Connecting to my Windows work network from my Mac at home

[ghayes13]

I used to connect to my office network using a VPN connection, but that's no longer available and my IT people don't support Macs. Cretins. Most of my work is saved in a shared folder on our network and NOT on my PC.

I know how to connect to the PC directly, but I'm not comfortable leaving my PC up and running while I'm not in the office. I've received instructions on how to remotely connect to the share from a PC, but I can't figure out how to translate those instructions into Macspeak. Can anyone help?

 

[Plusbits]

I used to connect to my office network using a VPN connection, but that's no longer available and my IT people don't support Macs. Cretins. Most of my work is saved in a shared folder on our network and NOT on my PC.

I know how to connect to the PC directly, but I'm not comfortable leaving my PC up and running while I'm not in the office. I've received instructions on how to remotely connect to the share from a PC, but I can't figure out how to translate those instructions into Macspeak. Can anyone help?

Hi
What were the instructions exactly? That may be a good starting point for translation, lol

 

[ghayes13]

Lol

Hi
What were the instructions exactly? That may be a good starting point for translation, lol

An excellent point, of course. The instructions were:

Email the share's desktop shortcut it to yourself or get the path (Right-click and go to properties) and recreate it on your home PC. However to get it to resolve by name you must add it to the C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (for XP) or
C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (for 2000). Open the file in Notepad and add the IP address ##.##.###.## with the alias. Then save the file back to that same directory.

 

[Plusbits]

An excellent point, of course. The instructions were:

Email the share's desktop shortcut it to yourself or get the path (Right-click and go to properties) and recreate it on your home PC. However to get it to resolve by name you must add it to the C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (for XP) or
C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\hosts (for 2000). Open the file in Notepad and add the IP address ##.##.###.## with the alias. Then save the file back to that same directory.

Ah, I regretably inform you that I have no idea how to translate that into Macspeak
I did, however, unearth this, this and this in particular if they are of any use to you at all
Sorry I can't be much more help, but I don't tend to deal with VPN's

 

[ghayes13]

Ah, I regretably inform you that I have no idea how to translate that into Macspeak
I did, however, unearth this, this and this in particular if they are of any use to you at all
Sorry I can't be much more help, but I don't tend to deal with VPN's

Actually, the problem is that I can no longer get to my office network via VPN. I would have to connect directly, over the internet. That's what these instructions were designed to do, I think.

 

[Plusbits]

Sorry, my mistake, lol
Unfortunately, I can't think of any way you can do this without both computers being on, sorry
Unless you can leave your Mac on at home and FTP whatever it is you need to it before you leave the office, then copy them back across using the PC again the next time you need them?
Sorry I can't be of any more help

 

[JNB]

the /etc/hosts file has to be changed, adding the IP and hostname that you were provided. Windows follows networking standards here, other than burying the hosts file so deep.

Other than opening a Terminal session and VI'ing the file, or view the system hidden files to edit directly in TextEdit, I don't have a simpler answer. Network Prefs doesn't allow editing of the hosts file, nor does MacPilot give access to it.