Working with files

Overview

These instructions are taken from the CSLab Support pages: http://www.cs.toronto.edu/support/. Material from several pages has been merged here to describe how to access files from outside the department. This page focuses on Windows instructions. If you have any problems mail dcshelp =AT= cs =dot= toronto =dot= edu (make the appropriate substitutions in the address).

1. Copying files to your home PC

Occasionally you may want or need to bring files from work to home (or wherever) to work on them. One tried and true method is to copy them onto a floppy disk (or USB storage device) and carry the media with you, but sometimes you forget. If all the files are in one directory (a.k.a. folder) at work you can use the ssh tools from PuTTY or another ssh package (see http://www.cs.toronto.edu/support/remote/SSH/index.html) to get them. Suppose your cslab username is "foobar" and you put all the files in the folder "TakeMeHome" in your home directory, but didn't copy them to your floppy. At a command prompt at home you could type:


 pscp.exe -r foobar@cs.toronto.edu:TakeMeHome "%USERPROFILE%\My Documents"

The whole folder will appear in your "My Documents" folder. You can get files from other users too, if you put the full unix path after the colon in the command. Suppose the user "someone" told you "I've set the file permissions on "File4U.txt" in my home directory so you can read it." You would get the file with the command:


 pscp.exe foobar@cs.toronto.edu:/u/someone/File4U.txt "%USERPROFILE%\My Documents"

Note the '-r' flag has been left out because it is a file, not a folder. The file appears in your "My Documents" folder.

If you made changes to the files you need to copy them back to work. You can take them back by floppy (or USB), or issue the secure copy command copying the file(s) back:


 pscp.exe  "%USERPROFILE%\My Documents\ChangedFile.doc"  foobar@cs.toronto.edu:

Note, the characters in the commands are important. Don't forget options (eg. -r ) or the colon (':') after 'cs.toronto.edu'.

2. Graphical "Real Time" File Browsing

The above method is all well and good if you know the name of the file, or if everything is in one folder, but often you want a visual way to manipulate files, a GUI or Graphical User Interface. I mean of course, the "clicky-draggy" way you do at work. When you work this way you work with the real files, not copies. This of course means you don't need to remember to copy the files back. And if the files you use are shared it's better this way, there's less chance of two people trying to change the same file.

This type of access is restricted to computers that are known to the department. There are too many nasty machines out there that might attempt to break in, so the resources are protected by a firewall. To get past the firewall you need a connetion to the VPN.

The CSLab VPN (Virtual Private Network) is the recommended way for general access to CSLab resources when off-campus. It provides direct access to the whole range of CSLab resources. In other words, your remote (home) machine is treated as if it was on campus. Moreover, Windows, Mac OS X and Linux come with free native VPN-clients that are interoperable with the CSLab VPN, so you don't need to install any extra software.

In order to use the CSLab VPN, however, you must first contact software@cs.toronto and request that a VPN account be created. Note that your VPN password will not be the same as your cslab account password, and cslab will provide you with it.

Setting Up Your VPN Connection

Note that you might need administrator access to your machine when you set up the VPN connection, depending on if your account is a regular or limited user. You only need to do this once. When you start the "Make new connection" wizard you probably only need this information:

Type of connection: VPN
IMAP Server: chunnel.cs.toronto.edu
Name the connection: CSLab

The default connection properties aren't completely perfect, but they'll usually work. There are more detailed instructions if you have problems. Choose the appropriate OS:

Using Your VPN Connection

Once it is set up you should be able to run it from a regular user account. It is highly recommended that you work as a regular user whenever possible, even when you are the only user of that machine, it will protect you the same way the snap on lid of a travel coffee mug protects you from accidents. (I also highly recommend lids on coffee mugs used near computer equipment, and I have spent more time than I care to admit cleaning up after failing to heed my own advice ).

If using Windows XP, select Start | Connect To > CSLab
In Windows 2000 use Start | Dialup and Network settings | CSlab
Enter the username and password provided by cslab and select "Connect". You should see status windows saying "Connecting..." , "Verifying..." , "Registering." followed by an icon appearing in the notification tray, (the area of the task bar near the clock, by default it's in the bottom right corner).

Accessing your files graphically

Now that you have connected using the VPN, you are past the firewall and can set up access to the files in your home directory. This is called "mapping a drive". To do this in Windows, there are two ways to go about it, using the graphical user interface or at a command prompt. Both do the same thing, use whichever is easier for you.

Mapping a drive using Explorer

These sceenshots are from Windows XP. 2000 is very similar, the only difference being "My Computer" is on the desktop

Go to My Computer by clicking on Start > My Computer .
From within My Computer on the top toolbar select Tools and from the drop down menu select Map Network Drive .

Select a drive name for this mount point. In this example: it is Z You don't need to choose Z:, within the department we use H: by convention, since it's referred to as your Home directory.
In the Folder: field, enter \\smb.cs.toronto.edu\your_username. In the screenshot the computername is "127.0.0.1", the username is jessetst.
On Windows 2000 and XP you have the option to connect using a different username. Select "different user name" and fill in your cslab account and password. If your version of Windows does not let you use a different username, you cannot connect. (Note, this is your "real" password, not the VPN one.)
There are a couple of common problems:
- Just use the first eight characters of your password. Windows supports longer length passwords than cslab's unix systems, so characters that are ignored by a unix login have an influence here.
- If you have not changed your password in several years the 'passwd' command will not have recorded your password in the current way. If this is the case just run 'passwd' and use your current password as both the old and new.
  ( Note that another change is that the command now checks passwords against a more stringent dictionary than it once did. If so, you will have to choose a new password that is not in the dictionary. )
Click the Finish button.
When Samba is mounted you will see a drive Z: in My Computer under Network Drives

Mapping a drive from the Command Prompt

Start | Run | command will produce a command prompt. Type:

net use H: \\smb.cs.toronto.edu\{username} /user:{username}

Where "{username}" represents your own username, and "H:" is the drive letter you want to assign to this mapping. After you press return, you will be prompted for your cslab password. (Note, this is your "real" password, not the VPN one.)

There are a couple of common problems:

Just use the first eight characters of your password. Windows supports longer length passwords than cslab's unix systems, so characters that are ignored by a unix login have an influence here.
If you have not changed your password in several years the 'passwd' command will not have recorded your password in the current way. If this is the case just run 'passwd' and use your current password as both the old and new.
( Note that another change is that the command now checks passwords against a more stringent dictionary than it once did. If so, you will have to choose a new password that is not in the dictionary. )

For example if John Doe wanted to use "W" (to stand for for "Work") he would type: net use W: \\smb.cs.toronto.edu\jdoe /user:jdoe

SMB mounting other directories from a Windows machine

There may be other network shares that you're permitted to map. Just substitute the name of the resource for your username. For example, if you had access to the recruiting share use \\smb.cs.toronto.edu\recruiting . The resources you use at work, eg Grad Office or Undergraduate shares can be used. The names of the shares are not published. You can tell what they're called by looking when connected at work, or send me email.

Unmount Samba and close secure Connection

When done right click on your network drive. From the drop down menu select Disconnect
Right click the CSLab VPN status icon in your notification tray. Select Disconnect