Chami.com Tips

How to connect two computers and access their drives through the Internet

You can connect two computers over the Internet and use a given computer's drives just like you'd use local drives -- run programs, copy, get a list of files, etc. Here's how:

• Make sure that both computers (computer A and B) have "TCP/IP" and "NetBEUI" protocols installed and properly functioning.
   
• Make sure that the "Remote Access Serives" are setup and properly functioning.
   
• Find out the IP address of computer A.
  You can do this by going to the network icon in the "Control Panel"
  
  For example, let's assume that "205.159.67.4" is the IP address of computer A.
   
• Enable file sharing and share a path of your choice on computer A.
  
  For example, share "C:\" as "INTERNET_DRIVE"
   
• Log both computers on to the Internet (dial and connect to your internet service provider for example). If you're on an Intranet, you don't have to connect to the Internet.
   
• Go to computer B's "DOS/Command Prompt" and type:
  
  NET USE X: \\205.159.67.4\INTERNET_DRIVE
  
  
  If you get an user name/password or logon error, use the following command instead (after replacing uname with the actual user name and pword with the matching password):
  
  NET USE X: \\205.159.67.4\INTERNET_DRIVE /USER:uname pword
  
  This will map computer B's drive X to computer A's shared path INTERNET_DRIVE, which is computer A's C: drive.
  
  

Now you can use drive X over the Internet just like any other drive on your local computer.