Mapping a network drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter craig
  • Start date Start date
C

craig

I am trying to map a network drive within our small business. All computers
are using XP Professional. I am able to map the network drive using auto
connect using the administrator profile, but when I switch to the profile
with limited rights, the drive shows but is disconnected. I have to double
click on the drive and enter the administrator username and password to
connect the drive again. Is there a way to get the network drive to auto
connect without clicking on the drive and entering the administrator
password?

I am trying to access (create a shortcut) to a file within a shared folder
of a computer on the network. I am limited on resources so I can't obtain a
dedicated server so I was hoping this would work by accessing shared folders
and setting up shortcuts to files. can't seem to get the shortcuts to work
because the network drive won't connect without admin rights

Any help would be appreciated!!

Thanks
Craig
 
I am trying to map a network drive within our small business. All computers
are using XP Professional. I am able to map the network drive using auto
connect using the administrator profile, but when I switch to the profile
with limited rights, the drive shows but is disconnected. I have to double
click on the drive and enter the administrator username and password to
connect the drive again. Is there a way to get the network drive to auto
connect without clicking on the drive and entering the administrator
password?

I am trying to access (create a shortcut) to a file within a shared folder
of a computer on the network. I am limited on resources so I can't obtain a
dedicated server so I was hoping this would work by accessing shared folders
and setting up shortcuts to files. can't seem to get the shortcuts to work
because the network drive won't connect without admin rights

Any help would be appreciated!!
Click to expand...


Rather than map a network drive manually, perhaps you can create a
batch file which uses the "net use" command to connect the drive.

The username and password are command line parameters.

From "net use /? 2>c:\temp.txt"

The syntax of this command is:


NET USE
[devicename | *] [\\computername\sharename[\volume] [password | *]]
[/USER:[domainname\]username]
[/USER:[dotted domain name\]username]
[/USER:[username@dotted domain name]
[/SMARTCARD]
[/SAVECRED]
[[/DELETE] | [/PERSISTENT:{YES | NO}]]

NET USE {devicename | *} [password | *] /HOME

NET USE [/PERSISTENT:{YES | NO}]



Jim.
 
Thanks Jim,
I would like to try the net use option but i'm kind of new to the writing
the scripts. any help would be appreciated

PC with the file needed to be shared has a name of craigpc2
The shared folder is payroll
the username is agyadmin
the password is admin1202
filename is schedule.xls

the file is located at the following \\craigpc2\payroll

do i indicate delete persistent? I would like it to be always connected so
if a user clicks on the shortcut it will open the file. The limited access
profile name localadmin with no password. These profile names and passwords
are the same for all computers in the department.

Thanks again for your help!
Craig


James Egan said:
I am trying to map a network drive within our small business. All computers
are using XP Professional. I am able to map the network drive using auto
connect using the administrator profile, but when I switch to the profile
with limited rights, the drive shows but is disconnected. I have to double
click on the drive and enter the administrator username and password to
connect the drive again. Is there a way to get the network drive to auto
connect without clicking on the drive and entering the administrator
password?

I am trying to access (create a shortcut) to a file within a shared folder
of a computer on the network. I am limited on resources so I can't obtain a
dedicated server so I was hoping this would work by accessing shared folders
and setting up shortcuts to files. can't seem to get the shortcuts to work
because the network drive won't connect without admin rights

Any help would be appreciated!!
Click to expand...


Rather than map a network drive manually, perhaps you can create a
batch file which uses the "net use" command to connect the drive.

The username and password are command line parameters.

From "net use /? 2>c:\temp.txt"

The syntax of this command is:


NET USE
[devicename | *] [\\computername\sharename[\volume] [password | *]]
[/USER:[domainname\]username]
[/USER:[dotted domain name\]username]
[/USER:[username@dotted domain name]
[/SMARTCARD]
[/SAVECRED]
[[/DELETE] | [/PERSISTENT:{YES | NO}]]

NET USE {devicename | *} [password | *] /HOME

NET USE [/PERSISTENT:{YES | NO}]



Jim.
Click to expand...
 
Thanks Jim,
I would like to try the net use option but i'm kind of new to the writing
the scripts. any help would be appreciated

PC with the file needed to be shared has a name of craigpc2
The shared folder is payroll
the username is agyadmin
the password is admin1202
filename is schedule.xls

the file is located at the following \\craigpc2\payroll

do i indicate delete persistent? I would like it to be always connected so
if a user clicks on the shortcut it will open the file. The limited access
profile name localadmin with no password. These profile names and passwords
are the same for all computers in the department.

Thanks again for your help!
Craig
Click to expand...


I'm afraid I can't help with the detail because I don't have any
experience of it. Perhaps some of the other subscribers can do that?

I had a similar problem to yours when I tried to back up some files to
a shared directory on a vista computer using robocopy.

I found that once I had mapped a drive using "net use", the backup
worked fine even though it used UNC names and not the drive letter. In
other words, the drive mapping dealt with the permissions issue
between the two computers as a separate operation before the backup
started.

In my case the batch file said

echo off
net use * \\laptop\bak2lap "" /USER:jim
if not exist \\laptop\bak2lap\zip32\allmail.exe goto FAIL
:BACKUP
C:\WINDOWS\system32\ROBOCOPY.EXE c:\je \\laptop\bak2lap\je *.* /S /FFT
/ZB /PURGE
pause
exit
:FAIL
echo Backup did not complete
pause
exit

The * after net use was to use the next available drive letter
The "" was because there was no password on the share

I don't even know if something similar will work in your case, but I
envisaged the user clicking on a (net use batchfile) shortcut to
re-map the drive instead of having to type in the username and
password combination manually.


