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Siteshare User Guide for Webserve Accounts

Table of Contents

What is a Siteshare?

Siteshare provides an alternate method of accessing your Webserve account by permitting you to map a network drive to the account. When you map a drive to your account, it will make it appear as if the account was stored locally on your computer. This permits you to drag & drop files between your computer and your account and to work with files in the same manner you do with other files on your computer. As with any method of accessing your Webserve account, if you are not on the IU Network you will need to establish a VPN connection before using Siteshare.

Authenticate Using Your Personal Network Username/Passphrase

Siteshare provides account owners with a way to grant access to their Webserve account without having to share the network passphrase for that account. This is because Siteshare requires authentication using a personal IU network username and passphrase. The owner controls which personal usernames are granted access to the account (more information on that can be found below). You cannot authenticate to Siteshare using a group/departmental username.

By using Siteshare, it also provides owners with a way to grant access to the web account without granting access to other accounts in that username (such as the departmental email account). Siteshare, however, does not provide command line access for a Webserve account. Future plans include providing a method that would allow personal authentication for command line access but that is not available at this time.

Default Siteshare Setup

All Webserve accounts are automatically setup to use Siteshare. The initial setup of Siteshare grants access only to the owner's personal username. The owner of the account can manage their accounts ("shares") through a web interface (see section below for details). If desired, the owner may select one or more "proxies" who can manage access to the "shares" on the owner's behalf.

Adding/Updating Siteshare Authorization

While the default setup is to grant Siteshare access to only the owner's personal IU network username, if desired the owner may designate one or more individuals to act on the owner's behalf ("proxies") who will then be able to add or remove Siteshare access to others ("Authorized Users"). Both owners and proxies may grant access to authorized users. In all cases, only personal IU network usernames can be used with Siteshare.

To access the links below, authenticate using your personal IU Network ID and passphrase.

Owners/Proxies wishing to add or remove authorization for others, go to:

Siteshare Authorization Maintenance

To obtain a read-only view to see which shares list you as an authorized user, go to:

Siteshare Authorization Lookup

If you need assistance in accessing or using the above links, please contact IU Webmaster.

Connecting to Siteshare

When mapping a drive to your Webserve account, it is recommended that you do not select "Reconnect at logon". Please note that the Siteshare server is restarted every morning at 5am. As when connecting to Webserve, a VPN connection is required when using a non-IU network connection.

Windows: Windows XP or later recommended.

  1. Locate "Map Network Drive" (For detailed instructions, see: http://kb.iu.edu/data/adyv.html)
  2. In the "Folder" field enter: 
    \\siteshare\account_name
    Replace account_name with the name of your Webserve account. If prompted for a username/password, enter your personal IU network username/passphrase to authenticate. In some cases, you may have to enter your username as ads\username.
Mac OS X: Mac OS X 10.3.8 (Panther) and later required. When using Mac OS X 10.5.x (Leopard), a workaround solution must be implemented instead. See: Siteshare for Mac OS X .
  1. In the Finder, from the Go menu, select Connect to Server....
  2. In the Connect to Server window, in the Address: field type: 
    smb://siteshare.uits.indiana.edu/account_name
    Replace account_name with the name of your Webserve account. When prompted to authenticate, for "Workgroup/Domain" enter ADS and for username/password type your personal IU network ID and passphrase.

Note: When connected to your share, your computer may display a figure indicating the amount of free space available. This is not the amount of disk space you are currently using on Webserve nor is it the amount you have available to you on Webserve. If you need assistance in determining your current disk usage please contact IU Webmaster with the name of the account.

Troubleshooting Connection Issues

  • Just as when connecting to Webserve, a VPN connection is required when mapping a drive using Siteshare. For assistance on setting up a VPN connection, see: The basics of VPN at IU

  • The Windows Authentication Update Tool (a one-time update for Windows 2000 and Windows XP) may be required in order to access Siteshare.

  • Faculty and staff members using university-owned computers who are unable to map a drive to Siteshare may obtain assistance from their local support provider. For more information, see: At IU, what is a local support provider?