Is there a way to search for a file on all available network shares using C#?

Question

Is there a way to search for a file on all available network shares without actually giving the search any info on the names of the sharing machines?

Here's what I'm trying to do. In a servers shared folder I have a configuration file that specifies the UNC info for that share. From another desktop on that LAN, I would like to run a program that searches for that file and maps a drive to that folder based on that files contents.

I have a staff of tech support folks that frequently have to map these drives to a shared folder. The people they are on the phone with can be very inexperienced with computers. I'm trying to find a way to make their job easier.

Thanks for any help offered.

Are your customer's users on Windows Domains (Active Directory)? Or if the users that will be affected by your question are the tech support people themselves (I can't tell based on the wording of your question), are they in a Windows Domain? — M.Babcock, Mar 03 '12 at 02:52
Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Our customers are who we need to do this for. So the people that are affected are not the techs. — JimDel, Mar 03 '12 at 02:58
Can any computer on the customer's network contain a share in your situation or is there a common convention? Also are accessible shares limited to computers in the current network segment or should it be considered plausible that the customer is accessing file shares from a different subnet? — M.Babcock, Mar 03 '12 at 03:00
Yes, any computer can contain a share. Most likely all machines will be on the same subnet. These are just small doctors offices. From 2 to 8 computers. Usually, but not always there is no domain. Just simple file sharing. — JimDel, Mar 03 '12 at 03:09

M.Babcock · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-03T06:05:43.900

2

I don't recall a Windows API for listing available network shares (though I may have missed it), but one quick (in code slow in processing) way to do this would be to use the method from this CodeProject article to discover the computers on the network (or at least most of them), and try to connect to @"\\" + currentIPOrHostName to see if you're able to get a share list back. I've never done it so I can't guarantee that it'll work but it would be worth a shot unless someone else comes up with a better way.

edited Mar 03 '12 at 06:05

answered Mar 03 '12 at 03:18

M.Babcock

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Thanks M, That will get me started. – JimDel Mar 04 '12 at 18:45

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 03 '12 at 06:16

0

Try this one (C# 4.0):

    private void ShowDrives()
    {
        DriveInfo[] drives = DriveInfo.GetDrives();
        foreach (DriveInfo drive in drives)
        {
            MessageBox.Show(drive.Name);
        }
    }

answered Mar 03 '12 at 06:16

Prahlad Yeri

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That gives drives available, not shares. But thanks for the thought. – JimDel Mar 03 '12 at 15:53

Is there a way to search for a file on all available network shares using C#?

2 Answers2