Overview

The Server Message Block (SMB) communication protocol (often referred to as Samba or CIFS) is a method used to access files located on network servers using a familiar folder ('Explorer window') interface on Windows, and other operating systems. This method allows interacting with files located on the fileserver in the same way that local files behave.

IT Services provide the filestore service. The service is accessed using your university username and password and is available on campus or via the VPN. This same protocol is used on Managed PCs to give access to your network files, such as your M:\ drive.

Availability

Access to Teaching Labs data is provided via the 'chemistry\services' filestore and is only available to:

• Chemistry Staff

• Chemistry Postgraduates

• Final year project students (BSc and MChem) undertaking projects in York

Access is not possible for students in other year groups. Postgraduate researchers and staff from other departments may apply for access to the 'chemistry\services' filestore by contacting IT Support and indicating 'FAO Chemistry' in the email.

Server details

To access Teaching Labs data, you should add the chemistry services drive by mounting:

\\storage.its.york.ac.uk\chemistry\services

Once this is mounted, Teaching Labs data is located in the 'tl' folder.

All data on the server is provided as read-only. Many processing packages will require data to be writable in order to carry out analysis, so a local copy of the relevant data may need to be created.

Instructions

Guides to accessing filestores are available from IT Services: https://www.york.ac.uk/it-services/tools/filestore/#connect