macOS doesn’t get in the way to make almost everything easy. Almost every aspect of the desktop is almost as user-friendly. This is also true if you connect your device to a network share on your LAN.
What is a network share?
Simply put, it’s a folder that resides on a machine in your local network that can be accessed by other machines.
The mechanism is as follows. Olivia runs on Machine A and has a folder called Public that is shared over the network. Public folders are configured to allow a special account (named guest) to access the folder. Anyone on the LAN (who has guest account credentials) can access the contents of that folder. Depending on how Olivia configured access, these users may have read access only or full read / write access.
How do you connect to a network share?
That’s what I’m trying to show you, and I’m going to demonstrate it from an M1-based MacBook Pro to macOS Monterey.
Once upon a time (back to macOS v10 and earlier) I used to be able to see all the machines on my network, but that feature is no longer there. Instead, you’ll need to manually connect to each server from within the Finder. That’s what we’re trying to do now.
To make this work, you need four things:
- Shared directory on the network
- IP address of the computer hosting the shared directory
- User accounts that can access the share (unless the share is configured for anonymous access)
- A device running macOS.
Let’s make this connection.
Connect macOS to a network share
1. Open Finder
The first step is to log in to your device and open the Finder (macOS File Manager). Finder open (Figure 1),[移動]Click the menu entry.
MacOS file management named Finder is very easy to use. Image: Jack Warren
2.[サーバーに接続]Opens a window
From the Go menu (Figure 2),[サーバーに接続]Click.
Using the Command + k keyboard shortcut[サーバーへの接続]You can also open a window.
3. Connect to the server
Top text field (Figure 3), Enter the server address in the format smb: // SERVER (where SERVER is the IP address of the server hosting the share).For example, if the host IP address is 192.168.1.62, enter: smb: //192.168.1.62..
Connect to the server on the LAN from within the Finder. Image: JackWallen
[接続]Click to open a new window confirming that you are connecting to the server (Figure 4).
First, you need to make sure that you actually connect to the remote server. Image: Jack Warren
[接続]Click and you will be prompted to enter the shared credentials (Figure 5).
Network shared credential window. Image: Jack Warren
[登録ユーザー]Click and enter the username and password of the user associated with the share,[接続]Click.
If the server has multiple shared directories, you will be prompted to select the directory you want to use (Figure 6).
There are 5 shared directories on the server. Image: Jack Warren
If the authentication is successful, the Finder will open with the contents of the shared directory and you can start working with the file.
And that’s all you need to connect to a network share from macOS. Enjoy all the great access to these directories on your LAN.
Watch the video here: How to connect macOS to a shared folder on the network
