WIU Network Storage
WIU Network Storage
Access your files from home, an office, a dorm, or the computer lab
Did you know that Western provides each student, staff and faculty member with network storage access? Did you know that you can access your storage space from anywhere, even off-campus? If this is news to you, read on for more information on setting up your network storage access.
What’s Network Storage?
The term network storage simply means disk space on a server that is configured so that you may access it from anywhere. Each WIU ECom account comes with 1GB of network storage that you can use to save documents, pictures, or any kind of file. You may have already used your network storage and not known it. In the computer labs, Windows computers map your network storage is the ‘P:’ drive
What’s the benefit?
The benefit of using network storage is that your storage space is available to you any time you login to a computer on campus, and the network storage is backed up every night so crucial files can be recovered if necessary. You’re not limited to on-campus access, however. With the proper software you can access your network storage from any computer, anywhere in the world.
On-campus access
On-campus access is relatively simple. You can connect to the network storage server directly.
PC— Windows users will want to log into the lab computer or if faculty/staff to their own computer using your ECom username and password, open My Computer, and double-click on the files on ‘ECom Samba Server (samba.wiu.edu)’ (P:) icon (Figure 1) and save your files to this drive.
Mac— Select “Go” in the finder menu bar, then “Connect to Server”. The address is smb://samba.wiu.edu/files. A ‘Files’ window should open on your desktop and within this window should be all files you have stored to this drive.
On campus, you can also connect via FTP with Internet Explorer, by typing in the URL address ftp.wiu.edu . Click on Page, then click Open FTP site in Windows Explorer.
In the window that opens click on File, then click Login As… and enter your ECom username and password. You should then see a Files folder appear in the window after logging in and this is where you can access your files on your network Samba storage.
Off-campus access
Network storage access from outside the campus network requires the use of Secure FTP (SFTP). There are free SFTP clients for both Mac and PC. The recommended applications for both platforms are listed below.
PC— WinSCP is a free software program that provides SFTP access. It can be found at http://winscp.net
Mac—Cyberduck provides both FTP and SFTP options. http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/internet_utilities/cyberduck.html
Off-campus access must be done through SFTP. The address is sftp.wiu.edu
Complete instructions for both on and off-campus access can be found at: http://www.wiu.edu/university_technology/utech_pdfs/support_docs/Network%20File%20Storage%20Options.pdf
Tech Tip:
Downloading Off-Campus Network Storage Applications
For PC users:
1. In your browser type in this url address: http://winscp.net and click on the Download link under the latest release of WinSCP.
2. At the WinSCP File Downloads page click on the link that says Installation package.
3. A popup message will appear asking you to save the file, click Save File.
4. Double-click on the winscpsetup.exe file. And click Run when the next popup window appears. And click through the installation setup wizard until the installation is finished. You may need to restart your machine once it is installed.
5. The program icon will be placed on your desktop and this is how you can access WinSCP.
For Mac Users:
1. In your browser type in this url address: http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/internet_utilities/cyberduck.html Click on the Download button in the upper part of the page.
2. It will popup a window that will ask you to save the file, choose the Save File option and click OK. The file will begin to download.
3. Double-click on the Cyberduck – 3.4.zip file within the downloads window once it is fully downloaded.
4. That will unzip the file and put a Cyberduck application icon in your downloads folder where your .zip file was. Drag this Cyberduck icon into your Applications folder on your Mac.
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