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URL'S

As mentioned before, we simply cannot map a lot of drives on a large network and since most programs now allow for URL (Uniform Resource Locator) addresses it is probably best to use them.

URL's have many advantages over a mapped drive but here are three good ones:

• When rebooting a machine with a mapped drive where that other machine is off-line (for whatever reason), you would be prompted to "reconnected the next time you boot". Failure to answer Yes, effectively drops that mapped drive.
  URLs are active whereas they seek the intended address only upon request, they do not rely on any static drive mapping.
• URLs do not consume system resources (until a file is open).
  Mapped drives always consume resources even when no files are open.
• Mapped drives are usually confusing to users.
  URLs are less confusing as they plainly state the target file.

Using a URL 

First: The other computer's folder(s) must be shared. See page 215. 
Using our above drive mapping example (but without mapped drives), we can still gain access to the other computer's files using a URL. 

If Station 2 wants a file from Station 1, instead of the mapping G: and browsing for the desired folder:
G:\My Documents\Shared Documents 

Station 2 could simply type in (or browse for) the address of: 
\\Station 1\My Documents\ Shared Documents

Browsing the network

This is easy from most applications where you select Neighborhood from the "Look In" field (found at the top of the File Open dialog box). 
Then select the computer, the drive and the folder(s) as needed. From there, select the desired file and click [Open].
If you want to see what you are doing and perhaps this is a good way to go until you get the feel for these things, use the Windows Explorer to look for a file on the network. Notice you can see the actual URL in the Address bar.

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