Can the droid use Wifi to access your home network ?

[jismail]

I got my droid to connect for internet access, but I want to be able to access files on the server, print, play music over the network etc... I was able to do all this with my WM6 phone, can the droid do this too? I see no native apps for this, is there something in the marketplace that extends this network functionality to the droid?

 

[640k]

ES file manager supposedly allows for "remote browsing" of file and folders... not sure how it works. haven't tried to figure it out yet.

 

[racklefratz]

ES file manager supposedly allows for "remote browsing" of file and folders... not sure how it works. haven't tried to figure it out yet.

ES File Mgr does the job fine for me...you can even explore the Droid internally, not possible with anything native on the Droid that I know about.

I have not set up my Droid for my LAN yet, so can't comment, but I don't think it'll be any problem.

 

[mightybrick]

YEs, ES File Manager works pretty well for this, as far as browsing network files, photos etc. I haven't tried working with any audio files yet. Printing can be done with a separate app called PrinterShare or PrintShare, can't remember which.

 

[jismail]

Okay, so I downloaded ES file manager and I put in the IP address of my computer. I get an icon for the computer but it doesnt let me connect to it. I have tried setting it up with the share names, no share names, guest, vallid user id, annonomous, nothing seems to allow me to see the share or files.

What did I miss? how do you make the Droid part of a workgroup?

 

[LordKastle]

Someone posted a in-depth thread on how to wirelessly connect the Droid to the computer. If anyone knows what thread this was give him a link.

 

[mightybrick]

Okay, so I downloaded ES file manager and I put in the IP address of my computer. I get an icon for the computer but it doesnt let me connect to it. I have tried setting it up with the share names, no share names, guest, vallid user id, annonomous, nothing seems to allow me to see the share or files.

What did I miss? how do you make the Droid part of a workgroup?

All I did was input the local IP address of my computer. I then click on the icon of my computer, and it brings up all the drives (and printer?!) connected to the computer. I can only open the drives and/or folders that are share enabled on the computer.

 

[Utzz]

When I initially setup my My Documents folder for sharing, the wizard launched, I named my PC, named my workgroup, let it finish and then I think I right-clicked the folder I wanted to share, went to Properties>Sharing and ticked the box "Share this folder on the network". I honestly can't recall 100%, I just remember thinking that it seemed redundant to have gone through the wizard and then ticked a box for exactly what I thought I just did, lol.

I use a router that assigns my PC an IP address of 192.168.1.x (x generally 1,2 or 3). Open up ES, go to remote, add a new server and I just typed in my IP address where the cursor started after the 'smb' part. No username or password...annonymous ticked.

That's what worked for me.

 

[mightybrick]

When I initially setup my My Documents folder for sharing, the wizard launched, I named my PC, named my workgroup, let it finish and then I think I right-clicked the folder I wanted to share, went to Properties>Sharing and ticked the box "Share this folder on the network". I honestly can't recall 100%, I just remember thinking that it seemed redundant to have gone through the wizard and then ticked a box for exactly what I thought I just did, lol.

I use a router that assigns my PC an IP address of 192.168.1.x (x generally 1,2 or 3). Open up ES, go to remote, add a new server and I just typed in my IP address where the cursor started after the 'smb' part. No username or password...annonymous ticked.

That's what worked for me.

That's pretty much what I did also.

 

[jdubbs23]

This has been great for browsing my files on my network and even streaming the audio.

What I would like is to get my network music folder share recognized in the Music Player app so that my droid has access to play all my music when on my home network.

Any ideas on this?

 

[jstbecuz]

Great thread. I've been looking for a way to do this. A couple of questions:

1) Has anyone figured out how to print a document? I can see the shared printer, but in order to print something, wouldn't the application that is used to view the document need a "Print" menu option?

2) Office files are not recognized on the network. If I try to open one, it says there's no application available instead of using Documents To Go, which is loaded on the Droid. Anyone know a way around this?

 

[jismail]

Okay, got it to work with ES file manager, thanks for the help. Now, how do you open a zip file that is on the network? I have ES but it says it doesnt have means to open it, so I downloaded zipfile viewer but I cant browse to the network drive via that, and I dont know how to tell ES to use the zip program to open the files. any ideas?

 

[jstbecuz]

jismail - sounds like the same problem I'm having with .pdfs, .xls, .doc, etc. It's like ES doesn't know the list of programs associated with different extensions. I don't see any way of configuring it.

Repeat question, anyone figure out a way to print from their phone using a shared printer?

 

[djh074]

where can i get ES file manager? does this go on the droid or pc?

 

[jdubbs23]

Its actually EStrongs File Explorer, and its for the Droid in the Android Market.