Accessing the RDF-Active on macOS

The following instructions will show you how to access the RDF-Active by mapping it as a network drive on your Mac computer. To do this, you must be connected to the college network either directly or via a private and secured remote connection.

Connecting your Mac to the RDF-Active

  1. Select Go from the Finder menu.
  2. Select Connect to Server...
  3. Enter the RDF-Active path you wish to connect in the Server Address box:
    • To access the RDF-Active's "root" directory, the Mac path is smb://rdf-active.ic.ac.uk/research/
    • To access a specific storage allocation's directory, review the Where are my files section to identify the allocation's path.
  4. Click Connect
  5. When you asked to enter your name and password for the server "rdf-active.ic.ac.uk":
    • For the "Connect As:" field, enter "Registered User".
    • For the name field, enter your Imperial username in the username@ic.ac.uk format.
    • For the password, enter your Imperial password.
  6. Click Connect.

Tip

When you connect to an SMB share (for example, RDF-Active), macOS usually adds only the top-level share to the Finder sidebar, not the specific folder where your storage allocation lives. If you close the Finder window, getting back to that folder can be inconvenient (you might find it under Go > Recent Folders).

To make it easy to return to your allocation, add the exact folder to the Finder sidebar:

  • Connect to the SMB share and navigate to your allocated folder.
  • With that folder open in Finder, go to File > Add to Sidebar.
  • Your allocation will now appear in the sidebar for quick access.