If you have a Windows computer and you want to find a file on any of your local hard drives, you just have to open the explorer and write the name that defines your search. Thanks to the indexing that Windows has, the results could be shown almost immediately.
The problem could arise if this file is not found on our hard drive but rather, on any of the computers that are part of the local network; If there are a few computers connected through this system, we may have adopted the habit of saving files or sharing them on the hard drives of these computers, being a completely arduous task to perform, although if we adopt any of the tools that we will mention below, we could find a file in any of them as long as they are all part of the same local network.
Basic considerations for finding a file on the local network
The first thing we must consider is that all the computers that are part of a local network are turned on and also that your hard drives are connected if they are external. In addition to this, hard drives must also be shared with all users on the network. If we have considered these basic characteristics, then we can use any of the tools that we will mention below, which have the ability to explore hard drives connected to the local network to find a specific file.
According to the developer of this tool, it is the ideal solution for those who do not know the exact place where a saved file is located. This is due to the fact that this tool has the ability to search through all the computers that are part of the local network and even in those sites where an access restriction has been placed.
The only requirement is to try to give the application the respective access credentials for each of the personal computers; This means that we will have to write both the username and the password to access each of said computers; If you are going to use this tool frequently to try to find files on the local network, you can save this access information in a csv-type document to later import it into this tool.
When you have defined these types of parameters, you can start looking for the file in which you are interested; obviously the interface will change when you go to carry out this operation, something that could have a very similarity to the screenshot that we have placed in the upper part. From there you will already have the possibility to start working with different functions, which means that you can get to copy, move, delete, rename or any other task you want, with the selected file; We must also mention that this tool initially had a cost of $ 49, which is now free, although its developer suggests a donation in return. You can download both the version to install and the portable version and in the reviews of 32-bit as well as 64-bit.
- 2. lanhunt
If the tool that we mentioned above does not meet your work expectations, we suggest this other alternative that has the name "LanHunt"; This proposal works in a completely different way to what we mentioned before, because here an indexing of all content is initially performed of the hard drives of personal computers that are connected to the local network. Undoubtedly, this is the greatest convenience, since the user would subsequently only have to type the name of the file they want to find in order to obtain fast and efficient results.
The information of this indexing will be registered in the internal database of the tool; As for the work interface, it looks very similar to the screenshot that we will place below.
Right there you just have to type the name of the file (or a keyword) so that the search is carried out right then and there. Additionally, you can define the type of file your search corresponds to, This with the sole objective of being able to apply a few filters that offer you better results. Eventually you should use the button in the upper left that says "Update DB", since the users of each computer will surely update the information on their hard drives, being necessary to perform a new indexing with this application.