Remote Data access in mapserver

[Ed McNierney]

Krishna -

You need to have a very clear understanding of how network resources are
controlled under IIS in Windows.  The short answer to your short
question is "Yes".  But the real answer is much more complicated.

Remember that under IIS, as is true throughout Windows, all code
executes under some user security context.  By default, anonymous HTTP
requests to your IIS server are executed under the IUSER_<machinename>
anonymous Web user account.  By default, this anonymous Web user account
has no access to any network resources at all.  This is a good thing, as
you don't want random visitors to your Web site having access to your
entire network.  But if you DO want them to have access you need to
create that access - and manage it carefully.

Also remember that drive letter mappings are done and remembered on a
per-user basis.  Mapping a network resource as "Z:" when you are logged
in interactively as user "Krishna" has absolutely no effect on drive
letter mappings for any other user, including the IUSR_<machinename>
account (which probably can't access the network at all).

This has nothing to do with MapServer - this is all part of
understanding IIS security and the IIS runtime environment.  You would
run into the same sorts of issues with Apache (different names for
things, but essentially the same concepts).

	- Ed

Ed McNierney
President and Chief Mapmaker
TopoZone.com / Maps a la carte, Inc.
73 Princeton Street, Suite 305
North Chelmsford, MA  01863
ed at topozone.com
(978) 251-4242  

-----Original Message-----
From: UMN MapServer Users List [mailto:MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU] On
Behalf Of krishna S
Sent: Friday, February 03, 2006 3:30 PM
To: MAPSERVER-USERS at LISTS.UMN.EDU
Subject: [UMN_MAPSERVER-USERS] Remote Data access in mapserver

Hi, i want to access a data file on a remote machine which is on the
same network. I mapped the drive and tried to access the data file from
the mapfile by giving the path but it didnt work Is there a way to
access a data file on a remote machine using mapfile in mapserver.

Any lead please .....