Section 2.6. Setting Client Security

2.6. Setting Client Security

You'll encounter two security issues when first using a SharePoint site over the Internet:

• Opening files from a library or workspace displays a security warning, as shown in Figure 2-18.

• You can't create workspaces from Office applications.

You can't get rid of the security warning: Internet Explorer always warns you when you open files, such as Word or Excel files, that might contain viruses. However, if you open the file using the Office application or open a local file linked to the SharePoint site, you won't see the warning in Figure 2-18.

animal 2-18. Security warning when opening Office files from the Internet

The virus risk comes from macros the file might contain, and in any case, the Office macro security settings determine whether or not macros are run. To check those settings in your Office application, choose Tools Macro Security.

You can solve the second issue by adding your SharePoint site to the list of trusted sites in Internet Explorer:

1. Choose Tools Internet Options Security Trusted Sites Sites. Internet Explorer displays a list of the trusted sites for your local computer (Figure 2-19).

2. OK OK to close the dialog.

animal 2-19. Adding a SharePoint site to Internet Explorer's list of trusted sites

Once the SharePoint site is trusted, Office applications can create workspaces on the site from the Shared Workspace task pane. Neither of these security issues occurs for SharePoint sites on your local area network: those sites are included in the Local intranet zone, which has a higher level of trust.