Networking For Dummies. Doug Lowe

that are protected by your password. However, they can access any local files that you haven’t protected. Be careful which people you allow to use your computer.

       If you’re logging on to a domain network on a Windows computer, you must type the domain name before your username, separated from it by a backslash. For example: lowewriter\dloweHere, the domain name is lowewriter, and the username is dlowe.Note that Windows remembers the domain and username from your last login, so ordinarily all you have to enter is your password. To log on to a different domain or as a different user, you must click Switch User. Then you can click the Other User icon and enter a different domain name and username, along with the password for the user you want to log on as.

       Your computer may be set up so that it logs you on automatically whenever you turn it on. In that case, you don’t have to type your username and password. This setup makes the task of logging on more convenient but takes the sport out of it. And it’s a terrible idea if you’re the least bit worried about bad guys getting into your network or personal files.

       Guard your password with your life. I’d tell you mine, but then I’d have to shoot you.

Understanding Shared Folders

      Long ago, in the days Before Network (B.N.), your computer probably had just one hard drive, known as the C: drive. Maybe it had two — C: and D:. The second drive might be another hard disk, or possibly a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. Even to this day, the descendants of those drives are physically located inside your PC. They’re your local drives.

      Now that you’re on a network, however, you may have access to drives that aren’t located inside your PC but are located instead in one of the other computers on the network. These network drives can be located on a dedicated server computer or, in the case of a peer-to-peer network, on another client computer.

      In some cases, you can access an entire network drive over the network. But in most cases, you can’t access the entire drive. Instead, you can access only certain folders on the network drives. Either way, the shared drives or folders are known in Windows terminology as shared folders.

Here’s where it gets confusing: The most common way to access a shared folder is to assign a drive letter to it. Suppose that a server has a shared folder named Marketing. You can assign drive letter M to this shared folder. Then you access the Marketing folder as drive M:. The M: drive is then called a network drive because it uses the network to access data in a shared folder. Assigning a drive letter to a shared folder is mapping a drive.

      Shared folders can be set up with restrictions on how you can use them. For example, you may be granted full access to some shared folders so that you can copy files to or from them, delete files on them, or create or remove folders on them. On other shared folders, your access may be limited in certain ways. For example, you may be able to copy files to or from the shared folder but not delete files, edit files, or create new folders. You may also be asked to enter a password before you can access a protected folder. The amount of disk space you're allowed to use on a shared folder may also be limited. For more information about file-sharing restrictions, see Chapter 13.

      

In addition to accessing shared folders that reside on other people’s computers, you can designate your computer as a server to enable other network users to access folders that you share. To find out how to share folders on your computer with other network users, see Chapter 4.

Four Good Uses for a Shared Folder

      After you know which shared network folders are available, you may wonder what you’re supposed to do with them. This section describes four good uses for a network folder.

      Store files that everybody needs

      A shared network folder is a good place to store files that more than one user needs to access. Without a network, you have to store a copy of the file on everyone’s computer, and you have to worry about keeping the copies synchronized (which you can’t do, no matter how hard you try). Or you can keep the file on a disk and pass it around. Or you can keep the file on one computer and play Musical Chairs; whenever someone needs to use the file, he goes to the computer that contains the file.

      On a network, you can keep one copy of the file in a shared folder on the network, and everyone can access it.

      Store your own files

      You can also use a shared network folder as an extension of your own hard drive storage. For example, if you filled up all the free space on your hard drive with pictures, sounds, and movies that you downloaded from the Internet, but the network server has billions and billions of gigabytes of free space, you have all the drive space you need. Just store your files on the network drive!

      Here are a few guidelines for storing files on network drives:

       Using the network drive for your own files works best if the network drive is set up for private storage that other users can’t access. That way, you don’t have to worry about the nosy guy down in Accounting who likes to poke around in other people’s files.

       Don’t overuse the network drive. Remember that other users have probably filled up their own hard drives, so they want to use the space on the network drive too.

       Before you store personal files on a network drive, make sure that you have permission. A note from your mom will do.

       On domain networks, a drive (typically, drive H:) is commonly mapped to a user’s home folder. The home folder is a network folder that’s unique for each user. You can think of it as a network version of Documents. If your network is set up with a home folder, use it rather than Documents for any important work-related files. That’s because the home folder is usually included in the network’s daily backup schedule. By contrast, most networks do not back up data you store in Documents.

      Make a temporary resting place for files on their way to other users

      “Hey, Lisa, could you send me a copy of last month’s baseball stats?”

      “Sure, Bart.” But how? If the baseball stats file resides on Lisa’s local drive, how does Lisa send a copy of the file to Bart’s computer? Lisa can do it by copying the file to a network drive. Then Bart can copy the file to his local hard drive.

      Here are some tips to keep in mind when you use a network drive to exchange files with other network users:

       Remember to delete files that you saved to the network drive after they’re picked up! Otherwise, the network drive quickly fills up with unnecessary files.

       Create a folder on the network drive specifically intended for holding files en route to other users. I like to name this folder PITSTOP.

      

In many cases, it's easier to send files to other network users by email than by using a network folder. Just send a message to the other network user and attach the file you want to share. The advantage of sending a file by email is that you don’t have to worry about details like where to leave the file on the server and who’s responsible for deleting the file.

      Back up your local hard drive

      If enough drive space is available on the file server, you can use it to store backup copies of the files on your hard drive. Just copy the files that you want to back up to a shared