Access via network browsing

Last revision November 30, 2007

You can "browse" the network to locate the pangea server and see what shares (directories) are available, and then double click on the desired share to open it. Pangea directories accessed this way are only visible in the network browser window (not in My Computer). This method is suitable for occasional use. Also, browsing is limited to the local network and so will work only if your computer is connected to the Earth Sciences network (Geology Corner, Mitchell, or Green Earth Sciences Buildings).

Sometimes, you will find that your Windows PC cannot see pangea or any other computers via network browsing. This can happen to PCs that are not part of the campus-wide Windows domain due to the interaction between a poor design decision by Microsoft and improper configuration of personal firewalls. If this happens to you, try changing the Windows network "location" of your computer to a different workgroup. Right-click on My Computer and select Properties. Then open the Network Name tab, where you will can switch to a different workgroup name.

To find your pangea directory, open the network browser, which is called My Network Places in Windows 2000 or XP and Network Neighborhood in older versions. Within that window, open Entire Network and Microsoft Windows Network as needed. You should see a list of workgroups; open the one called Earth_Sciences. Inside you should see pangea, and possibly one or two other machines. Double-click pangea to connect.

At this point you must authenticate yourself before you will be granted access. For Windows NT, 2000, or XP PCs that are not part of the campus-wide Windows domain, the simplest way to authenticate is to setup your normal user account on your Windows PC so that the account name and password match the one you use on pangea, and use the Windows login box to enter those when you start your computer. Then, Windows can automatically provide your account name and password to pangea. If your PC is part of the campus-wide Windows domain, then you must login to the PC with your SUNet ID and password, and those will only work automatically on pangea if they exactly match your pangea account name and local password. However, for security reasons, your pangea local password should not match your SUNet ID password.

If your Windows PC account name or password do not match your pangea account name and local password, then you will be prompted to enter them.

There are often problems getting authenticated if you rely upon the prompting mechanism. It is best to create your Windows login account with an account name and password that are both identical to those you use on pangea. If you cannot make both identical, then you should use a different name for your Windows account. Using the same account name but different passwords on Windows and pangea seems to cause the most problems.

 

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