Accessing your Unix Files from a Personal Computer

The lab file server (Nitrogen) holds your lab files.  On all the shared Unix systems this directory is named /usr/users/{username} where "{username}" is replaced with your username (of all things!).  When you log on this directory is your "home" directory.  This area is backed up every week and some of these backups are preserved for quite some time.  In fact, the first backup of December is kept "forever".

While all the directories of all lab members are shared, en mass, with our shared computers, this cannot be done for personal computers.  This limitation arises from the need to protect your files from accidental or malicious damage. On the shared computers there is clear responsibility for who has "root" privilege and that person has assumed the responsibility of becoming knowledgeable enough to protect the assets of the lab.  

To allow you to access your files on the file server from your personal computer we have installed a separate software package which allows you to access your files, alone, by entering a password known only to you.  Since you cannot access files which belong to others in the lab, you cannot accidentally destroy their work.  The software we use is called Samba and implements the file sharing protocols used in the Microsoft Windows world.  Since Windows use is so wide-spread, most other computer systems can access file shares in the same way.

The problem is that each version of each operating system seems to have differing ways of acquiring access to a Windows style file share.

Before you can mount your files using this technique I will have to configure the file server to allow such access to your account.  Get your request to me, e-mail usually works the best, and I will create a password for you.  To change this password to something private (a very good idea) you must log onto Nitrogen itself and use the smbpasswd command.

Microsoft Windows

• Click on the "Start" button and select "Run...".  In the "Open" field of the resulting dialog box enter "\\nitrogen\dale" where "dale" is replaced by your username.  There will be an unreasonably long delay after which a dialog box will be displayed.  This dialog will ask for your username and password.  This required password in not your unix password but your file sharing password.  After you hit the "enter" key (and wait some more) a window should appear containing your home directory.
• Open a "File Explorer" window for any directory and type in the "Address:" field near the top "\\nitrogen\dale" where "dale" is replace by your username.  You will be asked for your username and file sharing password.  Once you have entered them your home directory will appear in the window.
• In some menu list in the "File Explorer" window you will find "Map Network Drive...". (Where it is depends on the version of Windows you have.)  Clicking on this item will bring up a dialog box which will allow you to mount your files under a DOS style drive letter.  Yes, you could refer to your old VMS files by the DOS path "z:\vms"!
  

Apple MacIntosh OS X 10

Linux