Download of the Week: ShareMonitor

Posted 03/29/2010 at 12:13pm | by David Murphy

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You're not paranoid. Repeat it with me: "I. Am not. Paranoid."  There' s nothing wrong with wanting to know just who accessed your shared network files, how long they accessed them, what they did, and when this all went down.

I commend you for being an altruistic Windows user and opening up your public folders for all to visit. But just because you're feeling friendly with your files doesn't mean that you need to throw away the keys to the kingdom--system security should always be in the forefront of your mind no matter how much you trust you've placed through the access rights for those in your personal network.

That's where a little application called ShareMonitor comes center-stage. This portable app, when loaded, begins monitoring Windows 7's public folders for any and all connections. Remember: depending on how you've set up your network, anything dropped into a public folder becomes free for inspection by anyone on the same network as you.

The genius of ShareMonitor is that it's not just another simple application that tells you, "Oh, hey!  Nathan is accessing your public folder right now!"  No, ShareMonitor is much more than that. Within a single window, you'll be able to see the exact User Name of anyone accessing any file in your public space. More importantly, you'll be given a list of the specific files a person pulled up, the exact times they opened and closed said files, and the access mode that user has been granted (be it read-only, read/write, et cetera).

But you can't just storm over to your roommate's room sans evidence, right?  You can also dump ShareMonitor's comprehensive log into a .CSV or .XML format for safekeeping, archiving, or accusing. It's as easy as that.

Each week, Maximum PC picks a new free or shareware download as its favorite of... the week. Have a nifty application that you can't live without? Twitter David Murphy @acererak with your latest suggestions.