If you would like to work with files located on another computer that is a part of your home or local network, you can map a local drive letter to it using this window. This creates a new drive letter on your computer (starting with Z, and working down to the next free letter) which is linked directly to the drive or folder it is mapped to, residing on another computer in your network. To access that drive or folder in Name Dropper (or even from Windows Explorer), simply choose the drive letter created when mapping the network drive. Any time you wish to access this mapped drive, the networked computer that the drive physically resides in must be turned on and logged into Windows. Although you may be able to map ANY drive or folder on a networked computer, you may not be able to access it. This depends on the folder’s network permissions (see below). If you do not have permission to access the network folder you chose, a message box will inform you of this when you first attempt to access it.
To map a network drive, first ensure that the networked computer is turned on and logged into Windows. From the Map Network Drive window in Name Dropper, click the [Choose network drive or folder to map…] button. A small window will appear where you can navigate to the desired folder. To go directly to a specific computer on your network, typically it would be as follows: Click My Network Places>Entire Network>Microsoft Windows Network>*Your Network Name*>*Computer Name*. This should then bring you to a list of shared folders on the computer in question. Choose which folder to map and click [OK]. You must choose a folder residing on a networked computer or it will not be accepted. Once back at the Map Network Drive window, the folder you chose will be displayed in the window. Click [OK] to map this drive or folder, or [Cancel] to cancel. Note that depending on the speed of your computers and the network, it can take several moments to map the network drive. Once mapped, a message box will appear stating whether or not it was successful, and if so, the drive letter mapped to the network drive or folder. To access the networked drive or folder, you can simply choose that drive letter from the Name Dropper Drive List, or even Windows Explorer.
If you plan to access this network drive often, there is no harm in leaving it mapped (connected). However, if you would like to disconnect it after you’ve finished, click on the ‘Tools|Disconnect Network Drive’ menu to disconnect the drive.
Folder Permissions
Drives and folders on networked computers have permission settings for them. These permissions can affect their availability across your network. By default, the only shared folder on a multi-user computer or network is the ‘Shared Documents’ folder. You can either keep files to rename in that folder on each computer (or at least the computer you would like to access over your network), or change the permission settings for other folders. For information on how to do that, consult the help documentation that came with Windows and try searching for “folder permissions”.
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