Need some advice on learning networking

[bsm2]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

I could be wrong but I spent several days trying to fully understand a mapped drive. At first I thought they were talking about an actual hard drive but in reality a mapped drive is only a path back to a PC or server hard drive. On the local PC it gives the appearance of being an actual drive but it's just a path back to a PC or sever. Correct?

Yes

[tsbservice]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

I could be wrong but I spent several days trying to fully understand a mapped drive. At first I thought they were talking about an actual hard drive but in reality a mapped drive is only a path back to a PC or server hard drive. On the local PC it gives the appearance of being an actual drive but it's just a path back to a PC or sever. Correct?

Correct. In fact you can use MFP HDD to scan to folder and map it as drive to client PC.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

One thing you can’t do is scan to a mapped folder on a workstation.

In other words, if there is a folder on a server that is shared out to a workstation, you have to scan directly to the server, not the workstation.

The phrase I’ve heard is “You can’t share a share.”.

I hope that makes sense.

That is correct. I posted some incorrect information a ways back in this thread. I said that you didn't need the Admin password for the sever it you created a scan folder in the mapped drive on a local PC. You can create a scan folder on the mapped drive of a local PC but you'll be prompted for the Domain Admin username and password. Which means you're scanning back to the server.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

That is correct. I posted some incorrect information a ways back in this thread. I said that you didn't need the Admin password for the sever it you created a scan folder in the mapped drive on a local PC. You can create a scan folder on the mapped drive of a local PC but you'll be prompted for the Domain Admin username and password. Which means you're scanning back to the server.

Maybe I'm wrong about this. I just tried it again because I was second guessing myself but when I tried it didn't even give me the option for sharing the folder.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

Maybe I'm wrong about this. I just tried it again because I was second guessing myself but when I tried it didn't even give me the option for sharing the folder.

I was 100% wrong and Ken is 100% right. You can't share a share. I'll remember that from now on.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

Correct. In fact you can use MFP HDD to scan to folder and map it as drive to client PC.

It never even occurred to me to try that.

[KenB]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

Correct. In fact you can use MFP HDD to scan to folder and map it as drive to client PC.

That’s really easy and convenient, but only some makes and models support this. I wish more did.

I can say for sure that Ricoh never has.

[slimslob]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

With Ricoh you can scan to the Document Server as a pdf and then use WIM to copy it to your computer. I actually had a customer show me that on a MP C2550.

[KenB]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

With Ricoh you can scan to the Document Server as a pdf and then use WIM to copy it to your computer. I actually had a customer show me that on a MP C2550.

Hey, Slim, refresh my memory...Didn’t that require the (much misunderstood) file format converter option in the copier?

The file format converter is an actual circuit board, with no external inputs or outputs. It is not software or firmware.

[slimslob]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

Hey, Slim, refresh my memory...Didn’t that require the (much misunderstood) file format converter option in the copier?

The file format converter is an actual circuit board, with no external inputs or outputs. It is not software or firmware.

On some models yes. But not on all of them. If I remember correctly the only time we sold a machine with a file format converter board was wide format laser where the customer needed to scan to scan to pdf. I also seem to remember something about seeing more than the first page of a document in WIM. On many models the file format converter board used expansion slot slot on the controller. So you couldn't use it if you had one of the following interfaces installed:

IEEE802.11
IEEE 1284
Blue tooth
Gigabyte Ethernet

[tonerhead]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

Originally Posted by tsbservice
Correct. In fact you can use MFP HDD to scan to folder and map it as drive to client PC.

That’s really easy and convenient, but only some makes and models support this. I wish more did.

I can say for sure that Ricoh never has.

Oki, Toshies, and Canons do. Here is the problem though. We tried this on a college campus several years ago and the mfp hdd became a storage place for mp3s by a student on campus. Another customer had their pc's locked down so tight we offered this as a solution. You scan to the mfp's hdd (mapped drive) and then pull it into your pc and delete off of mfp. Worked great except one sob was afraid that someone would grab her scans between the time she left the mfp to walk to her desk 20 feet away. I would think in an office like that you would have other issues of trusting fellow employees than worrying about network security. Eventually sales walked away from that one. They would not allow smb, ftp, or email scans because of security fears. The only way left was to map a drive to the mfp. So the one sob stopped the sale. If she was so afraid of it, she should have gotten a usb scanner to use for herself.

Kyocera and others offer "Beacon" software for scanning like pin-point scan. I really think this is what the industry is going to. I think these programs offer additional network traffic that IT doesn't care for though.

[slimslob]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

Originally Posted by tsbservice
Correct. In fact you can use MFP HDD to scan to folder and map it as drive to client PC.



Oki, Toshies, and Canons do. Here is the problem though. We tried this on a college campus several years ago and the mfp hdd became a storage place for mp3s by a student on campus. Another customer had their pc's locked down so tight we offered this as a solution. You scan to the mfp's hdd (mapped drive) and then pull it into your pc and delete off of mfp. Worked great except one sob was afraid that someone would grab her scans between the time she left the mfp to walk to her desk 20 feet away. I would think in an office like that you would have other issues of trusting fellow employees than worrying about network security. Eventually sales walked away from that one. They would not allow smb, ftp, or email scans because of security fears. The only way left was to map a drive to the mfp. So the one sob stopped the sale. If she was so afraid of it, she should have gotten a usb scanner to use for herself.

Kyocera and others offer "Beacon" software for scanning like pin-point scan. I really think this is what the industry is going to. I think these programs offer additional network traffic that IT doesn't care for though.

Another possible solution would be password protected folders and documents. If you do not know the password then you cannot access the document/folder.

[tsbservice]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

On Konicas you actually save documents in user boxes on machine HDD. You can password protect user boxes, you can make many user boxes, you can set auto delete time as low as 5 minutes to Do Not Delete.
The downfall is limitation of 200 documents per user box so you have to set auto delete time very carefully depending on how many scans user make.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

One last comment on mapped drives as it relates to a copier.


Ken is correct that you can't share a share. I mistakenly thought I was successful at doing this. In reality, what I did was create a sub-folder (not shared) in the mapped drive named "scan". I then set up SMB on the copier and changed the network path to include the sub-folder: \\Server1\(name of mapped drive)\(name of sub-folder).

I was then able to create a shortcut on the desktop of the client's PC to the scan folder.

Hope that made sense.

Note: In order to do this you must have the username and password of the Domain Admin because you need it when setting up SMB on the copier as the folder is on the server.

[BillyCarpenter]

Re: Need some advice on learning networking

I thought I had mapped drives figured out about a dozen times only to find out I didn't quite understand.

At the end of the day a mapped drive is nothing more than a shared folder that is mapped back to the server. Period. Or another computer/device but you get the point.

The main thing I've been interested in is how does it work for SMB scanning. Here's the deal. The domain admin needs to create the mapped drive. We don't need the domain's username or password. All we need are the following:

1. Find the network path of the mapped drive. That's simple.
2. The local admin username and password.

I've done all of this on my computer lab. That's it. It's that simple. I complicated the fu*k out of it.


As I'm getting more familiar with Server19, I'm getting into the fun stuff.

I created a new mapped drive and this time I redirected the entire desktop to the new mapped drive. What was the purpose of this? This means that any user can log in to any PC on the domain and his/her desktop is available to them. In fact, I can redirect all the data on their PC so that when they log in to any PC on the domain it's there for them.