Remote File Sharing & Vedivi

Access the files and folders on a remote computer directly from your Windows Explorer.You are not limited to the remote computer, you can in fact map any drive shared on the remote network.

Note: Remote LAN access is available for Business and Enterprise accounts

The best way to access remote shared drives is through the integrated Remote File Sharing Tool

This section focuses on enabling & configuring Windows File Sharing on your computers.

Setup Windows File Sharing

1. Share files and folders you want to remotely access.
   Microsoft help: Learn how to share resources on your computer
   Microsoft help: File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks
2. Connect your two computers with Vedivi.
   » More info on connecting your computers.
3. On the Local computer, map a network drive using the Remote Computer Name, Remote DNS Name or Remote Address as showed in the following screen shots.
   » Access a shared drive directly
   » Browse for shared resources on a Remote Computer
   » Map a network drive
   Microsoft help: Mapping a network drive

You can access any shared drive on the remote network.Just specify either a DNS name (i.e. \aserver.mycompany.internal\common) or an IP address if you know it (i.e. \172.16.48.130\common).

Access a shared drive directly

Opening a shared drive directly is simple, you just need to know the exact path of the shared drive or directory.

Let's assume that your remote computer is named PUTNEY, and that you have shared a directory named "MyData"

1. Open a Windows Explorer window or Internet Explorer.
2. In the address box, type "\\" folowed by the machine name and the directory name, so \\PUTNEY\MyData in our example
3. Windows might ask you to authenticate, if your credential are not enough to access the remote computer.

If your first attempt fails, please try again. Vedivi might take few seconds to detect the remote computer and will only allow connections after you made your first attempt.

Browse for shared resources on a Remote Computer

If you don't really know what shared drive or directory you want to access on a remote computer, you can just browse for it.

For instance you want to access a remote computer named LENNOX.

1. Open a Windows Explorer window or Internet Explorer.
2. In the address box, type "\\" folowed by the machine name so \\LENNOX
3. Windows might ask you to authenticate, if your credential are not enough to access the remote computer.

You can access any shared resources, including printers (see screenshot).All drives supported by Windows (including samba server or network drives) are at your fingertips.

Map a shared drive

Mapping a drive in windows offers several advantages over a direct access:

• Integrated: the mapped drive will appear as a network drive in Windows Explorer, so you can access it as any other local drive.
• Use different user: You can specify a different user for authentication, so if you map an office drive from home, you will have to authenticate using your office login (domain, login, password). You can only do it with a mapping (see screenshots).
• Reconnect at logon: If you want, you can tell Windows to remember the mapped drive, so that it will be mapped automatically next time you login.

1. In Windows Explorer, click the Tools menu, and then click Map Network Drive...
   
2. In the Map Network Drive dialog, enter the path to your remote network drive (i.e. \\LENNOX\MyData)
   
3. (Optional)If the local User name/password are not valid on the remote computer, you need to click on Connect using a different username and provide a valid User name and password so that your remote computer allows you to map the drive
   
4. In the Map Network Drive dialog box, make a note of the drive letter shown, and then click Finish
   

Microsoft Windows XP will open a folder to your shared files. In the future, you can open the shared folder from My Computer by clicking the appropriate drive letter.