Mapping remote drives

[visionthing]

I'm dealing with 2 small offices connected with a fractional T-1. Both offices have seperate networks and neither have a DNS server. Without adding a HOSTS file, I'm guessing that I have to map shares via the servers ip address. If I map
\\ipaddress\sharename and all the permissions are in place will this work? With no DNS, will it map to the "sharename" portion of this mapping? Also, before mapping the share, is it neccessary to ping the servers address first in order to make the map work?

Thanks

 

[alliknowisnetworking]

Yes and no. Those computers in those offices probably have private IP addresses which are not routable, in that case you cant map drives cross sites. Inner site yes, you could map drives, granted you guys are on the same subnet, and on the same network.

As far as cross site you cant map a drive like you were suggesting.

"Users are like Prostitutes,..They need guidance"-Myself
A+,Network+,MCP+2000

 

[JimWells]

When you say "fractional T-1 at both offices" - do you mean that both have T-1 connections to the internet, or is there some sort of private WAN link between them?

 

[visionthing]

Yes, both offices have private IP addresses, but this fractional T-1 (756K vs. a full T-1 @ 1.544Mbps) is a dedicated line between ONLY these 2 sites and does not go out to the internet. So as you say Jim, this is a private WAN link. Since it's a dedicated line, these private IP's are routable and they ARE being routed right now (ie: from a computer in site A with ip address 192.168.x.x, I can ping a computer at site B with ip address 172.16.x.x. I can also ping from site B to site A. So, I'm wondering if I can just map drives as I stated above.

Thanks

 

[JimWells]

You should have no problems mapping the drives using just the IP address. Makes no difference to the server or client, with your setup.

 

[alliknowisnetworking]

Well then visionthing in your first post you never said they were on a private wan link, even though 192.168.x.x is not a routable address. you have a public WAN address actually being routed.

"Users are like Prostitutes,..They need guidance"-Myself
A+,Network+,MCP+2000

 

[anthonymel]

So whats happening here is that he has a private WAN between sites without DNS. So his routers at both sites have their external addresses on the same network and their local addresses on a different networks. Rip is enabled in the routers to pass packets from the 192.168.x.x network to the 172.16.x.x network. Through the router's address table.

If he had a DNS server at either site he wouldn't need to use the ip address to map drives right? He could just use \\computername.domain.com right?

Also lets say he did have a DNS server and he wasn't on a private lan could he still contact computers on either network over the Internet?

Could there be a third router on this network to allow for Internet access? You know on the same network as the other routers.

Thanks,
Anthony

 

[visionthing]

alliknowisnetworking- my apologies, I assumed in my opening statement that "I'm dealing with 2 small offices connected with a fractional T-1", that I was clear in that the link wasn't going out to the cloud. I should've been clearer. But I'm a little confused in your remark: "even though 192.168.x.x is not a routable address". It is a routable address, just not in the public domain, right? I was also wondering if you could clear up what you mentioned here: "you have a public WAN address actually being routed"? Because I don't have any public address on either WAN interface. Private addresses are routed all of the time in the internal network and with a dedicated leased line, it's totally permitted to route private addresses of disparate networks, right?

anthonymel- yes, there is a 3rd router at both locations that give access to the internet and they are on the same network as the other router(s). I just had to add a route statement on the internet router(s) to direct traffic to the dedicated router(s) to get to the remote site(s).

I just don't work with mapping network shares and had a question regarding the "how to's", which JimWells answered for me.

Thanks much for all of your comments

 

[anthonymel]

So you have two WAN connections at each site. One that's private and the other thats connected and open to the net. Which router or gateway is your default on each network. The Internet routers?

Also, 192.168.x.x is a routable address locally but not on the net because no public ip address range begins with 192.168.x.x so your packets will go no where. However if there is a presence of a local 192.168.x.x it will route them properly.

 

[visionthing]

anthonymel- Yes, there are 2 WAN connection. The route statement that I've added in the Internet router(s) will direct any traffic destined for the private WAN connection to that router.

Correct re: the 2nd half of your statement as well.

Thanks for the posts