How do you control file access and changes on a file server by username?

Question

I was asked to find a way to track changes (changes, renaming, deleting, moving) of files in specific folders on the company's shared file server (a simple Windows shared directory). I wrote a simple C # application that uses FileSystemWatcher to track these changes and notify them of a specific email address.

Now I would like to know how to find out the name / IP of the user / computer that made these changes. Any ideas?

As an alternative to writing your own software, is there any good (possibly free) software that supports this functionality?

Answer 1

Use audit - this is on the security tab when you get the file / folder properties. You specify which users you want to check for which access. You must also enable auditing using the mmc snap-in security policy. The audit will end in the security log.

Detailed instructions from MS: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310399

If you want, your C # application could select events from the security event log.