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To add files to a shared
folder or open and edit files in a shared folder, you first need to
access the share from a client PC. You have several choices:
- In Windows 7,
Vista, or XP clients that have the Windows Home Server Connector
software installed, check to see if your desktop has a Shared Folders on
Server icon (in which Server is the name of the Windows Home Server machine). If so, double-click that icon.
- In
Windows 7, Vista, or XP clients that have the Windows Home Server
Launchpad installed, log in to Launchpad and then click Shared Folders.
Tip
On a Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP client
with the Windows Home Server Connector installed, an often easier way to
open a server share is to run Windows Home Server Dashboard, select the
Server Folders and Hard Drives section, click the Server Folders tab,
and then double-click the shared folder you want to work with.
- In Windows 7, click Windows Explorer in the taskbar, click Network, and then double-click the icon for the Windows Home Server.
- In Windows Vista, select Start, Network, and then double-click the icon for the Windows Home Server.
- In
Windows XP, select Start, My Network Places. If you don’t see the
server shares, click View Workgroup Computers, and then double-click the
icon for the Windows Home Server.
- In Windows XP or
Windows Me, launch Windows Explorer and, in the Folders list, select My
Network Places, Entire Network, Microsoft Windows Network. Click your
workgroup, and then double-click the icon for the Windows Home Server.
- In
Windows 2000, double-click the desktop’s My Network Places icon,
double-click the Computers Near Me icon, and then double-click the icon
for the Windows Home Server.
Note
Windows Home Server doesn’t have a limit on the
number of users who can access a shared folder. However, because Windows
Home Server only allows you to add up to 10 user accounts, the
practical limit on share access is 10 users (plus the Guest account, if
you activate it). The Advanced Sharing dialog box has a Limit the Number of Simultaneous Users
value that you can use to restrict a folder to less than 10 simultaneous
users if you like.
In all cases, you end up with a folder window that displays the Windows Home Server shared folders, as shown in Figure 1.
(Note that this figure includes an extra Calendars folder that I added
to my Windows Home Server.) From here, you double-click the icon of the
shared folder you want to work with.
Understanding the Universal Naming Convention
If you examine the address bar with a share open, you see an address that uses the following format:
\\HOMESERVER\Share
Here, HOMESERVER is the name of the Windows Home Server computer, and Share
is the name given to the shared resource. This is the universal naming
convention (UNC). For example, the following UNC path refers to a shared
resource named Music on a computer named SERVER:
\\SERVER\Music
Note
The Windows 7 and Windows Vista address bars show a “breadcrumb” path to the server share: Network > HOMESERVER > Share.
To see the UNC address, either right-click the address and then click
Edit Address, or click the icon that appears on the left side of the
address bar (or click an empty spot within the address bar).
(UNC paths aren’t case sensitive, so you can enter a
path using any combination of uppercase and lowercase letters; however,
it’s traditional to write computer names in all-uppercase.) If the UNC
path refers to a drive or folder, you can use the regular path
conventions to access subfolders on that resource. For example, if the
resource Music on SERVER has a Wilco subfolder, you can refer to that subfolder as follows:
\\SERVER\Documents\Wilco
Tip
The UNC offers you several alternative methods of accessing shared network resources:
- In Windows Explorer, click inside the address bar, type the UNC path for a shared resource, and then press Enter.
- Press
Windows Logo+R to open the Run dialog box. Type the UNC path for a
shared resource, and then click OK to open the resource in a folder
window.
- In a 32-bit application’s Open or Save As dialog box, you can use a UNC path in the File Name text box.
- At the command prompt, type start followed by the UNC path. Here’s an example:
- At the command prompt, you can use a UNC path as part of a command. For example, to copy a file named Wilco.mp3 from \\SERVER\Music\Wilco\ to the current folder, you’d use the following command:
COPY "\\SERVER\Music\Wilco\Wilco.mp3"
Mapping a Shared Folder to a Local Drive Letter
One networking conundrum that comes up repeatedly is
the problem of referencing network resources (in, say, a script or
command). You can reference UNC paths, but they’re a bit unwieldy to
use. To avoid the hassle, you can map a Windows Home Server shared
folder to your own computer. Mapping assigns a drive letter to the
server share so that it appears to be just another disk drive on your
machine.
Note
Another good reason to map a Windows Home Server
share to a local drive letter is to give certain programs access to the
shared folder. Some older programs aren’t network aware, so if you try
to save files to a Windows Home Server share, the program might display
an error or tell you that the location is out of disk space. In most
cases, you can solve this problem by mapping the folder to a drive
letter, which fools the program into thinking it’s dealing with a local
folder.
To map a Windows Home Server shared folder, follow these steps:
1. | Select
Start, right-click Computer (in Windows 7), Network (in Vista) or My
Network Places (in XP), and then click Map Network Drive. (In any folder
window, you can also select Tools, Map Network Drive; in Windows 7 and
Vista, you need to first press Alt to display the menu bar.) The Map
Network Drive dialog box appears.
| 2. | The
Drive drop-down list displays the last available drive letter on your
system, but you can pull down the list and select any available letter.
Caution
If you use a removable drive, such as a memory card
or Flash drive, Windows assigns the first available drive letter to that
drive. This can cause problems if you have a mapped network drive that
uses a lower drive letter. Therefore, it’s good practice to use higher
drive letters (such as X, Y, and Z) for your mapped resources.
| 3. | Use the Folder text box to type the UNC path to the Windows Home Server shared folder, as shown in the example in Figure 2. (Alternatively, click Browse, select the shared folder in the Browse for Folder dialog box, and then click OK.)
| 4. | If
you want Windows to map the server share each time you log on to the
system, leave the Reconnect at Logon check box activated.
| 5. | If you prefer to log on to the server share using a different account, use one of the following techniques:
- Windows 7—Click to activate
the Connect Using Different Credentials link. After you click Finish in
step 6, Windows 7 prompts you to enter the username and password.
- All other versions of Windows—Click the Different User Name link, type the username and password, and click OK.
Either way, make sure you specify a username and password that correspond to an existing Windows Home Server account.
| 6. | Click Finish. Windows adds the new drive letter to your system and opens the shared folder in a new folder window.
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To open the mapped server folder later, select Start,
Computer (or My Computer in XP), and then double-click the drive in the
Network Location group.
You can also map a shared Windows Home Server folder to a local drive letter by using a Command Prompt session and the NET USE command. Here’s the basic syntax:
NET USE [drive] [share] [password] [/USER:user] [/PERSISTENT:[YES | NO]] | /DELETE]
drive— The drive letter (following by a colon) of the local drive to which you want the shared folder mapped. share— The UNC path of the Windows Home Server shared folder. password— The password required to connect to the shared folder (that is, the password associated with the username, specified next). /USER:user— The username you want to use to connect to the shared folder. /PERSISTENT:— Add YES to reconnect the mapped network drive the next time you log on. /DELETE— Deletes the existing drive letter for the share that you previously mapped to drive.
For example, the following command maps the shared folder \\SERVER\Music\Wilco to drive W:
net use w: \\server\music\wilco \persistent:yes |
