Access Mentor Home & Shared Folders on macOS

This guide offers instructions for accessing home and shared folders on Mentor from a Macintosh computer on the campus network.

Ithaca College provides network file sharing on the Mentor server for all faculty members, all staff members, and some students through Microsoft Active Directory accounts. The Mentor "Home" folder is for personal files related to College business, while the Mentor "Shared" folder is typically used for storing files that are shared by a department.

Audience

This article is intended for faculty and staff.

Platform

Apple macOS

Requirements

You may access the Mentor file server using a college-owned computer connected to either the wired or secure wireless network, or a personal computer connected to the secure wireless network. Mentor cannot be accessed from the IthacaCollege-Guest network or from off campus unless you are using GlobalConnect, the college's VPN software.

Accessing Your Home and Shared Folders

Home Folder

College-owned Computers with a Direct Network Connection

1. Hover over the icons on the right end of the dock until you see a folder with your username floating above it. This is your home folder.
2. Click on your home folder to open it. If you prefer to open your home folder in a Finder window, hold down the Command Key as you click on your home folder. You may now open, move, copy, upload, or download files and folders in your Home folder as you wish.

College-owned Computers with a Wireless Network Connection

1. Open Finder, click Go, and then click Connect to Server.
2. In the Server Address textbox, enter smb://mentor.campus.ithaca.lan.
3. Click the  plus button to the right of the Server Address field to save your choice as a favorite server. The Server Address field will be populated automatically with this address for subsequent log ins.
4. Click Connect.
5. Select Registered User.
6. In the Name textbox, enter campus\username, where username is your Netpass username. In the Password textbox, enter your Netpass password. Do not check the "Remember this password in my keychain" checkbox.
7. Click Connect.
8. At the prompt that asks you which volumes to mount on Mentor, select the volume Home and click OK. The home folder (volume) will appear in a Finder window. You may now open, move, copy, upload, or download files and folders in your home folder as you wish.

Shared Folder(s)

Your shared folder(s) are accessible to the group of users with whom you need to collaborate and share files, such as members of your department, your research team, or your project group. The amount of disk space provided for shared folders varies by each group’s needs. Follow these steps to access your shared folder(s):

1. Once you are logged into the Mac, open Finder, click Go, then click Connect to Server.
2. In the Server Address textbox, enter smb://mentor.campus.ithaca.lan.
3. Click the  plus button to the right of the Server Address field to save your choice as a favorite server. The Server Address field will be populated automatically with this address for subsequent log ins.
4. Click Connect.
5. Select Registered User.
6. In the Name textbox, enter campus\username, where “username” is your Netpass username. In the Password textbox, enter your Netpass password. Do not check the "Remember this password in my keychain" checkbox.
7. Click Connect.
8. At the prompt that asks you which volumes to mount on Mentor, select the Shared shared volume, the Academic shared volume, or another shared volume and click OK. The shared folder (volume) will appear in a Finder window. You may now open, move, copy, upload, or download files and folders in your Shared folder as you wish.
9. Repeat this procedure to access other shared folders if you have shared folders on multiple volumes (e.g., you use both Shared and Academic).

Creating Aliases to Shared Folders

IT recommends that you create aliases to your shared folder(s) on your desktop to make it easy to access them, as follows:

1. Open Finder and click Preferences.
2. Click the General icon.
3. Under Show these items on the desktop, check Connected servers.
4. Click the new icon for the Shared or Academic volume that appears on your desktop.
5. Press the Command key and the Option key simultaneously, select a folder inside the shared folder section and drag it to your desktop. An alias to that folder will appear on your desktop.
6. Repeat this procedure to create aliases for additional shared folders. You will now be able to double-click the alias to your shared folder(s) on the Mentor file server whenever you want to open, upload, or download files.

Log Off

If you are on a computer that is in a public area or is shared by multiple users, it is important to log off when you have completed your work session to ensure the safety of your data.

1. From the Finder (under the Apple icon in the top left corner of your desktop), click Log Out username…, where “username” is the Netpass username for the account that is currently logged into the computer.
2. Click Log Out.