Introduction Just what is meant by "SJC Network file storage"?

Saint Joseph's College has several computer labs, and we allow students to have access to our network from their dorm rooms.  One question that might immediately come to mind would be "Can I work on files from my dorm room and then go to the computer lab and work on those same files?"  The answer is "Yes."  There are several ways to do this.

The standard way this is done at Saint Joseph's College is through the campus computer network, the SJC Network, using the Microsoft Networking Client and Samba (note 1). To use this method, however, you must install the Microsoft Networking Client on your machine (computer). Or, if you are a student here, you may bring your machine to the Computer Center and we'll install the client for you for free (or, rather, as part of your tuition and fees).

Once the appropriate software has been installed on your machine, then your machine will be able to communicate across the SJC Network, and you may access the network file storage facilities by logging into your machine with a username/password pair that are provided to you by the Academic Computer Center staff (note 2).

Once logged in, you will have access to the network file storage facilities via an "N:" drive (which is known as your SJC Network drive).  This N: drive will be the same (for you) no matter which machine you are logged into on campus, be it in your dorm room, in one of our computer labs or in a friend's dorm room.  When you save a file to this N: drive, the file is actually sent across the SJC Network and stored on one of our file servers. So, if you want to work on a Core assignment from your dorm room, you can simply save a copy of the assignment to your computer's N: drive.   Then, when you visit one of our computer labs and log into a machine there, you will have access to that same assignment through the N: drive on that machine.

Taken as a whole, the network file storage concept is pretty simple. You simply authenticate yourself as a user by logging into a machine, and then you have access to all of the files that you've stored in your SJC Network drive.