How to connect to a network shared folder

This document aims to provide generic instructions for how to connect to a shared network drive from Mac or Windows computers.

If you are off-campus, then you will need to first connect to the UCI campus VPN. Follow instructions here for connecting to the VPN:

• https://oit.uci.edu/help/vpn

Windows typically refers to shared folders, network folders, or mapped network drives, so you may see those terms used interchangeably.

There are multiple methods to connect to a shared folder, but we recommend creating a shortcut to it on your desktop for easy access later.

1. Right-Click anywhere on your desktop (or if you want the shortcut saved somewhere else, right-click in that folder)
2. Select the menu item New → Shortcut
3. In the shortcut wizard, enter the location in this format:

   \\servername.ss.uci.edu\sharename

   • for example, if your shared folder is on our server called “ironman.ss.uci.edu” and the shared folder is called “myshare$”, then you would enter \\ironman.ss.uci.edu\myshare$
4. Click Next and then click Finish to save the shortcut.
5. Double-click on the shortcut to connect.
6. The first time you connect, it will ask you for your username and password
   • Enter your SS2K account credentials, which is the user account in our school's private network.
   • Please enter your username in this format: SS2K\username

On a Mac computer, follow these steps to connect to a network shared folder:

1. Open Finder
2. In the menu bar at the top of the screen, select the option Go → Connect to Server
3. Enter the path to the shared folder like this:

   smb://servername.ss.uci.edu/sharename

   • for example, if your shared folder is on our server called “ironman.ss.uci.edu” and the shared folder is called “myshare$”, then you would enter smb://ironman.ss.uci.edu/myshare$
4. We recommend clicking the “+” icon to save this as a favorite. Then you can simply select the path from the list to connect in the future.
5. Click Connect
6. The first time you connect, it will ask you for your username and password
   1. Enter your SS2K account credentials, which is the user account in our school's private network
   2. Enter your username in this format: SS2K\username

After you connect you can click and drag the shared folder into your Finder side-bar. In the screenshot below, my shared folder is called “sscsdept$” and you can see that it is going to be placed at the top of the side-bar.