Map Network Drive to \\Ampa\Users from Windows XP Professional

Thursday, January 20, 2005

7:04 PM PST


This document describes how to use the Microsoft Windows Map Network Drive procedure for the purpose of transferring files securely over the network between your personal Windows XP Professional computer and Ampa, our Windows 2000 Server in the Lester Lab.


To access Windows shared resources using this method, your computer must be on the campus network or be connected through ITS Remote Access, either through the Caltech dialup or via Caltech VPN services.  Connectivity to Windows File and Printer service ports is restricted to the Caltech 131.215.x.x network; access from non-Caltech IP addresses is blocked.


ITS enforces the use of the NTLMv2 authentication protocol for connections to ITS Active Directory member servers, such as Ampa.  Before attempting to connect to our server, you should verify your computer is configured to use this protocol; otherwise your connection attempt will continually prompt for username and password.  For more information, see the ITS Enabling NTLMv2 Guide.  All Caltech owned rig computers and office workstations in the Lester Lab have been pre-configured to use the NTLMv2 protocol.


For exposition, the instructions below refer to the pre-established ITS account, lester, to describe how to connect to the shared folder, lester, located on the Ampa server.  Substitute your own ITS username wherever it appears in this example.  Send a note to the ITS Lester Lab Help Desk <help@lester-lab.caltech.edu> if you do not have a directory on the Ampa server, or if you need help connecting to the server.

  1. Open My Computer, and click on the menu item, Tools|Map Network Drive.

  2. In the Map Network Drive window, specify,

    Drive:  (U: or any other drive letter)
    Folder:  \\Ampa\Users

    and click the blue underlined link, which appears in this same Map Network Drive window,

    Connect using a different user name.

  3. In the Connect As window which appears, specify,

    User name:  ITS\lester
    Password:  (your ITS e-mail password)

    Note:  You must prefix your own ITS username with "ITS\".

    Click OK, and then click Finish to complete Map Network Drive.  A window should appear displaying the contents of U:\Users.

  4. Drag and drop documents into the shared U:\Users\ folder to upload these files to Ampa server.  Please create a new folder labeled with your IMSS username to house your files, e.g., U:\Users\lester.

  5. Maintaining stale connections to network shares can decrease computing performance dramatically.  Therefore, it is recommended that you disconnect from \\Ampa\Users after you finish transferring files.  To do this, open My Computer, and right-click on the shared drive.  Then select the menu item, Disconnect.
---Pam