Files can be accessed over the network by using SMB or Windows File Sharing. We can also mount SMB or Windows File Sharing like a partition by giving a drive letter.

Create Share

We will start by creating a Windows share. We will click to the Properties from file options like below.

We will open Sharing tab like below. Then we will click to the Advenced Sharing button which is shown below.

This will open the Advanced Sharing window. We will enable by ticking Share this folder and then click Apply. We can see that we will set the Share name as BACKUP.

Map Share To A Drive  Letter

We will map existing share with the following steps. The shares can be named as Windows Share or SMB . We will open Computer from start or with the Windows+E key combination.

Then we will see the following window. We will set the drive letter which is Z:  in this case. Then we will provide the Folder: which provides the share path. The share path will containt the IP address or Host name with the path. In this case IP address is 192.168.142.149 and BACKUP is the path or folder to be mounted.

Persistent Share Map

We can make the network map persistent by ticking Reconnect at logon which will connect after a reboot.

Different Username and Password or Credentials

If we want to use different credential from the current user by ticking Connect using different credentials

Share Location

After the share is mounted to the given drive letter the share will be opened automatically. We will see following windows after automatic open.

We can see the share location like IP address and drive letter is provided to the location bar of the file manager.

Network Location

If we want to access the share later we can use Computer we will see the new drive letter Z:. The shared drive is listed below Network Location part of theComputer`.