Multi-user Access and Cross-platform Compatibility.

Terms

BestCrypt software is designed for the Windows and may be used with other operating systems in a network environment. BestCrypt treats computers in network as Server , Storage or Client .

• Server : computer where BestCrypt software is installed and where the administrator controls network access to encrypted data. It is a Windows computer.
• Storage : disk or device where containers with encrypted data are stored. It may be a network storage (like NAS) or a computer that may have any operating system and might not have BestCrypt software installed. Storage shares disk resources with the server computer.
• Client : computer where a user may access BestCrypt virtual drives that are shared on the Server computer. This computer might not have BestCrypt software installed. It may have any operating system that uses shared disk resources of the Server computer.

NOTE: BestCrypt is also implemented for Linux and MacOS. So it is possible to choose a Linux or Mac computer as Server, and install the appropriate version of BestCrypt on the server.

NOTE: BestCrypt containers created on Linux and Mac are fully compatible with Windows. To create a container on Windows computer that would be compatible with Linux/Mac, enable the option v.8 and cross-platform compatible in container creation dialog.

How to Administer BestCrypt Container Access

BestCrypt software allows users to create encrypted containers on any network or local disk that is accessible from the Server computer.

You may run the BestCrypt Control Panel to see what local and network disks are available for storing and accessing BestCrypt containers.

NOTE: Some disks may be read-only accessible. This is the situation for network disks when you have connected to them in read-only mode. In this situation you cannot create new containers on the disk, but you can open any container stored on the disk for read-only access.

When you start BestCrypt Control Panel, the left panel will show you the list of all available disks. The following table describes the correspondence between disk types and icons.

Creating and using BestCrypt container in network

1. Choose a computer (Windows/Linux/Mac) which will be the Server for BestCrypt container.
2. Install BestCrypt software on this computer.
3. Run BestCrypt Control Panel.
4. Choose a Storage - network or local drive where the new container will be created.
5. Create a new container using the method described in the New container dialog chapter.

Now, there are two ways to access the BestCrypt container by several users:

1. Administrator mounts the container on the Server and then shares the logical disk in network for a group of users on Client computers. In this case all users will have full access to the container, the data transfers through network in opened form. BestCrypt mounted drive works as a regular network shared drive.
2. If BestCrypt is installed on Client computers, the users can mount the container stored on the Storage. In this case only the first user mounts the container in full read/write mode. If some other user tries to mount the same container at the same time, he will get read-only access to the container file. In this case the data transfers through network in encrypted form, BestCrypt decrypts the data on the Client.

NOTE: BestCrypt automatically saves network shares created by network administrator on BestCrypt virtual drives. After dismounting a container and mounting it again - administrator does not have to create network shares again.

NOTE: The administrator should open the BestCrypt container for access each time that Server computer boots. Thus, it is recommended that the container be marked as Auto-Mount. Then the operating system will require the administrator to enter the password at startup (logon) and the container will be automatically mounted to the selected drive.

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