Resources are made available to other systems on the network when they are shared. After the File and Printer Sharing service has been installed and configured users have the option of specifying which local files, drives, and printers are shared. Every computer that shares its resources becomes a peer server, or host, for that resource.
Folder Sharing
To share a folder on the network:
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Locate a folder to be shared and right-click it;
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Select Sharing from the context menu to display the Sharing tab of the Properties dialog shown below;
The Sharing tab of the Folder Properties dialog can be used to control folder sharing.
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Click the Shared As radio button. Windows uses the folder name as the default name. You can change the name or add comments by entering them in the text boxes. Adding a dollar sign ($) to the end of the Share Name will hide the resource from the Network Neighborhood directory. This is referred to as a hidden share.
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Select the Access Type. Full access will give others the ability to create and delete files in the shared folder. Read only access prevents shared files from being written to or deleted. Several Family History Department data files require full access to operate even though they were copied from CD.
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Click OK to save changes and close.
Share Access
Shared folders can be accessed via Universal Naming Convention (UNC) paths or mapped drives.
UNC paths
UNC paths are network addresses of the form \\<computer name>\<share name>\<path>. Two backslashes precede the remote computer name followed by a single backslash and the share name. An optional directory path can be used to specify lower level files or folders.
Logical Drives
DOS applications do not recognize UNC paths and can only access shared folders via logical drives. The association, referred to as a mapping, can be defined in Windows by right clicking My Computer and selecting Map Network Drive.... In the screen capture below a logical drive N: is created with the content of the af$ share on the computer named fhcserver. Mapped paths are restricted to two components, \\<computer name>\<share name>, and can not refer to subfolders within a share. Both computer names and IP addresses be used in mapped paths when TCP/IP is installed, e.g. \\192.168.0.48\af$.
The Map Network Drive dialog is used to associate a drive letter with a network path.
IE float bugThe 'Reconnect at logon' checkbox name is misleading. Actually the parameter controls the persistence of the mapping. If unchecked the mapping is temporary, i.e. for the current session only, if checked the mapping will be available each time the system is started.
Reconnection of resources to shares is controlled by the Network Logon Options section in the Client for MS Networks Properties dialog illustrated on the previous page. Selecting Quick Logon will have Windows log the system onto the network without opening shared resources. This is usually the best option when hosts may not be operating when the clients logon.
Selecting Restore Network Connections will have Windows attempt to re-establish a connection and assign the same drive letter to a resource every time it starts. If the resource is not available, e.g. host not turned on, a "connection not available" or "share name not found" message will appear along with a Yes/No prompt to try again next time. Unfortunately, if you click on the No button, Windows will delete the connection record from the Registry.