We are running into a little problem here where we have a LAN where we have to have immediate access to 25 computers but we are running out of letters of the alphabet! We are even using drive "B" to map to other computers (which looks pretty ugly).

Anyone have any ideas?

Should I just map a few of them and set up batch commands (mapit.exe) to map the others on a need by need basis?

Anyone have any ideas?

Yeah -- stop using drive letters. Unless you're using particularly broken apps, UNC paths (\\server\share\whatever) will work perfectly.

Of course, this doesn't play nice with your "immediate" criterion. How immediate do these things really need to be?

Is there any way to map them without drive letters so that they appear in Explorer?

I mapped a few using \\139.85.XXX.XXX\Share and selected "None" for the drive letter and they aren't showing up in either Explorer or Netword Neighborhood (only the ones at my building show up in Network Neighborhood - we have 3 buildings).

If you map to a share and specify no drive letter, you are authenticated to the server, but not much else.

As Roger said, use UNC paths. Only older software (and some InstallShield setups) needs a drive letter.

You can only see the machines in your building because I'm guessing you are on different subnets and you are not using any WINS resolution.

If you need a drive letter (for running a program you are out of luck

If you need a shortcut to a share on another computer then create a shortcut. Try the following:
1) Make a shortcut to a file on your local harddrive
2) Edit the properties of the created shortcut, and replace the filename with \\ip-adr\share
3) rename the shortcut to whatever you want

Best regards

Ole

This dude has a pretty good idea. I'm not sure how crazy you want to get, but this will probably do the trick for you.

Wow, you guys rock! For the quick fix, I simply unmapped all drives that are on the local subnet (this freed up quite a few letters). I just go to Network Neighborhood if the computer is local (which is easy to determine) and go to My Computer for anything at the other 2 buildings. It is kinda fugly though, so I'm going to look into some of your recommendations.

Why not just create shortcuts to the ones that don't show up in network neighborhood?

Mapping drives is so five-years-ago.

But most of this network is so 10 years ago, so I guess we are ahead of the pack here!

Mapping is working great! (I'm slowly turning into the local admin here - which is frightening!)

I'm slowly turning into the local admin here - which is frightening!

Hey, don't knock it. That's how I got where I am today. The network administration evolved around me because I was the only one in the company willing to mess with it. Now I pull down a decent salary in a steady job, which is saying a lot in the current state of the economy.