Abstract: A Network Attached Storage (NAS) apparatus to provide network-based data storage for client computing devices (e.g., in a local area network). One or more file-based logical storage area (LSA) shares are created in memory of the NAS apparatus, wherein each file-based LSA share originally is configured as one of “private access” (only certain users have access to a private file-based LSA share) or “public access” (any user on the LAN that can access the NAS appliance can also access the public file-based LSA share). At some later time, the file-based LSA share may be reconfigured to go from private-to-public access or public-to-private access (each file-based LSA share has a “reversible privacy setting”). In one example, object permissions for each object (file or folder) already stored on the LSA share prior to the access reconfiguration are updated on an object-by-object basis to ensure appropriate access to all legacy objects after the access reconfiguration.

Abstract: A Network Attached Storage (NAS) apparatus to provide network-based data storage for client computing devices (e.g., in a local area network). One or more file-based logical storage area (LSA) shares are created in memory of the NAS apparatus, wherein each file-based LSA share originally is configured as one of “private access” (only certain users have access to a private file-based LSA share) or “public access” (any user on the LAN that can access the NAS appliance can also access the public file-based LSA share). At some later time, the file-based LSA share may be reconfigured to go from private-to-public access or public-to-private access (each file-based LSA share has a “reversible privacy setting”). In one example, object permissions for each object (file or folder) already stored on the LSA share prior to the access reconfiguration are updated on an object-by-object basis to ensure appropriate access to all legacy objects after the access reconfiguration.