Mounting an NFS File System under MS Windows NT4/2000/XP

Mounting a network drive (NFS File System)

To mount an exported file system as a network drive, perform the following:

1. Double-click on My Network Places and then Entire Network.
   
   You should find the XwpNTrdr icon. (May be, you will have to select Entire contents of the network.)
   
   
2. Double-click on the XwpNTrdr and then Remote NFS Servers icons.
   
   As a result, you can see a list of nodes of your local network with available NFS servers (according to the settings you have made in the NFS Server tab).
   
   
3. Select a node you want to connect to by double-clicking on its icon.
   
   Note: with the Ask to connect via SSH-2 check box in the NFS Servers tab enabled, the Connect Remote Portmapper dialog box will appear that contains a number of actual SSH2 connections you have previously established by the SSH2 Client of the Telnet_SSH program (see Starting an SSH Session in the Starting and Terminating Telnet_SSH section on how to establish secure connections). The Refresh button allows you to renovate the list.
   
   The "Dynamic Port Forwarding" feature of the Telnet_SSH/SSH2 Client and NFS-Client will automatically be used for connections, so you need not set up any port forwarding manually.
   
   

   

   In the Connect Remote Portmapper dialog box, Cancel means not to use any secure connection channel available. OK with a SSH server highlighted and the Use SSH Forwarding check box enabled means to communicate with the NFS server through the secure channel established.
   
   As a result of NFS connection to the node (through either direct insecure or secure SSH channel), you can see icons with names of exported directories (if there are any shared NFS resources on that node).
   
   
4. Select an exported directory and press the right mouse button.
   
   
5. Select Map Network Drive in the pop-up menu. The Map Network Drive dialog box of MS Windows will appear:
   
   

   

6. Select a drive letter to mount the folder and press Finish.
   
   As a result, you can see the contents of the mounted directory in a separate window on your desktop (according to your Unix access permissions).
   
   
7. Then you can do the following operations with the remote NFS resource mapped to your local drive (according to your Unix access permissions):
   
   - Creating new files and directories
   - Deleting files and directories
   - Renaming files and directories
   - Copying files from remote to local machine and vice versa
   - Viewing and editing the contents of files by WordPad, and so on.

Notes

If you use the WEBNFS protocol for mounting a shared directory, the following examples show alternative ways for mounting a network node with the WEBNFS protocol:

1. NET USE Q: \\192.168.0.41\WebNFS

2. My Computer -> Tools -> Map Network Drive -> Folder=\\192.168.0.41\WebNFS

NFS-Client can use the WEBNFS protocol if NFS servers support the WEBNFS protocol. When exporting a shared directory on a NFS server, you should specify the NFS security argument as 'none:sys'. The following is a command line example for OS SUN Solaris 8 :

share -F nfs -o public,sec=none:sys /export/home/nnmdir

Dismounting a network drive (NFS File System)

To dismount an exported file system, perform the following:

1. Select My Computer.
   
   
2. Select a mounted drive you want to dismount and press the right mouse button.
   
   
3. In the pop-up menu, select Dismount Network Drive.

Also, you can run the NET USE utility (e.g., for MOUNT and/or MAP). NET USE connects a computer to a shared resource or disconnects a computer from a shared resource. When used without options, it lists the computer's connections.

If you enable the Reconnect at logon check box in the Map Network Drive dialog box on the Tools menu of My Computer or Explorer, then mounting shared resources and mapping drive letters you specify will be made every time you log on (i.e. the auto-mounting mode). Mapped drives are available only when the host computer is also available.