Accessing and Using Your Network : Accessing Network Resources

After your network has been set up, you can start using it immediately to share resources, including files, folders, programs, and peripherals. Your starting point for all of this is the Network window.

Begin by double-clicking a resource to see what it contains. For example, if you double-click a workgroup computer, you see its shared items, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Double-click a workgroup computer’s shared folder to see its contents.

Notice that Vista computers automatically share two folders:

• Public— This folder is open to everyone on the network and provides users with full read/write access.

• Printers— This folder contains the computer’s installed printers. Vista usually places an icon for each shared printer in the computer’s main folder, as well.

Double-click a shared folder to see its contents. If you have an account on the remote computer, you should see the folder’s contents right away. Otherwise, you might have to enter the username and password of an account on that computer.

Understanding the Universal Naming Convention

If you click inside the Address bar with a remote computer or share open, you see an address that uses the following format:

\\ComputerName\ShareName

Here, ComputerName is the name of the computer, and ShareName 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 Public on a computer named TABLETPC:

\\TABLETPC\Public

If the UNC refers to a drive or folder, you can use the regular path conventions to access subfolders on that resource. For example, if the resource Public on TABLETPC has a Downloads subfolder, you can refer to that subfolder as follows:

\\TABLETPC\Public\Downloads

Mapping a Network 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 shared network drive or folder to your own computer. Mapping assigns a drive letter to the resource so that it appears to be just another disk drive on your machine.

To map a shared drive or folder, follow these steps:

1.	Select Start, right-click Network, and then click Map Network Drive. (In any folder window, you can also press Alt to display the menu bar, and then select Tools, Map Network Drive.) Windows Vista displays the Map Network Drive dialog box, shown in Figure 2. Figure 2. Use the Map Network Drive dialog box to assign a drive letter to a network resource.
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 Vista 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 shared folder. (Alternatively, click Browse, select the shared folder in the Browse For Folder dialog box, and then click OK.)
4.	If you want Windows Vista to map the resource 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 resource using a different account, click the Different User Name link, type the User Name and Password, and click OK.
6.	Click Finish. Windows Vista adds the new drive letter to your system and opens the shared resource in a new folder window.

To open the mapped network folder later, select Start, Computer and then double-click the drive in the Network Location group.

NET USE [drive] [share] [password] [/USER:user]
→[/PERSISTENT:[YES | NO]] | /DELETE]

net use z: \\tabletpc\public \persistent:yes

Disconnecting a Mapped Network Folder

If you no longer need to map a network resource, you should disconnect it by following these steps:

Creating a Network Location

When you map a shared network folder to a drive on your computer, Vista creates an icon for the mapped drive in the Computer folder’s Network Locations group. You can also add your own icons to this group. These are similar to the network places you could create in Windows XP. That is, once you create a network location, you can access that location by double-clicking the icon. This is usually a lot faster than drilling down through several layers of folders on the network client, so create network locations for those network folders you access most often.

Follow these steps to create a network location:

Printing over the Network

After you connect to a network printer, you can use it just like any local printer on your system. Windows Vista offers a couple of methods for connecting to a network printer. The easiest way is to use the Network window to open the computer that has the shared printer, open its Printers folder, right-click the printer, and then select Connect. When Vista asks you to confirm the connection, click Yes. Vista installs the printer using the remote machine’s printer driver files.

If you like using a wizard for these kinds of things, you can do so using the Add Printer Wizard: