Connecting to the G and F Drives from Off Campus – OSX (Mac)

The following instructions show you how to connect to the F and G drives on the EHS employee file server. Many people have moved over to having all of their files on Google Drive, but those who have shared folders may want to connect to the file server while off campus.

The F drive is your personal folder and will be slightly different for all users. The G drive is common to everyone but everyone has different rights to different folders.

Note: Regardless of how you connect to the file server, when you are off campus you must use the EHS VPN so that your computer is connected to the EHS network. If the VPN software on your computer does not have an active connection to EHS, you will not be able to connect to the file server.

If you need to set up the VPN first, go here: http://ehsweb.net/faq/vpn/

Creating shortcuts for easy access

G Drive

Making an icon on your computer’s desktop or dock will allow you to return to your G and F drive folders with one-click after the initial setup.

First, connect to the school VPN. Assuming that the software is installed, click on the icon for the VPN software in the Dock or find it in your Launchpad. Go through the sign-in process until it says you are connected with the EHS network.

In Finder (the OSX desktop), click  Go at the top of the screen and then Connect to Server… at the bottom of the list.  OR… hit Command-K on the keyboard.

In the bar at the top of the Connect to Server window, type

smb://10.1.3.32

and hit the + symbol at the bottom to keep it in your Favorites list and then click Connect.

Enter your credentials as you see in the screenshot below.  Make sure to put ehsnet\ before your username and use your usual school password.  Make sure to keep this password in your keychain.

Hold down the shift key and select the F and G drives and then click OK.

You will now be connected to the EHS employee file server. In case you cannot see the network drives on your desktop, go to Finder -> Preferences at the top of the screen. In the General tab, click the box next to “Connected servers” and you should see the network file servers on your desktop as in the screenshot below.

You may also want to drag commonly used folders to your dock for easy access later.

Note: There are a number of ways of storing favorites and finding folders – no one method any better than the others – so just do what works for you.

The next time you connect to the VPN, you do not necessarily need to manually set up the connection. As long as you are connected to the EHS network and you click on a folder shortcut, you will automatically navigate to your G drive or F drive folder.

It may take a little longer than usual to connect as a home or remote login will not be as fast as being on the school network itself.