Currently, taking into account that almost everyone has a smartphone and a computer, in every home (meaning the user segment of Windows), one way or another, but there is a local network connecting devices connected to the same network.
But, after wireless networks densely entered our life, opportunities of a local area network receded on the second plan as many prefer a certain "independence" though it in many respects only seems such, devices from each other.
Now it is not enough to meet users who in the house "develop" a local area network, create directories for the General access, and unite computers and as a whole support "communication" between the devices connected to one network the Internet. After all, much lose.
For example, one of the very useful functions of the Windows operating system is to connect a network drive, which allows all users on the local network to view the contents of a dedicated folder, but with certain conditions.
And it is about this functionality of the operating system and will be discussed in this article.
What does - Network Drive
A "network drive" is a folder used to store files that are accessed by all devices (with the appropriate permissions) connected to a particular network.
You can create such a disk if, for example:
- an external drive is connected to one of the computers on the local network;
- installed " NAS " - NAS;
- a physical drive (HDD/SSD or flash drive) is connected to the router.
Given the above, you can answer the question: "why do I need a network drive?".
A network drive enables persistent sharing of files and folders that are intended to be shared or shared. For example, from this disk you can make a directory with movies and every device that is able to use this functionality (FTP-connection), will be able to view these files without physical connection of the disk.
How mount a Network Drive
The actual connection of the network drive does not take much time and the procedure is as follows:
- Connect the disk to the USB port of the router;
- The router automatically recognizes the drive and displays the folder in the "Network" section using the "SMB" Protocol»;
- How exactly the drive will be displayed in the operating system depends on the router, for example, it may be "SMBSHARE" or as will be seen in the following photo, it is the name of the folder that is open shared
- Open "This PC" and note the top panel and the "Network" section»;
- Click on "Map network drive";
- Set the desired drive letter, keeping in mind that it must be different from what is already assigned to the mapped drives;
- Click on the "Browse" button, select a network drive and a separate folder from the contents of this drive that you are sharing, and click on the "OK" button;
- It remains to click on the "Finish" button.
After performing these actions, the connected disk will appear in the "Explorer".
And to disable the disk, simply click on the appropriate button "Disconnect network drive".
Conclusion
As can be seen from the proposed small instructions to create a network drive is quite simple, and the opportunities that open with the use of this functionality are great.