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Mounting network drives

Mounting network drives

What?

  • To use the central disk space which is offered, you must connect to the network drives to which you have access. You need to "mount" your network drives.
  • When a network drive is mounted, you will see the drive letter and/or disk name associated with the disk space in the (Windows) Explorer or (Mac) Finder. You can then open files or save them on the network drive.
  • A number of network drives are mounted automatically on Athena and on all (Windows) PCs installed using the rollout and joined to the Active Directory domain. Please consult the table below.
  • You will have to add NEW network drives.
Tip: first check if your network drives are mounted automatically.

Mount how?

  • Via Athena: no VPN required. See: Network drives via Athena.

  • Locally on your PC, Mac, Linux system. You can mount drives on every Windows computer, every Mac with MacOS X or higher and every computer that can mount network drives via the SMB protocol.

    Below you find instructions for different operating systems to mount locally.

Mounting on a Windows device

When you mount a network drive, you assign a drive letter to the (server path of the) network drive. The letters A, B, C, G, H, S, W, X, Y and Z cannot be used.

A number of drive letters are reserved.

G:-drive for the UGent Global Namespace
Thanks to the UGent Global Namespace you have access to all your network drives and folders via only one drivemapping, i.e.: 
 \\files.ugent.be\<login name>
Note: if you make use of the UGent Global Namespace and at the same time mount network drives separately, you will see the same content more than once in the (Windows) Explorer.
S:-drive only for UGent staff: grouping all your shares;
is mounted automatically on Athena and on all (Windows) PCs installed using the rollout and joined to the Active Directory domain. Drivemapping is: 
\\files.ugent.be\<login name>\shares
The S:-drive corresponds to G:\shares.
H:-drive for your homedrive, personal disk space;
is mounted automatically on Athena and on all (Windows) PCs installed using the rollout and joined to the Active Directory domain.
The H:-drive corresponds to G:\home.
W:-drive for your personal web space
The W:-drive can also be found in the folder G:\WWW.

Windows 8 & 10

Make sure the computer is connected correctly to the UGentNet. From outside the UGent, this means that you first need to set up a VPN-connection
  1. Click on "Desktop".
  2. Click on the Windows button + E.
  3. Click on "Computer".
  4. Click on "Map Network Drive".
  5. In the dialogue box that appears, next to Path, type (for example):
    \\files.ugent.be\<login name>
  6. If you are using a computer that is not installed using the UGent rollout select 'Connect using different credentials'.
  7. You also need to add UGent\ to your credentials before your username.
    For example UGent\jpeeters
  8. Select "Reconnect at sign-in" if is not selected.
  9. Click on "Finish".

Windows 7

Make sure the computer is connected correctly to the UGentNet. From outside the UGent, this means that you first need to set up a VPN-connection
  1. Right click on "Start".
  2. Choose "Open Windows Desktop".
  3. Click on "Tools" in the menu.
  4. Click on "Map Network Drive".
  5. Type for 'Folder: (for example) ' \\files.ugent.be\<login name> and click on 'OK'.
  6. In the dialogue box that appears, next to Path, type (for example):
    \\files.ugent.be\<login name>
  7. If you are using a computer that is not installed using the UGent rollout select 'Connect using different credentials'.
  8. You also need to add UGent\ to your credentials before your username.
    For example UGent\jpeeters
  9. Select "Reconnect at sign-in" if is not selected.
  10. Click on "Finish".

On a Mac (MacOS X or higher)

Make sure the computer is connected correctly to the UGentNet. From outside the UGent, this means that you first need to set up a VPN-connection

  • Mac OS X does not use a drive letter but a drive name to refer to a mounted network drive.

  • On a Mac you should mount each of your network drives separately.

Use this method to reach your network drives:

smb://<loginname>@files.ugent.be/<loginname>/shares/<sharename>/

Map your home drive:

smb://<loginname>@files.ugent.be/<loginname>/home/

On a Linux system

Make sure the computer is connected correctly to the UGentNet. From outside the UGent, this means that you first need to set up a VPN-connection
  • Install smbclient - for Debian: apt-get install smbclient
    Command to use: 
     smbclient -U [log-in name] //files/<sharename>

Mount on Ubuntu

Make sure the computer is connected correctly to the UGentNet. From outside the UGent, this means that you first need to set up a VPN-connection
  • Select in 'Files' - 'Connect to Server'.
  • Fill out:
    • Server adres: 'smb://login@files.ugent.be/login/home' or 'smb://login@files.ugent.be/login/shares/sharename'
    • Click 'Connect'
    • Enter your UGent password.

Remarks

  • Students who sign on to a DICT workstation (read: a computer controlled by DICT, e.g. in the faculty computer rooms), will automatically obtain the drive mapping:
    • H: the personal directory on the fileserver for students
  • On a Windows system no distinction is made between lowercase and uppercase in filenames. On a Unix server however this distinction is made. As a consequence you have to be aware of the fact that you have to be careful when creating files on a pc and respect the use of lowercase and uppercase, although a pc doesn't make this distinction. To avoid problems, see to it that you always use unique filenames. So, never create two files, one by the name File.Txt and the other by the name file.txt, because that will generate problems.
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