JSI Tip 7853. ShareWatch freeware allows you to see who is connected to a computer and what files they are accessing.

"ShareWatch allows you to see who is connected to a computer and what files they are accessing. Have you ever wondered why your hard drive or modem is active, but you aren't doing anything to cause it to be active? It is possible a remote user is accessing your computer. Have you ever had a file locked but you don't know why? ShareWatch can tell you if a network user is using the file and allows you to disconnect them so that you can edit/delete the file. Have you ever wanted to shutdown a computer, but don't want to drop people using the computer. ShareWatch will show you all resources in use by remote users.

Here are some features of ShareWatch...

Watch shares on local and remote servers.
Shows the users and computers that are connected to each share, along with what files are open.
Allows you to disconnect any file, user, computer, or share.
Address book lookup to show you the details about each user connected (this feature is turned off by default)
Computer lookup to show you both the computer name and IP address of the computers connected.
Can be run as a tray application.
Supports top-most and transparency.
Works on Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003.
Multithreaded to allow servers to be queried independently from each other while not blocking each other or the user interface.

What ShareWatch Cannot do...

ShareWatch does not watch socket connections, pipes, or any other method of low-level communication. Most applications that communicate over the internet will use sockets (sometimes referred to as TCP, UDP, or IP). This includes applications like file/music swapping programs (i.e. Kazaa, WinMX, Morpheus, etc.), e-mail, web browsing (HTTP), instant messeging, chat, IRC, FTP, telnet, multiplayer games, etc. Any application on your computer is free to open a low-level connection on your computer and send/receive data."