Connecting to a TU File Share from a Mac

Learn about file shares, which TU file shares you may access and how to connect with your Mac on and off campus.

What is a file share?

A file share (a.k.a., share or remote volume) is hard drive space available for access over the campus network or the internet. File Shares are commonly used for file storage. There are several advantages to using file storage that is not on your Mac.

• Your files are regularly backed up
• You have access to files from office, classroom and off-campus locations
• Some file shares are available for groups to access (like a file cabinet in a central office that contains documents everyone in the group needs)
• Some resources, such as your website, are made available to the internet from a share on the Web Server

Remote file storage is quickly becoming the dominant practice for saving computer files. This article will assist you in locating and connecting to available file shares.

What file shares can I access?

You can access a growing number of resources on campus through drive mapping. Listed below are the most common TU file shares and their associated paths. Other file shares may be available depending on which department, committee, organization or workgroup you are associated with. Check with your OTS support staff or your committee/organization’s chair to see if there are other shares available to you. Contact the Help Center at 410-704-5151 or submit a Web Support Request if you do not know the file share name for your department or group.

Faculty and staff

• Your personal file share (“H: drive” to PC users) smb://homeshare/YourNetID$
• Your department's file share (“O: drive” to PC users) smb://deptshare/DepartmentShareName$
• Your Unix based web site account (saber.towson.edu) smb://saber/YourNetID
   

Connect to a file share on a Mac

The general rule for connecting to a file share is to take the windows share path, add the “SMB:” prefix and invert the slashes (e.g., \\homeshare\NetID$ becomes smb://homeshare/NetID$).

Connect to a file share from the MacOS desktop

1. Select Go > Connect to Server... from the menu bar. The Connect to Server window will display.
2. Enter the desired smb path and click the Connect button. An authentication window will display.
3. Enter your TU NetID and password.
4. Make sure the Add to Keychain checkbox is not checked.
5. Select OK, and your file share will appear on the desktop.
    

Connect to TU’s network off-campus

You can open a file share from an off-campus Mac connected to the internet, but you must first install the Cisco VPN client for MacOS. A customized version of this application is available at https://vpnc.towson.edu. Creating a secure connection will allow you to open a share as if you were on campus.

After you mount a drive, you can create a shortcut on your desktop, so you never have to enter the path or use connect to server again. Additionally, you can drag a folder from the mounted volume onto the finder sidebar to have easy access without logging in.