How do I email a link to a file on my server?

Question

How do I email a link to a file on my server?

I know on windows machines you can email a link to different files on your computer that other people have access to like c:/caleb/documents/... but I am not sure how to do that with a mac

We use a server at work and my boss always tells me to open different files that are hard to navigate to. I am wondering if there is a way for him to just email me a link to the file so I can just click on the text in my email and it will open up the finder window with the file in it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Caleb

powermac quad 2.5, Mac OS X (10.4.3), 2 gb ram 250 gb HD Quadro FX video card

Posted on Aug 25, 2008 1:43 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Topher Kessler

Level 6

9,905 points

Aug 25, 2008 4:10 PM in response to Caleb Kingston

If users are on the local windows machine then " C:/path/..." will work, but if they're accessing it through the network then " \\servername\sharename\path\file" is how it's linked.

In the mac it's the same way. If "windows" file sharing is enabled then the slash-slash method will work if the users are on a windows PC. Otherwise, it will require the use of specific protocol prefixes in the address. For connecting via AFP (apple filing protocol -- the default and mac-native networking system) the following is the address to use:

afp://servername/sharename/path/file

Emailing this address to users who can get network access to the computer will allow them to click the link and connect. For example, my machine is called "Laptop" (ip address is 192.168.1.3) and I have a file called "textfile.txt" located in a "testfolder" in my "Public" directory (which is the shared directory that is readable by users other than myself). To send a link to that file I'd send the following:

afp://Laptop/Public/testfolder/textfile.txt

Alternately I can link to it using the IP address as follows:

afp://192.168.1.3/Public/testfolder/textfile.txt

To connect to the same computer via windows networking (from a PC or Mac that has windows networking enabled), ensure you have windows networking turn on in your computer and the only difference in the address would be to use "smb" instead of "afp" in the addresses above. This is for NON-windows computers; since windows machines will not know what to do with " smb://servername...", and instead will require the " \\servername\..." notation.

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Answer 2

Aug 26, 2008 8:25 PM in response to Topher Kessler

This kind of works using 10.4.11, but if you already have the server volume mounted, MacOS X gives an error that you already have the volume mounted. Additionally, it doesn't open the file/folder. And on top of that, there is no way to send a link that contains spaces.

This is less than ideal in a server environment where users have persistent connections to volumes. One should be able to option-drag a file and/or File..., Attach file link... and have it be recognized (at least by Mail) as a valid link.

Does Leopard improve upon this?

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Answer 3

Aug 29, 2008 6:37 AM in response to MaxSterling

Thanks guys. That might be more work than its worth. lol

Thanks anyway.

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