Working with Network Drives

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Script access to network shares and mapped drives is limited by the Windows account used to launched Robo-FTP.

Accessing Network Resources from Service Scripts

When Robo-FTP runs as a Windows service it uses the built-in Local System account by default. This account does not have access to the network. A Robo-FTP service may be configured to use an Active Directory account that has network permissions, but it should use UNC paths rather than mapped drives to access network resources.

Accessing Network Resources from Windows Scheduled Tasks

When Robo-FTP is launched by a Scheduled Task network access is controlled by the user account specified in the Task configuration. Like services, scheduled tasks that are not configured with the option "run only when user is logged on" should use UNC paths to access network resources.

DOSCMD and Mapped Drives

There are some cases where referencing a letter drive is preferable to a UNC path. For example, if you are using the DOSCMD command to run certain shell commands then you might need to map a letter drive because some DOS commands do not work with UNC paths. To map a letter drive, use the EXEC script command to run the Windows 'net' command. For example, to mount a network drive, say drive G, issue a command such as:

EXEC "net use G: \\server\path"

If you need to submit a user name and password to connect to the network share, the command might look something like this:

EXEC "net use G: \\server\path mypassword /user:mydomain\myusername"

Microsoft recommends using a UNC path instead of a mapped drive to access network files from a service. See: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ms685143(v=vs.85).aspx.

Therefore, if DOSCMD seems like a good solution to an automation challenge involving a network resource you should consider Microsoft's warnings and any potential workarounds before deciding to map a drive in a Robo-FTP service script.

Network Problems running an Existing Script on a Different Computer

Windows account permissions are usually to blame if your Robo-FTP command script is not able to access a network share when run from another machine. To troubleshoot this problem, log in to the new computer and verify that you are actually able to browse to the desired network resource using the Windows Explorer. If you are able to access the share via its UNC path it is likely that Robo-FTP is being launched by an account with insufficient permissions to access that share.

Related command(s): EXEC