As I’m working from home and having issues with my machine I’ve been asking our IT mob to try and help. They fixed one problem but this evening I tried to listen to some music and got an error saying that the network path was not found (\\dca\myusername$\My Music). A few minutes later I had to use our VPN and while on it there was no issue with music access.

Can anybody explain what \\dca etc is, where physically my music files are stored and why it doesn’t work when I’m not on the VPN? This is a recent issue and I have no admin rights so it ain’t me that borked it! A trawl of the internet yields no clues………………

Cheers!

“dca” is the name of a machine on your work network, I’d guess a domain controller from the name. The rest of it is a network share on that machine seemingly to your user profile. You can’t access it when the VPN isn’t up because, well, you’re not connected to it and that’s what VPNs are for.

Try pointing your music player at something like c:\users\yourusername\Music instead of the remote network share. If that doesn’t work you might need to sync the former back with the latter.

Though playing devil’s advocate I’d question why you’ve got your music on a work machine in the first place, if I were your IT I’d be giving you 24 hours to shift it off before I deleted it.

Though playing devil’s advocate I’d question why you’ve got your music on a work machine in the first place, if I were your IT I’d be giving you 24 hours to shift it off before I deleted it.

Why? Genuinely interested. I guess from a copyright pov there might be an issue.

It’s possibly that your data is held on the work server and synchronised to your laptop for use when offline, but the offline cache isn’t working, so it only works when connected to the network. If I was your IT bod I would say storing your media on a work machine was a no no.

Our IT software centre has iTunes on it! For serious work we have massively locked down machines. For everything else they are pretty chill.

Regarding the //dca network issue I don’t understand why it has just started. It worked fine at lunchtime off the VPN (or any network, WiFi, etc) and for the previous 8 months since we went to Win10.

Why? Genuinely interested. I guess from a copyright pov there might be an issue.

a) Copyright concerns, yes.

b) Linked to a), if you’re downloading music illegally then what else are you inadvertently downloading and then injecting into our corporate network?

c) Less of an issue these days when storage is relatively cheap perhaps but music libraries can be huge and that’s sitting storage we’re paying for. Back when I actually did this for a living the biggest cause of file servers filling their disks and then filling their pants was users’ music / video / photo collections syncing back to the server. Granted the solution here is “don’t sync ‘my music’ folders” but still.

But yeah, work is for work and home is for home.

You music is on works servers which you don’t have access to when not on the VPN.

Reading this was like being in the early 2000’s. If you managed to get music onto your local pc (from, say, a usb) in our place now you’d likely be escorted off the premesis immediately (if WFH you’d be getting a phone call to come in).

Then again. I work at a bank. 🙂

So a couple of questions…

Has your music ever worked from home?
What are you using to play your music? If it’s Itunes then you can change the location of the library by holding “Shift” while you double click the iTunes shortcut.
Is this a domain joined machine that has been specifically setup by your IT so that you can work from home (I am assuming so because of the location of your files)?

Basically that location is on your corporate network and no VPN connection = no access to that location. It is using folder redirection to create your Music folder on a server which you can’t access from home without the VPN.

A permanent fix will depend on how your VPN is set up and whether or not you have access to local folders (C Drive).

My suggestion would be to make a copy of your music files elsewhere (external HDD or in the cloud somewhere) and then keep a copy on a USB and access them from there (assuming USBs are not blocked). Or if it’s a laptop that you use in work and at home and your IT have given you access to the C drive then ask them not to redirect the “Music” folder (it won’t get backed up then mind you so make sure you have other copies of your music elsewhere).

Really though unless your company doesn’t mind, you shouldn’t have personal stuff on work servers. Enterprise storage costs a fortune and companies will hate having to buy more because everyone has their music library/holiday photos using all the space!

I’m surprised your IT didn’t ask you to shift it – unless you’re the boss of course!!!

@Cougar , thanks – I talk to various IT security people and it’s useful to get some background on the thinking.

Honestly, my initial reaction wasn’t security, it was “get your crap off my servers.”