Students in Dunn lab.

Accessing Shared Network Resources from a Windows Computer

Shared network resources may be accessed from computers which are not members of the MTA domain but which are on the MTA network. This includes non-University owned computers such as student computers in residence.

We are limiting this discussion to the "Microsoft Windows World" and in that context, there are two kinds of shared network resources: files shares (e.g. your home directory) and printer shares. In order to access them, you need to submit your credentials (which have three parts: username, domain, password) for validation.

For accessing file shares, you should use the Connect As... functionality (see Access a MTA File Share below) but for accessing a network print share (printer), requirements are more involved (see Access a MTA Network Printer). You must make sure that the following two conditions are met:

  1. you must be logged on to your computer using your MTA username and password (the same ones you use to log on to MTA computers or to fetch your mail).
  2. your computer must be in the MTA workgroup.
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Access a MTA File Share

From a Windows XP computer:

  1. Right-click on the My Computer icon in the top left-hand corner of your desktop
  2. Select Map Network Drive...
  3. Specify any available drive letter in the Drive: field (it will default to the next available one).
  4. Specify the name of the share \\Home\sharename in the Folder: field.
    e.g. \\Home\username$ (where username is your MTA username)
    Don't forget the the $ after your username!
  5. Click on Connect using a different user name (the blue underlined hot-link).
  6. Specify your username in the form of mta\username (substituting your own username for the word "username") in the User name: field of the Connect As.. dialog box.
  7. Specify your MTA password (the one you use for e-mail or logging on to MTA computers) in the Password: field.
  8. Click OK.
  9. Check Reconnect at Logon if you want to have this mapped each time you logon
  10. Click Finish.

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From a Mac OS X Computer

Bring the Finder to the front

Select "Connect to Server..." in the "Go" menu

A dialog is presented with the title "Connect To Server". Near the bottom of the dialog there is an input field labeled "Address:" into which you should enter the path to the share you wish to mount.

For an SMB share, you connect using the following syntax:

smb://servername/sharename

For example, to connect to John Joseph Doe's home drive (username "jjd") on HOME, use the following syntax:
smb://home/jjd$

Because the SMB protocol requires authentication, you will be presented with an authentication dialog.  It will almost always be the case that you will connect as a particular user. Generally (in the case of connecting to a share on HOME) that user will be your MTA Domain account, characterized by your MTA e-mail username and password.

 

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