 2003 Server Edition of Windows as these are not cheap to buy. :)

Or take your backup storage to a small business/personal NAS type product such as the Mirra (www.mirra.com).

I believe it will do what you are asking at a much cheaper cost (no Windows licensing).

In addition, for security sakes, you get the backups off of your visitors public access machine.

I USED TO MAP NETWORK DRIVES ON THE pc'S OF THE USERS, THEN IN EVERY COMPUTER YOU NEED TO RUN ON THE GROUP POLICY EDITOR, TO DO THIS GO TO RUN AND TYPE GPEDIT.MSC AND HIT ENTER; THEN GO TO USER CONFIG\ADMIN TEMPLATES AND LLOK FOR THE OPTION TO HIDE NETWORK DRIVES, IN THIS WAY YOU CAN SPECIFY WHICH DRUVERS YOU CAN SEE IN THIS SPECIFIC COMPUTER

I believe the only way to do this is to use a third party software to lock the folders with a password. Below is a nice program that works.

Folder Lock - "lock, hide and password-protect files in seconds."
http://www.newsoftwares.net/folderlock/

I have had to do something very similar, though you do have a few quirks. As one of the other people have said, this can be aggravating, but it's cheaper than a server.

Don't give Full Permission accounts on the Backup PC. Instead, replicate each user's login name/passwords on the Backup PC, but assign them Limited Accounts. This prevents these accounts from browsing to the other directories, but it also allows them to access this PC on the network -- but again, they can't browse to the other directories. (Though I don't know why, if the other PCs have Internet access, why you want the users to be able to logon to the Backup PC).

On the Backup PC, create a limited account for the "guest" to logon to use the Internet. Then, and I'm assuming you've assigned a drive letter to this second partition, deny access to this drive by this account. You'll have to disable Simple File Sharing and allow the more complex Windows 2000 sharing so that you can restrict access to the partition by user, groups, etc.