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Filer

Filer is a centralized file sharing service provided by ICIT to Hunter departments. Users access files stored in Filer via desktop computers on the Hunter network, and data is secured via the Hunter NetID. Each file share within Filer is restricted to people in the workgroup that is associated with that file share (see Workgroup Organizer for information on workgroups at Hunter).

On This Page:

  • Accessing Filer
  • File Share Management
  • Filer FAQs

Accessing Filer

In order to get a file share within Filer:

  • You must have a Hunter NetID.
  • You must have Hunter staff or faculty affiliation.
  • The data must be for a departmental purpose, not for personal use.
  • The data to be stored will fit comfortably within a 10 GB storage limit.

If you and your prospective data meet those requirements, you can request a file share via Workgroup Organizer.

Log into Workgroup Organizer

If your department or colleague already has a file share within Filer, contact a person holding the "staffer" role for that workgroup and request to be added to the workgroup associated with that share. Anyone already in that workgroup can find out who the staffers are in Workgroup Organizer. If your department or colleague doesn't know how to find the staffers for a workgroup, refer them to Viewing Memberships within the Workgroup Organizer documentation.

Before attempting to access a file share within Filer, you need to register your NetID with NetID Central, if you haven't already. Once you've registered with NetID Central, your NetID will be enabled for the Filer service.

If you are in the workgroup associated with a Filer share, you can access that Filer share by typing in the following address in Windows Explorer:

  • \\filer.hunter.cuny.edu\share name (where "share name" is the short name of the workgroup)
  • e.g. for the Filer share associated with the "icit-dept" workgroup, you would visit \\filer.hunter.cuny.edu\icit-dept
  • you will access your Filer share with your Hunter NetID, prefixed with "HUNTER\" (without the quotes)
  • e.g. if your NetID were "az142", you would login as HUNTER\az142

You may want to save your password for the share, when prompted. If you save your password, you won't have to type it each time you access the file share. Remember, if you change your NetID password, you'll have to update the password you saved here to your new NetID password.

To make sure you can easily access the file share in the future, you should create a shortcut on your desktop:

  1. Right click an empty area on your desktop.
  2. Select New -> Shortcut from the menu.
  3. Type the location of the share, i.e. \\filer.hunter.cuny.edu\share name.
  4. Click the Next button.
  5. Enter your username (NetID), prefixed with HUNTER\ (e.g. HUNTER\az142 ).
  6. Enter your NetID password.
  7. Click the Finish button.

If you are in the workgroup associated with a Filer share, you can access that Filer share via Finder's menu Go -> Connect to server:

  1. In the "Server Address:" field, type in smb://filer.hunter.cuny.edu/share name (where "share name" is the short name of the workgroup, e.g. smb://filer.hunter.cuny.edu/icit-dept).
  2. Click on the Connect button.
  3. For the Connect as: field, select Registered User.
  4. For the Name: field, type in your NetID, prefixed with HUNTER\ (e.g. HUNTER\az142 ).
  5. For the Password: field, type in your NetID password.
  6. You may want to select "Remember this password in my keychain" if you don't want to be prompted for your NetID and password each time you connect.
  7. Click on the Connect button.

File Share Management

Each Filer share has a workgroup associated with it, managed by one or more staffers via Workgroup Organizer. Staffers are the only people who can add, remove or otherwise manage workgroups. However, a staffer does not necessarily have access to the files within a Filer share, unless that staffer also has an "AuthRole," described below.

AuthRoles allow users to access the Filer share

Within each workgroup, there are two "AuthRoles" that allow access to the files in the Filer share:

  • Power users: By default, power users can access the files in the Filer share with full permissions, including the ability to write files and change permissions.
  • Users: Users can access the Filer share read-only; by default, users do not have write access to the Filer share.

If you are a member of a workgroup, you can login to Workgroup Organizer to see your workgroup memberships, your AuthRoles (if any), and the names of staffers for your workgroups. This is described at Viewing Membership Within the Workgroup Organizer documentation.

If you log in to Workgroup Organizer, you can see the connection information for a workgroup's Filer share. This is also useful if you accidentally delete the shortcut that takes you to your Filer share. This is accomplished by looking at the Detail View for a workgroup, described at My Dashboard within the Workgroup Organizer documentation.

File and folder permissions within a Filer share can be modified just like standard Windows file permissions. For most Filer shares, a power user for the workgroup will be responsible for modifying permissions; other users will not have the ability to modify permissions unless a power user gives them permissions to do so.

Microsoft provides short step-by-step instructions for modifying Windows file permissions within this KB article.

One important note: you must disable "Simple File Sharing" in order to modify Windows file permissions. Microsoft describes this process in detail.

Note: ICIT recommends that filer share permissions be kept as simple as possible. In particular it will be very hard to manage nested folders with different permissions levels. If necessary, seek consultation with the ICIT Systems group for very complex Filer share needs.

Filer FAQs

The Filer service gives users access to departmental shares, in a manner consistent with the Novell Netware file sharing service that is being phased out.

See Requesting a Share or Requesting access to an existing file share within Filer.

  • A "staffer" can manage workgroups within Workgroup Organizer, as described at Managing Memberships (Staffer only). The designation of staffer conveys no privileges regarding Filer.
  • However, a staffer may also be a user or a power user.
  • By default, a "power user" within a workgroup has full permissions on files and folders within that workgroup's Filer share.
  • By default, a "user" within a workgroup has limited permissions on files and folders within Filer shares.

See Workgroup Organizer.

All NetID holders must register with NetID Central in order to gain access to the Filer shares, and other services. See Using NetID Central.

You must speak to a designated staffer of that share and follow the procedures outlined in the Workgroup Organizer documentation.

If you have been added to the workgroup for a Filer share, but are getting "access denied" when attempting to access the Filer share, see Register with NetID Central, before attempting to access Filer.

Also, you may have forgotten to include the prefix HUNTER\ in the username field. See Accessing a Filer share within Windows.

After you log in to Workgroup Organizer, you will be able to view all workgroups that you are a member of. Each workgroup has a Filer share associated with it. These are the Filer shares you can access. This is described at My Dashboard.

After you log in to Workgroup Organizer, click on the workgroup associated with the Filer share you are interested in. Then to view members, click on the "View members" link. This is described at Viewing Memberships.

Each Filer share has 10GB of space for storing files. There are no individual quotas imposed on group members; whether there are 5 or 50 members within a particular group, the sum of the space used by all users cannot exceed 10 GB.

There is no facility in Filer or Workgroup Organizer to look for or "subscribe" to groups in which you are not already a member. Acceptance to a workgroup must be initiated outside Workgroup Organizer and Filer (e.g. by in-person contact, phone or email) and membership status managed those in the workgroup having the "staffer" role.

You will not be able to gain access to the share if the shortcut is deleted, and the shortcut will have to be recreated. See Using Workgroup Organizer to find the address of a Filer share for more information.

Yes, but you will not be able to manipulate file or folder permissions from Macintosh clients.

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