How to Map a Network Drive (from a Windows Share) in Linux

  1. Create a directory within the Linux file-system. Depending on whether the directory is in the user’s area, this can be done either in the GUI (the same way you would create a folder for Windows, more-or-less) or by going into the terminal and typing “sudo mkdir /path/name”. Then type password.
  2. Install an application called WINBIND. Go into a repository and work your way all the way down to “winbind”. Note that typing a search may or may not find it, but it is definitely there. Click on the box to install and click “Yes” and “Okay” as many tims as required.
  3. Update something called the NSSWITCH file by typing “sudo nano /etc/nsswitch.conf” at the Terminal and then, in the document that opens, put the word “wins” prior to the word “dns” on the “hosts:” line. Save document and exit.
  4. Go into the terminal and type “sudo smbmount //servername/sharename /mountdirectory -o username=username,password=password”. You may have to type in your password again.
  5. Update something called the FSTAB. From the terminal type “sudo gedit /etc/fstab” (password may be required). Create an entry by typing “//servername/sharename /mountdirectory smbfs username=userename,password=password 0 0”
  6. For each additional share that you would like to map, repeat steps 4 and 5.

How to map a Windows network drive in Windows 2000 and XP:

  1. Find drive and share in Network Neighborhood
  2. Right-click folder, click “Map network drive”, and assign drive letter.
  3. Repeat steps for each drive that you wish to map.

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4 Responses to Mapping Network Drives

  1. trumwill says:

    This having been said, once the drives are mapped, I like the way Linux actually handles the shares a lot better than the way Windows does.

    What I really disliked is having to read about six ways of doing it, none of which worked, before piecing together the above steps.

    On a sidenote, it could be said that “Of course it’s easier to map a network drive in Windows than it is in Linux!” with maybe a word or two about how it’s Windows’s fault for making it so difficult.

    Maybe so, but the above steps were extremely repetitive for the seventeen or so drives that I needed to map. Once you get the steps down, it’s really pretty straightforward. And routine. And, it seems to me, not that difficult to add a GUI face to. If they want converts, this type of thing is going to be a part of most folks’ transition.

  2. Kirk says:

    I have no idea what you’re talking about here. I don’t even know what a “network drive” is. I suspect you made it up. 😉

  3. trumwill says:

    Hehe.

    “Mapping a network drive” is when you want a hard drive that is on Computer B to be accessible from Computer A. If done successfully, Computer A will pretend that the hard drive is local while accessing the files from the hard drive across the network.

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