Jim.
 
net use \\craigpc2\payroll /USER:agyadmin admin202
--

craig said:
Thanks Jim,
I would like to try the net use option but i'm kind of new to the writing
the scripts. any help would be appreciated

PC with the file needed to be shared has a name of craigpc2
The shared folder is payroll
the username is agyadmin
the password is admin1202
filename is schedule.xls

the file is located at the following \\craigpc2\payroll

do i indicate delete persistent? I would like it to be always connected so
if a user clicks on the shortcut it will open the file. The limited access
profile name localadmin with no password. These profile names and
passwords
are the same for all computers in the department.

Thanks again for your help!
Craig


James Egan said:
I am trying to map a network drive within our small business. All
computers
are using XP Professional. I am able to map the network drive using
auto
connect using the administrator profile, but when I switch to the
profile
with limited rights, the drive shows but is disconnected. I have to
double
click on the drive and enter the administrator username and password to
connect the drive again. Is there a way to get the network drive to auto
connect without clicking on the drive and entering the administrator
password?

I am trying to access (create a shortcut) to a file within a shared
folder
of a computer on the network. I am limited on resources so I can't
obtain a
dedicated server so I was hoping this would work by accessing shared
folders
and setting up shortcuts to files. can't seem to get the shortcuts to
work
because the network drive won't connect without admin rights

Any help would be appreciated!!
Click to expand...


Rather than map a network drive manually, perhaps you can create a
batch file which uses the "net use" command to connect the drive.

The username and password are command line parameters.

From "net use /? 2>c:\temp.txt"

The syntax of this command is:


NET USE
[devicename | *] [\\computername\sharename[\volume] [password | *]]
[/USER:[domainname\]username]
[/USER:[dotted domain name\]username]
[/USER:[username@dotted domain name]
[/SMARTCARD]
[/SAVECRED]
[[/DELETE] | [/PERSISTENT:{YES | NO}]]

NET USE {devicename | *} [password | *] /HOME

NET USE [/PERSISTENT:{YES | NO}]



Jim.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I wanted to thank you GTS and James. I was able to get it to work!

GTS said:
net use \\craigpc2\payroll /USER:agyadmin admin202
--

craig said:
Thanks Jim,
I would like to try the net use option but i'm kind of new to the writing
the scripts. any help would be appreciated

PC with the file needed to be shared has a name of craigpc2
The shared folder is payroll
the username is agyadmin
the password is admin1202
filename is schedule.xls

the file is located at the following \\craigpc2\payroll

do i indicate delete persistent? I would like it to be always connected so
if a user clicks on the shortcut it will open the file. The limited access
profile name localadmin with no password. These profile names and
passwords
are the same for all computers in the department.

Thanks again for your help!
Craig


James Egan said:
On Thu, 4 Sep 2008 05:27:01 -0700, craig

I am trying to map a network drive within our small business. All
computers
are using XP Professional. I am able to map the network drive using
auto
connect using the administrator profile, but when I switch to the
profile
with limited rights, the drive shows but is disconnected. I have to
double
click on the drive and enter the administrator username and password to
connect the drive again. Is there a way to get the network drive to auto
connect without clicking on the drive and entering the administrator
password?

I am trying to access (create a shortcut) to a file within a shared
folder
of a computer on the network. I am limited on resources so I can't
obtain a
dedicated server so I was hoping this would work by accessing shared
folders
and setting up shortcuts to files. can't seem to get the shortcuts to
work
because the network drive won't connect without admin rights

Any help would be appreciated!!


Rather than map a network drive manually, perhaps you can create a
batch file which uses the "net use" command to connect the drive.

The username and password are command line parameters.

From "net use /? 2>c:\temp.txt"

The syntax of this command is:


NET USE
[devicename | *] [\\computername\sharename[\volume] [password | *]]
[/USER:[domainname\]username]
[/USER:[dotted domain name\]username]
[/USER:[username@dotted domain name]
[/SMARTCARD]
[/SAVECRED]
[[/DELETE] | [/PERSISTENT:{YES | NO}]]

NET USE {devicename | *} [password | *] /HOME

NET USE [/PERSISTENT:{YES | NO}]



Jim.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
I would definitely map the drives via a batch file or script.

The reason your approach desn't work, BTW, is because Windows XP SP2/3 now
treats network connections as user-owned instead of belonging to the
computer. Change user, pop goes the connection. Personally I think this was
an inadvisable change but then who am I to say..

To make the process a little more elegant you could install MyLogon on the
clients, from http://mylogon.net This basically does the same thing but hides
the technicalities from the user.


Active Directory Domains - Well, they are rather comlpex to setup, and this
job is probably best given to a networking pro. Whether you need one depends
how large your network is. For less than 10-20 users I'd say don't bother,
too much work for very little return, bearing in mind it's not just the
server that needs configuring, you have to completely reconfigure the
clients, useraccounts and userdata-stores too. You do have the advantage of
remote management of clients, but if the clients are within the range of a
Mk1 pair of sneakers then this is a very minor advantage.
 
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