Category: Windows

Adding a Network/Share Drive

Having a share drive/folder on a central server and allowing access to it generally used for easy access to the shared content and to increase storage for the users. Once the shared folder is created on the Server the users and easily map it on their machines so that they need not to remember its name/ip each time they need to access this drive/folder.

Mapping is sometimes also referred to a “Mounting” i.e Mounting a network drive/Folder.

Lets see how we can map the shared folder on the Windows 7 machine.

Click on Start > Goto My Computer.

It will bring up the window which will show the drives on your machine. Click on Map Network Drive on the top.

This will bring up a new window, which will show you the drive name, which you can choose from the drop down from A-Z.
Also it will ask you to put in the folder name in the format : \\Server\Share  i.e you need to specify the Servername or ip which is hosting the shared folder followed by the share folder name.

In my case, my server admin has hosted this folder on the Server with ip address : 10.20.20.10 and the name of the folder being shared is : TFTPRoot so I’ll use the folder name as :\\10.20.20.10\TFTPRoot.

Click on Connect using different credentials and click on Finish.

This will ask you to login with your credentials, contact your server admin and check in case your local credentials do not work.

Once authentication is successful, it will add in the drive name that you selected in your drive list.

Lets see how we can mount a drive on a Mac OS.

Open the finder which should be located on your Dock. Click on the Go menu and click on Connect to Server.

This will open up the Connect to Server window. In the Server address type in the Servername/ip followed by the folder name as we did for the Windows machine in the format: smb://10.20.20.10/TFTPRoot

Click on the Plus sign to add this folder in your favorite folder list so that next time you want to connect to it you can directly choose from this list. And then click on Connect.

You’ll be asked to authentication, please put in your credentials and click OK. It will create an icon of a Server on your desktop click on it to connect to your Share drive/folder.

Happy Reading….

Creating loopback adapter on Windows

We can compare a loopback adapter to a loopback interface on any router. Like the loopback interface on a router is not associated to any physical interface and is always up irrespective of the physical connectivity to the Router, similar a a loopback adapter.

A loopback interface is a virtual interface that resides on a router. It is not connected to any other device. Loopback interfaces are very useful because they will never go down, unless the entire router goes down.

There might be a situation where in you would need to assign an ip address to your laptop and use it for any testing/application. You would not be able to use the ip address assigned to your physical interface useless the physical interface itself is connected to a lan cable. May be a situation wherein the ip address assigned to your physical interface is via dhcp from your Service Provider router and changing the ip on the physical interface is not possible.

How to create a loopback adapter on windows machine :

Click Start > On the search Program and Files type : hdwwiz

or Open cmd and type:hdwwiz it should bring up the Hardware Wizard.

Once you get the add Hardware Wizard window click Next > Click on Install the hardware that I manually select from the list.

You are ready to go.

Goto your network connections ( shortcut type ncpa.cpl in the cmd window), you should see a Local Area Connection 1 or 2 depending on the number of existing connections.

You can disable/enable this adpater as required and right click on properties to assign ip address and use it .

Happy Reading….