[Fozz_uk]

My uni has implemented a network which not only allows you to access the internet from an ethernet socket in my room but gives me some backup space on a central server. The interent works fine, just plug in and go, but the instructions for the network drive are typically designed for the Win 2K/XP user and make no sense whatsoever to me. Could someone please translate this into something workable on a mac?

Accessing your N: drive from your own PC

1. Right click the My Computer icon which will be found on the Desktop or the [Start]menu.
2. Click on [Map Network Drive].
3. In the Drive: box select N:on the drop down menu.
4. In the Folder: box type: \\ndrive.rdg.ac.uk\your_University_username.
5. Tick the Reconnect at login box.
6. Now click on connect using a [Different user name].
7. In the User name box type: rdg-home\your_University_username.
8. In the Password box type: your_University_password.
9. Click[OK].
10. Click[Finish] To check that your N: drive is now available, double click the [My Computer] icon. You should see an icon representing your network drive N:

Cheers,
Fozz

[larkost]

Ok... here goes:

1. Get to the "Connect to Server" dialog box (Apple-K from the Finder, or it is in the Go menu).

2. Type in "smb://ndrive.rdg.ac.uk/your_University_username" as the address.

This part might be the sticky part, as there are a number of things that can go wrong here. You might have to replace the ndrive.rdg.ac.uk with a IP address (tech support should be able to provide you with that, but probably not the first line of people at the help desk... if they escalate the problem someone should find it an easy question).

3. When it asks you for your username and password:
User: rdg-home\your_University_username
Pass: your_University_password

Depending on the authentication method they use, you might actually have to put this information into the login string from 2. See the related link for more information.

4. Once the share pops up on your desktop, make an alias to it, there is a good chance you will only have to double click on that to get you in (but there are a lot of variables...). Another way would be to "save as favorite" the connection string from 2.

[Scotttheking]

Originally posted by larkost:
You might have to replace the ndrive.rdg.ac.uk with a IP address (tech support should be able to provide you with that, but probably not the first line of people at the help desk... if they escalate the problem someone should find it an easy question).

Ping is your friend
134.225.17.17

[larkost]

Scotttheking: not necessarily in this case. He is looking for the address that the smb address resolves to. There is a good chance that it would resolve to the same address as the dns address (in fact since they named it the same, it is almost certain... they would have had to do extra work to get it not to), but they may have done some interesting things in order to load balance the system (like everyone a-j on one server k-z on another), so you need to be sure.

Windows name servers can do some amazingly complex things... 90% of the time that is more a hindrance than anything else, but it is there...

[Fozz_uk]

Thanks a lot for that larkost, just got it set up after a bit of tinkering. One thing though, everytime I disconnect from the server and reconnect Panther asks for my username and password despite the fact that I've told it to "add to keychain". When disconnected the alias dosen't know where it should be linking to either.

Not a big deal, I can remember my details, just a bit boring having to type them in everytime.

Fozz

[ism]

Originally posted by Fozz_uk:
Thanks a lot for that larkost, just got it set up after a bit of tinkering. One thing though, everytime I disconnect from the server and reconnect Panther asks for my username and password despite the fact that I've told it to "add to keychain". When disconnected the alias dosen't know where it should be linking to either.

Not a big deal, I can remember my details, just a bit boring having to type them in everytime.

Fozz

Try this:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107486

[Fozz_uk]

Originally posted by ism:
Try this:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107486

Well, what it describes does sound exactly like my problem, but I don't understand step 4 - "select desired share point". Once I've clicked "Connect" the Domain (already filled in) / Username / Password box pops up. These have to be filled in correctly before the server will appear on my desktop or the computer window in Finder. If I then create an alias at that point it dosen't ask for a user/password, having already been given it.

So basically there's no way to do steps 9 and 10 in Apple's guide.

[larkost]

There are a few possibilities, but it is rather more difficult because they chose to have a '\\' in the user-name...

This url might work: smb://rdg-home\your_University_username:your_University_pass word/ndrive.rdg.ac.uk/your_University_username

Of course you will have to make all the usual sbstitutions, and there is a good chance that the '\\' will mess things up... and this is definitely not a great idea from a security standpoint (since your password is in clear text), but it is an option.

If that does work, then you could set the computer to auto-mount it at startup with this hint from MacOS X Hints. The big problem with doing that is that shares don't get remounted after sleeping.

[larkost]

Originally posted by Fozz_uk:
Well, what it describes does sound exactly like my problem, but I don't understand step 4 - "select desired share point". Once I've clicked "Connect" the Domain (already filled in) / Username / Password box pops up. These have to be filled in correctly before the server will appear on my desktop or the computer window in Finder. If I then create an alias at that point it dosen't ask for a user/password, having already been given it.

So basically there's no way to do steps 9 and 10 in Apple's guide.

You are not getting number 4 because we are already telling it the share point (theyour_University_username part of ndrive.rdg.ac.uk/your_University_username). Apple's step 3 would only have ndrive.rdg.ac.uk as the server name. This might or might not work.