Introduction

The department has given to each of its students a network share to which you can save files/coursework and access them from anywhere in the RIT network. All of the lab machines automatically connect to these shares so you can keep your work even though the computer get reimaged on every boot. Being able to connect to your drive from outside of the labs is as important as accessing them from within the labs as the drives can be used in place of flash drives and portable harddrives. As some of us are aware, the method of connecting to your network share changes often due to the nature of the college and the inner workings of ITS. As such, this document can quickly become obsolete without regular maintenance.

Requirement

In order to connect to your network share, you must have a RIT IP address. If you are on campus, you can connect from anywhere using a RIT network connection. From off-campus sites, you must first connect to the RIT VPN using the software found at: https://www.rit.edu/its/services/vpn/.

Getting connected

Windows

7

In Windows 7, the quickest way to map a network drive is to use the 'Map network drive wizard'. You can start the wizard by opening 'My Computer' by either pressing (windows key)+E or by clicking on 'Start'- >'Computer'. Once in 'My Computer' you can either click on 'Map network drive' in the navigation bar or by clicking on 'Tools'- >'Map network drive...'. Within the 'Map network drive wizard', you can choose the drive letter that will represent your network share, select whether or not you want to connect to the drive every time the computer starts, and if the drive is protected by alternate credentials.
In the 'Folder:' text box, enter '\\banner.main.ad.rit.edu\students\' and your RIT DCE account username. Check 'Connect using different credentials'. Click 'Finish'.
A dialog box opens that asks for a username and password. Enter 'MAIN\' and your RIT DCE account username and password. This ensures you are using RIT's 'MAIN' domain for authentication.Click 'OK'.
You now are connected to your network share.

For example ( Given the DCE "abc123" ) :
URL : \\banner.main.ad.rit.edu\students\abc123\
Username : MAIN\abc123
Password : ********

Windows 8

Additional steps to perform to connect to the RIT VPN:

1. Run regedit
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Curr entControlSet\Services\vpnva
3. Remove all of the extra info before DisplayName. So instead of "@oem17.inf,%vpnva_Desc%;Cisco  AnyConnect VPN Virtual Miniport Adapter for Windows x64" make it "Cisco AnyConnect VPN Virtual Miniport Adapter for Windows x64"
4. Connect, pondering why on Earth this works (thanks Zach Hoefler!)

Mac OSX

In OSX, open finder. From the 'Go' menu, select 'Connect to Server.' In the 'Server Address' box, enter 'smb://banner.main.ad.rit.edu/students/abc1234/,' and enter you DCE and password when prompted. A window will then open with the contents of your network drive. I can then drag the folder with your DCE to your favorites bar to access it more easily.

Linux

This is the command-line method. If you have a GUI file manager such as Nautilus or Dolphin, there may be an "easier" way of doing it through those tools.You will need the Samba utilities for your distribution. This is different for each, so you should consult whatever documentation there is for your distribution (Arch Wiki, Ubuntu Forums, etc.) Your distro may already have these utilities by default. Check and see if you have the "mount.cifs" tool.

How-To

put this in your /etc/fstab:

//banner.main.ad.rit.edu/students/USERNAME/IGMProfile /WHEREVER/YOU'REGONNA/MOUNT/IT cifs users,noauto,credentials=/YOUR/CREDENTIALS 0 0

The credentials file should look like this:
{{user=USERNAME
pass=PASSWORD
dom=MAIN}}

(that last one is literally dom=MAIN)

Make sure you own the directory that you're mounting it from, and that the credentials file is readable and writeable by you only (permissions 600). For example, if it's set to /home/user/igm, you can just go to your home folder and say "mount igm" and it'll work!

Example

//banner.main.ad.rit.edu/students/abc1234/IGMProfile /home/myname/igm cifs users,noauto,credentials=/home/myname/.zdrivecreds 0 0

user=abc1234
pass=hunter2
dom=MAIN

Permissions on the file:

myname@mycomputer:~$ ls -al .zdrivecreds
-rw------- myname users .zdrivecreds

How it works:

myname@mycomputer:~$ mount igm
myname@mycomputer:~$
myname@mycomputer:~$ ls igm
Desktop Documents ...