Department of Physics
Research, teaching and outreach in Physics at UW–Madison

Accessing the SMB filesystem with Windows

First time setup

“Run as Administrator” the Command Prompt:

Click the search box at the bottom left of your screen and type ‘cmd’. Find the “Command Prompt” icon, then right-click on it to open the menu. Click on “Run as Administrator”.

Then enter this command (CaSE iMpoRTAnt):

ksetup /addkdc PHYSICS.WISC.EDU

Close the command prompt window.

End of first time setup

Connecting

If you are connecting from off-campus you must first connect to WiscVPN.  Instructions here.

Once you have connected to WiscVPN or are connecting from on-campus follow these instructions:

Open File Explorer.

In the address bar type: \\smb.physics.wisc.edu\smb
and Enter.

A password prompt will appear.  Enter your Physics username and password.  You must include ‘@PHYSICS.WISC.EDU’ after your physics username.  E.g. cwseys@PHYSICS.WISC.EDU  (CaSE ImPORtanT)

Note: If you do not check “Remember my credentials” Windows will remember your username and password until you log off.  Checking “Remember my credentials” will cause Windows to store your username and password so that you do not need to reenter every time you log in to your computer.  If you can access sensitive files with your account, leaving this unchecked will provide extra security.  E.g preventing others from accessing these files from a stolen laptop.

Congratulations!  You should now see the filesystem contents!  Note: Some users have only seen partial contents of of the filesystem the first time they log in.  If this is the case try restarting your computer, then follow “Connecting” instructions again.  Contact help@physics.wisc.edu if you continue to have difficulty.

You may wish to “Map Network Drive” to make accessing files more easy. Instructions here.

Disconnecting (optional)

If you wish to remove your access to the network filesystem following all these steps:

  1. Open the “Credential Manager” and “Remove from Vault” the smb.physics.wisc.edu entry.  (Pushing the Windows key and typing  “Credential” is a fast way of finding the Credential Manager.)
  2. Log off
    OR:
  3. Close all Explorer Windows
  4. Open a command prompt.  Run:
    • net use \\smb.physics.wisc.edu\smb /d
    • klist purge

You will no longer be able to access files at this point, but browsing directories may still be possible.  It will take Windows a few minutes to expire cached directory information.

Please contact help@physics.wisc.edu if you have problems.