Network Connections

  • Thread starter Thread starter Eric
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Eric

I'm in a small office and our IT person has quit. I'm
not that she knew the answer to this question and I'm
hoping that someone does:

How can you get XP-home edition to automatically connect
you to a network drive after you turn on your computer
and entire Windows?

E.G. In windows 98 you could have the Z:\ Drive be your
departments shared document area, etc.

Now with XP-Home edition, you need to log in the the
drive each time you reboot. So if you forget (which I do
often, as does my boss) you can't access the network
printer.

Help! Please! I have little to no hair left.........
 
You need to map the drives and then make sure the networked systems are
booted so XP can see them when it boots. Open Windows Explorer, right click
the drives on the other systems, they should be visible in My Network Places
and select "Map Network Drive." It also helps if you are using a switch or
a router go connect the computers as opposed to a hub.
 
Thanks. I've done the "Map Network Drive" thing (sorry,
I'm not a Network/hardward person, I'm a programmer)

I've selected my drive "z", checked the box "reconnect at
logon". But still need to physically open this drive to
access the network printer.

As you mentioned, I believe we are using a Hub, so does
that make a huge difference? I don't think the NT
operating system on the server would. Would it??
 
OK - I'm an Idiot. It works (didn't have the logon
profile password set) duh! - but question.

Does it take XP a couple of tries to remember? I set
this up on anorther computer and it didn't work the first
time.
 
That's why a router is better. When you use a hub, the system has to look
for the IP addresses on each boot. Sometimes if you shutdown a client
system before shutting down the "server" system, the next time you boot, the
information will be "forgotten." A router establishes and then holds the
information. It's a small price to pay for a great deal less hassle when
working with networks and it's a lot safer as well because no internal IPs
are displayed to the outside world.
 
I am not an IT guru either, but the easiest answer I know
is to log into your PC and map the drive. Go to Windows
Explorer and click TOOLS>MAP NETWORK DRIVE. Enter in the
drive letter (Z:\) and the path to the folder/drive
(\\XYXCO\dept$\). The "path" should be in the form of
the PC name you want to connect to and the share name
that was assigned. If the share is a "public" share, you
should be able to browse for it and map it that way. On
that window, there should be an option that
says "reconnect at logon". Checking that will re-map the
drive when you log in again.

Unfortunately, this solution only works for the one
user. You would have to do this for all the users.

I think the "technically correct" way to solve this would
be to create login scripts for each user and have the
login script map the drives, but that's beyond my
knowledge.

BTW- if you want to set up a network printer (the printer
is connected directly to the network and not to a PC),
you should be able to go through the process of setting
up a new printer. Tell it that you have a network
printer and browse for it. When you find it, it should
load the correct drivers and set everything up. It will
be there when you log in the next time.
 
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