How to Network Two Windows 95/98 Computers
Last updated: 10/28/2001

MAP THOSE DRIVES

Drive mapping is one of those things that is so simple it is hard to understand by many people at first (including me when I first started tinkering with networks).  Just remember it's simple.  Here's how really simple it is:

  Open the Windows Explorer, expand the network neighborhood, right click the drive to be mapped, and select Map Network Drive.
In the resulting windows select a drive letter for the drive and whether or not you want the drive remapped every time you boot up.  As a matter of convention, the first network drive is usually mapped as drive F:, but that isn't a hard rule unless you have some old software which insists on that convention.  From then on the network drive will look just like a local drive on your computer (and appear almost as fast).

As an example, to the right is my computer (and a bunch of mapped drives on my NT server--see the Zip drive on my file server?),   And Claudia's C: drive which I just mapped as drive K:  If I click on "my" K: drive, which is Claudia's C: drive, I'll see all of the folders on her drive in the right pane.

And, folks,  that's all there is to it and, except for putting the covers back on both computers, is all there is to this article.  I hope you found this first draft (7/15/99), useful.  I'll try to refine it as I receive reader comments.

Larry

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