This section presents some Windows
networking techniques that can let you get the most out of your
network. You can scan through this section for any tips that might be
helpful in your home or office.
Backing Up Your Computer over the Network
You
can back up the contents of your hard disk, or attached external drives
on your computer, to another computer’s hard disk over the network. On
all Windows 7 versions except Starter and Home Basic, you can back up
to a shared network folder using the built-in Windows Backup program.
You
can also back up files over the network using command-line tools.
Finally, most third-party back up program let you back up to a network location.
Adding a Network Folder to a Library
You
can actually link other people’s shared folders right into one of your
own libraries, so that their content appears along with your own,
although doing so is not quite as simple as you might hope. You have to
use the following procedure:
1. | View your library, for example, the Documents library.
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2. | At the top where it says “Includes:” and the number of locations, click the word Locations, then click Add.
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3. | In the Include Folder in Documents window, locate the folder you want to add, from one of two places:
If
the folder you want to add belongs to another user on your own
computer, select Computer in the left pane, then drill down into the
drive on which Windows is installed, then into the Users folder, then
into the other user’s profile folder, until you locate the folder you
want to add. Note Don’t
dig into the Homegroup list. Most of the items listed in the Homegroup
list are libraries. You need to locate the actual folder that went into
the other user’s library, in one of the two locations just mentioned. |
If
the folder you want to add is on another computer, select Network in
the left pane, double-click the computer’s name, then double-click the
shared folder. (To get to a folder shared by one of the computer’s
users, the shared folder is named Users.) Then, drill down to the
folder you want to add to your library.
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4. | When you have located the desired folder, click it, then click Include Folder.
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Be
aware, though, that if you add a folder from another computer to one of
your own libraries, Windows may take a long time to display your
library when the other computer is not running and connected to the
network.
Sharing and Using an Entire Drive
Shared folders don’t have to be subfolders. Computer owners can share the root folder of a disk drive, making the entire drive available over the network. This is especially useful with DVD, CD, floppy,
and USB disk drives. For example, if an entire CD-ROM drive is shared,
you can access the data CD in it from any computer on the network.
Just so you know, Windows automatically shares your entire hard drive with the special name C$. (Any other hard drives would also be shared as D$, E$,
and so on.) These shares don’t show up when you browse the network—the
dollar sign at the end tells Windows to keep the name hidden. Oddly
enough, they don’t appear if you view the drive’s Sharing properties
either. You can only see them if you type “net share” at the
command prompt. And, you can’t use these shares on a home/small office
workgroup network; they can be accessed only by the “true”
Administrator account on a domain network.
Tip
You
can use this technique to install software on a computer that has no
working CD/DVD drive but does have a working network connection. Just
put the CD into a computer that does have a working drive, and share
that drive. |
But,
you can get around this by sharing the root (top level) folder of one
of your drives using a share name of your own choosing. For example,
you could right-click your DVD drive in the Computer window, and share
the drive using the name dvd,. Then, on another computer,
you can map a drive letter to the shared disc.
Understanding the UNC Naming Convention
For
more complex networks, you should have some background in the way that
files and folders are named on a network. File and folder shares are
accessed via Universal Naming Convention (UNC) names with Windows 7,
just as in previous versions of Windows.
Note
It
might seem confusing to use a different name for the share name than
for the folder. The reason for this is that whereas folder names can be
very long and can contain spaces, if your network has Linux or Mac
computers on it, it’s best if your share names are limited to 12
characters or less and have no spaces. Think of it as a “nickname.” |
Virtually
the only difference you’ll notice between local and networked files is
in their names. Each computer on your network has a name, and every
folder or printer that is offered up for shared use on the network must
be given a share name as well. For example, if I want to give
officemates the use of my business documents, I might create a folder
on my hard disk named C:\business related documents and give that folder the share name of docs.
My computer is named Ambon, so other users can use this folder by its network name, \\ambon\docs.
To
continue the preceding example, I might specify the location of a
particular file on my hard drive with a drive and pathname, like this:
C:\business related documents\roofing bids.xls
A user on another computer can refer to this same file using a syntax called the Universal Naming Convention, or UNC:
\\ambon\docs\roofing bids.xls
The double backslash indicates that ambon is the name of a computer on the LAN instead of the name of a folder on the hard disk. docs is the share name of the folder, and everything past that specifies the path and file relative to that shared folder.
If
the computer whose files you want to use is on a corporate LAN using
Active Directory or is part of a distant company network, you can also
specify the remote computer name more completely, as in the following:
\\ambon.mycompany.com\docs\roofing bids.xls
Or,
if you know only the remote computer’s IP network address (such as when
you’re connecting to the remote computer with Dial-Up Networking), you
can even use a notation like this:
\\192.168.0.10\docs\roofing bids.xls
No matter which way you specify the remote computer, Windows finds it and locates its shared folder docs.
Shared
printers are also given share names and are specified by their UNC
path. For example, if I share my HP LaserJet 4V printer, I might give
it the share name HPLaser, and it will be known on the network as \\ambon\HPLaser. Here, it’s not a folder, but rather a printer, and Windows keeps track of the type of resource.
