on the network use their first names as their usernames is tempting but not a good idea. Even in a small office, you eventually run into a conflict. (And what about Mrs. McCave — made famous by Dr. Seuss — who had 23 children and named them all Dave?) Create a consistent way of creating usernames. For example, you may use your first name plus the first two letters of your last name. Then Lisa’s username is Lisasi, and Bart’s is Bartsi. Or you may use the first letter of your first name followed by your complete last name. Then Lisa’s username is lsimpson, and Bart’s is bsimpson. (In most networks, capitalization doesn’t matter in usernames. Thus, bsimpson is the same as BSimpson.)
Every computer on the network has a unique computer name. You don’t have to know the names of all the computers on the network, but it helps if you know your own computer’s name and the names of any server computers you need to access.The computer’s name is sometimes the same as the username of the person who uses the computer, but that’s usually a bad idea because in many companies, people come and go more often than computers. Sometimes the names indicate the physical location of the computer, such as office-12 or back-room. Server computers often have names that reflect the group that uses the server most, like acctng-server or cad-server.Some network nerds like to assign techie-sounding names, like BL3K5-87a. And some like to use names from science-fiction movies; HAL (from 2001: A Space Odyssey), M5 or Data (from Star Trek), or Overmind (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) come to mind. Cute names like Herbie aren’t allowed. (However, Tigger and Pooh are entirely acceptable — recommended, in fact. Networks are what Tiggers like the best.) Usually, the sensible approach to computer naming is to use names that have numbers, such as computer001 or computer002.
Network resources, such as shared disk folders and printers, have names. For example, a network server may have two printers, named laser and inkjet (to indicate the type of printer), and two shared disk folders, named AccountingData and MarketingData.
Server-based networks have a username for the network administrator. If you log on using the administrator's username, you can do anything you want: add new users, define new network resources, change Lisa’s password, anything. The administrator’s username is usually something clever such as Administrator.
The network itself has a name. The Windows world has two basic types of networks:Domain networks are the norm for large corporate environments that have dedicated servers with IT staff to maintain them.Workgroup networks are more common in homes or in small offices that don’t have dedicated servers or IT staff.A domain network is known by — you guessed it — a domain name. And a workgroup network is identified by — drum roll, please — a workgroup name. Regardless of which type of network you use, you need to know this name to gain access to the network.
Logging on to the Network
To use network resources, you must connect your computer to the network, and you must go through the supersecret process of logging on, which is how you let the network know who you are so that it can decide whether you’re one of the good guys.
Logging on is a little bit like cashing a check. You must have two forms of identification:
Your username: The name by which the network knows you.Your username is usually some variation of your real name, like Cosmo for Bart. Everyone who uses the network must have a username.
Your password: A secret word that only you and the network know. If you type the correct password, the network believes that you are who you say you are.Every user has a different password, and the password should be a secret.
In the early days of computer networking, you had to type a logon command at a stark MS-DOS prompt and then supply your user ID and password. Nowadays, the glory of Windows is that you get to log on to the network through a special network logon screen. Figure 3-1 shows the Windows 10 version of this dialog box.
FIGURE 3-1: Logging in to a Windows 10 system.
The terms user ID and logon name are sometimes used instead of username. They all mean the same thing.
As long as we’re talking about words that mean the same thing, log in and log on mean the same thing, as do (respectively) log out and log off as ways of saying, “I’m outta here.” Although you see both out there in the world, this book uses log on and log off throughout — and if there’s any exception, the book says why and grouses about it a bit.
As far as the network’s concerned, you and your computer aren’t the same thing. Your username refers to you, not to your computer. That’s why you have a username and your computer has a computer name. You can log on to the network by using your username from any computer that’s attached to the network. Other users can log on at your computer by using their own usernames.When others log on at your computer by using their own usernames, they can’t access any of your network files that are protected by your password. However, they can access any local files that you haven’t protected. Be careful which people you allow to use your computer.
If you’re logging on to a domain network on a Windows computer, you must type the domain name before your username, separated from it by a backslash. For example: lowewriter\dloweHere, the domain name is lowewriter, and the username is dlowe.Note that Windows remembers the domain and username from your last login, so ordinarily all you have to enter is your password. To log on to a different domain or as a different user, you must click Switch User. Then you can click the Other User icon and enter a different domain name and username, along with the password for the user you want to log on as.
Your computer may be set up so that it logs you on automatically whenever you turn it on. In that case, you don’t have to type your username and password. This setup makes the task of logging on more convenient but takes the sport out of it. And it’s a terrible idea if you’re the least bit worried about bad guys getting into your network or personal files.
Guard your password with your life. I’d tell you mine, but then I’d have to shoot you.
Understanding Shared Folders
Long ago, in the days Before Network (B.N.), your computer probably had just one hard drive, known as the C: drive. Maybe it had two — C: and D:. The second drive might be another hard disk, or possibly a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive. Even to this day, the descendants of those drives are physically located inside your PC. They’re your local drives.
Now that you’re on a network, however, you may have access to drives that aren’t located inside your PC but are located instead in one of the other computers on the network. These network drives can be located on a dedicated server computer or, in the case of a peer-to-peer network, on another client computer.
In some cases, you can access an entire network drive over the network. But in most cases, you can’t access the entire drive. Instead, you can access only certain folders on the network drives. Either way, the shared drives or folders are known in Windows terminology as shared folders.
Here’s where it gets
