Difference between...

... a mapped drive and a shortcut of that folder?
I am asking in terms of the speed and efficiency.
E.g. I have a folder on a server and I want access to it everyday. So I map that folder on my computer. Now the same folder is being used by 5 other people iin the company and they map it on their computers. Since that folder is mapped, does it create traffic congestion? What will happen if that folder has a shortcut on their computers?
I think the mapped drives send out ping requests or send signal to the actual folder on the server to check the connection whereas the shortcut for that folder does not, is that correct?

Any ideas?

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Comments

ssampier

A mapped drive maps a UNC path to a drive letter (H, S, U, X, etc). A shortcut is simply the UNC path to the same resource.

I haven't done any tests but I doubt performance would be much different. It's just more convenient to tell a user "Save it in your H drive" than \\home\user\frank.

It will create traffic congestion if those users are actively using it to download and upload files, especially large files like videos and music.

Any decent computer should be able to handle 5 users, but that depends on the NIC speeds, switches, and the server hardware itself.

it_consultant

With mapped drives you can change the disconnect period. You will notice in Windows 7 networked drives that haven't been used in a while get a red X through them. You can still use them, but they have to reconnect first, which is transparent to the user.

There are loads of reasons to use mapped drives instead of share folders, principally if you need to change a share you can make a couple of quick mods to your login script and no one will be the wiser. If you have shortcut folders you need to change all of those in your domain, which could be a nightmare.

One of the worst things about mapped drives is that computers that come with internal camera card readers will often swipe the drive letters you use, instead of drive X being \\servername\sharename its "MicroSD blah blah".

dales

Yes I dont think that a shortcut will validate its direction until it has been clicked but TBH there would be absolutely no performance hit on the servers with mapped drives. All that will happen is that when drives are mapped (either by login script or other means) server will say are you allowed to have a look at this, check AD or local authentication and then create the mapping or not. Shortcuts however would require a great deal of administration (have to be copied from profile to profile, comp to comp)I dont fancy that much!.

ssampier

it_consultant wrote: »

....

One of the worst things about mapped drives is that computers that come with internal camera card readers will often swipe the drive letters you use, instead of drive X being \\servername\sharename its "MicroSD blah blah".

My gosh that sure is a pain. I experienced with people with USB thumbdrive. Users Novell H drive was frequently pre-empted by the thumbdrive. When I started the move to AD, I decided to make the H drive the U drive to help combat this.

In experience does the cards grab any random drive letter or is it whatever drive letter is after the physical ones (C: hard drive,

dvd)?

dadaji

Does anyone know of an article where I can find the differences of both so that I can show it to my manager? If you do can you put up a link?

Thank you all for your responses.

brad-

I would guess they are the same performance wise with the exception of loading the startup/desktop on the client...even then still negligible im sure.

Mojo_666

The technical reason are irrelevant and the reality is you will not see a system performance benefit of either.

The reality is as sys admins we keep it simple and as a rule map all users to the same “common” share. 1 rule, 1 script 1, policy….simplezz
Shortcuts empower the user to make things a little more personal and suited to their needs, as sys admins we do not need to manage this for them, it is very basic stuff. If they feel that they need a shortcut then good for them, we just grant them the ability to create them.

All the benefits of what you choose comes down to 2 things and 2 things only.

[FONT=&quot]Administrative Overhead
User Experience[/FONT]