The Shares folder is a Windows file sharing service provided by OIT to promote document sharing and collaboration across the network and across departments for faculty and staff. Students do not have access to Shares.
Each user has a mininum/maximum quota of 5GB quota. This quota is shared by all folders and/or files you create. The location of the Shares folder on the OIT Central File Server is: \\files\shares.
Windows users
Windows users can connect to the Shares folder in one of two ways. For single session access only:
- Click on the Start button
- Pull up to Run...
- Enter \\files\shares on the command line and click OK
For access each time you log in to your computer, map the Shares folder to a drive on your computer:
- From your Desktop, right-click on My Network Places
- From the menu, select Map Network Drive... The Map Network Drive dialog box will appear
- In the Path field, type in: \\files\shares
- In the Connect As field, type in your netID
- Make sure Reconnect at Logon is checked.
- Make note of which drive letter is displayed in the Drive field.
- Click OK. (A password dialog may come up. If so, enter Princeton\NetID in the login field and your domain password and click OK.)
Mac OS X users
- With the Finder active, select Connect to Server... from the Go menu, or from the keyboard use Command-K
- In the Connect to Server window, type the following in the Address field: smb://files.princeton.edu/shares
- Click on the Connect button
- If you are requested to provide authentication information, enter the following:
- Workgroup/Domain: PRINCETON
- Username: YourNetID
- Password: your Windows Domain password
- After authentication is complete, the mapped drive will appear on your desktop where you can interact with it like any other folder on your hard drive.
Alternative Filesharing Options
For an overview of Online Collaboration Tools at Princeton, please see the FAQ regarding alternatives for online collaboration.
SharePoint
SharePoint can also be used to share documents and enable online discussions. SharePoint has many additional tools that can be used to communicate and coordinate a team including task tracking, calendaring, contact tracking, bug/issue tracking, surveys, forms, announcements, wikis, blogs, and template-based web pages. Microsoft Office applications are “SharePoint-aware” which often makes working in SharePoint seamless. Choose SharePoint if these additional tools and features are important for your work. See: www.princeton.edu/sharepoint for more information.