Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

Question

Mapped network drive not accessible from all PCs

Sep 13, 2017 8:24AM PDT

Hello all,

First, let me start of by saying I am not an IT pro or network admin - I know enough about the basics so I'll give it a shot Happy

I was asked by my company to provide a local backup solution as we have no backup.

Our company has a single router and a single switch - all the computers connect to the switch and the switch to the router.

As we are on a very tight budget, I thought the cheapest solution would be to connect an external hard drive to the router and map that across the network - then do a full backup, followed by incremental backups.

The problem is, our router is not detecting the drive. I contacted our ISP, who advised this is the way the routers are configured - they cannot enable usb sharing for security reasons Sad

So, as an alternative, I thought I would connect the drive to my computer, and leave it powered on so I can share the drive across the network - which I have done to some success.

Now here is where the problem lies - my computer (and 3 others) are connected to "Network 1" - I can share the drive with these computers with no problems. However other computers are connected to "Network 2" and won't detect the drive as I am on a different network.

As I mentioned, we are connected to a single switch and a single router (as far as I can see)

So, how would I go about making the drive available over the entire network?

Once again, I'm not a pro so any help would be most appreciated

Thank you in advance!
Keith
IT pro in learning Happy

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Answer
You shared why it won't work.
Sep 13, 2017 8:41AM PDT

Network shares don't work across networks. Now some will disagree and talk about routing and there's the rub. You are not in control of the network to the point you can do this so we are back to nope.

The cheapest fix is to put a second drive on a PC on Network 2. You wrote tight budget, not no budget.

- Collapse -
Reply
Sep 13, 2017 8:44AM PDT

Ok, so basically the only way around is to have a dedicated machine plugged into the switch, kinda like a server? (excuse my ignorance Silly)

- Collapse -
Reply 2
Sep 13, 2017 8:47AM PDT

Also, if you don't mind me asking, do you know why the network is split into 2 smaller networks when we only have one switch and router? (unless there is another switch / router hidden somewhere)

Thank you for your help!