Networking Shares - Server vs. Peer-To-Peer
The University of Findlay's College of Education

Any computer can share local resources. A workstation can share it's hard drive or printer. This is called Peer-To-Peer sharing. The disadvantage of peer-to-peer sharing is the high maintenance of security. The sharing must be in one of two forms: everyone has access, listed users defined have access.

Giving everyone on a network access to a shared resource may not be an option. If the resources are files on a computer used for student grades or discipline recorders, you would probably never want to give everyone access. For every person that needs to have access, an account and password must be setup.

If a network server is used, the domain's user information can be used to control access. Users can move from computer to computer on the network, and still get to the server. If the user changes their own password, the server will still associate their account with the shares.