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How to make the Public Folder read only

OK, you have all your movies and photos saved in the Public folder and you want anyone on your home network to be able to view them, but DLNA's pretty unreliable so you set up a user account so they can log in and access them.
But that also means they can move, rename or delete files in the Public Folder.

So how can you provide access in Windows File Sharing yet prevent people deleting your precious files?


Create a read-only shared folder.

First, connect with SSH and become root user

Use vi text editor to edit the samba configuration file with the command vi /etc/samba/smb.conf
      use the arrow (cursor) keys to move to the end of the file and then type a to enter input mode in vi and add the following text to the smb.conf file;

[GUEST]

comment = Public Guest Access
browseable = yes

readonly = yes
guest ok = yes
path = /home/0common

Press 'Esc' to exit input mode and type ZZ (note capitals) to save and exit smb.conf

Restart samba by entering the command  /etc/init.d/smb restart and wait for restart.

Create a Guest user in seagateshare preferences.  Uncheck both  'create as Administrator" and " Let User Access Family Folder" (or remove admin and family folder access from an existing user)

The Guest user now has read only access to the Public Folder (except the folder is called Guest).

Anyone using the Guest account will still see the Public Folder but they won't be able to open it (and of course you can use any username that suits you for the Guest account).

You can change [GUEST] in the smb.conf text above to something else if you prefer, like [MOVIES] or [FAMILY ACCESS].

You can also give them access to just a subfolder in the Public folder if you want by changing the path= line.

Say you have all your movies in GoFlex Home Public/Movies then set 
         path = /home/0common/Movies

Note that this is case sensitive so if the folder is named Movies, path = /home/0common/movies won't work.

You could even have a kids user account which only lets them view movies in

         path = /home/0common/Movies/Kids

and another user account for anyone else (you should probably turn off DLNA or switch off sharing of folders that you don't want to be viewable by anyone on your network).