Understanding site groups

To access the intranet, users must belong to a Windows® SharePoint® Services site group. Site groups are custom security groups that have permissions associated with them. Site groups in Windows SharePoint Services are different from security group accounts in that Windows SharePoint Services manages its own groups and does not rely on the Active Directory® directory service.

User accounts based on Windows Small Business Server templates are granted permissions on the SharePoint site, because the templates are members of the site groups by default. If you create an account that is not based on a user template, you must add the account to a site group by using administration tools included with Windows SharePoint Services.

By default, Windows Small Business Server template accounts and the user accounts based on them belong to the following site groups in the SharePoint site:

• Administrators have unrestricted access to https://companyweb/. All user accounts based on the Small Business Administrator or Power User templates are members of this site group.
• Web designers can contribute to the site, create and manage new sites, and create document libraries and lists. They cannot manage users, except in sites they create, and they cannot access the global management tools. All user accounts based on the Small Business Mobile User template and the User template are members of this site group.

You can create additional site groups or modify the permissions associated with existing site groups. You can also create additional user account templates that are members of site groups for Windows SharePoint Services.

See Also

Concepts

Understanding the intranet
Understanding intranet security
Manage intranet access