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Accessing your University files from your own computer
Staff: If you are a member of staff, please follow the link below on accessing network shares.
Students: When you use the computers in the Open Access Computer Labs, you save your files to your networked My Documents folder, called your M: drive. For staff, the My Documents folder is also networked. It is possible to access your networked server files from your own computer via ResNet, LapLAN, wireless networking or from home via a broadband or dialup connection.
If you want to be able to connect to your M: drive you need the following:
- A connection to the University network - see next section.
- Your University username and the password you use to log into the open access computers (login password).
- Students: Your University name is "s" followed by your matriculation number.
- The name of your network server, which you look up using your EASE password (see below).
For help with logging into EASE:
Connecting to the University Network
If you are using Keycom, Resnet, LapLAN2, university wireless (central or eduroam), or VPN then you are already connected to the University network. Otherwise, you will need to set up a VPN connection before you can access your University files.
Finding the name of your network server
Once you have established a secure connection to the university network, look up your network server name. Your network server is named after a Scottish island, such as Arran or Mull. Open the link below in a new window or new tab and follow the steps below.
- Log in with your University username and EASE password.
- The name of your island server is shown in bold next to "Island name".
- Make a note of your "Island name" (e.g. Arran). This is the name of your network server.
Accessing your M: drive - Windows
Once you have established a secure connection and found your network server name, you are ready to connect to the server:
- Right click on the Windows desktop, and select 'New' and 'Shortcut'.
- You'll be asked for a location. You made a note of the island server name in the previous section. The format for the location is \\ISLANDNAME.sms.ed.ac.uk\home\USERNAME
- Type in the above, but replacing "ISLANDNAME" with your server name, and "USERNAME" with your own username.
- For example, if your student server is arran and your login name is s0654321 you would type:
\\arran.sms.ed.ac.uk\home\s0654321
- Click 'Next'.
- You may have to wait a while, but a login window will appear asking you for a username and password.
- Enter ed\ (ed and backslash) followed by your University Username into the User name box, and your login password (the one you use to log into the open access computers) into the Password box.
- Click on the 'OK' button
- Enter a name for your shortcut, such as "University folder".
- Click 'Finish'.
Next time you wish to access your university files, as long as you have a secure connection to the University network, you can simply double-click on the shortcut folder and log in. (Remember to put ed\ before your username).
Accessing your M: drive - Macintosh
Once you have established a secure connection and found your server name, you are ready to connect:
- Go to the Finder. Click on the 'Go' menu and choose 'Connect to Server'.
- In the 'Server Address' box, type "smb:" followed by the Home Directory address you made a note of in the previous section.
- For students, this would be smb://servername.sms.ed.ac.uk/home/username - For example, if your server is arran and your username is s0654321 you would type:
smb://arran.sms.ed.ac.uk/home/s0654321
- For staff, if your server is orthus and your login name is jbloggs, you would type:
smb://orthus.ucs.ed.ac.uk/EUCSHOME/jbloggs
To make accessing your M: drive easier in future, click on the button with the plus sign on it to add the server address to your favourites. Next time you can just choose the address from the list rather than typing it in.
- Click 'Connect'.
You may have to wait a little while, but a login window will appear.
- Ensure that the 'Workgroup or Domain' box contains 'ED'.
- Enter your University Username and login password (the one you use to log into the open access computers).
- Click on the 'OK' button.
Your M: drive will open in a new Finder window.
Accessing your M: drive - Ubuntu Linux
This has been tested with Ubuntu, and may also work for other Linux.
Once VPN is setup and connected, you need to use the 'mount' command. If the server is 'hsskhyber.hss.ed.ac.uk' and the directory/username are 'sspshome/jbloggs', the resulting command would be:
mount -t cifs -o username=ED\\UUN,uid=LOCALUSERNAME //hsskhyber.hss.ed.ac.uk/sspshome/jbloggs /mnt/YOURMOUNTPOINT
The command will need to be run as root but the uid=option should mean that your standard user account will have full read-write access to it.
You may find you need to install certain packages to enable cifs mounting - apt-get install cifs-utils.
Further Help
Please contact the IS Helpline if you need any further assistance.
This article was published on May 1, 2012