NET.exe

The NET Command is used to manage File Shares, Printer Shares and sessions as follows:

Display a local share
NET SHARE sharename

Display a list of computers in the current domain.
NET VIEW

To see a list of shares on a remote computer
NET VIEW \\ComputerName

To see a list of all shares in the domain:
NET VIEW /DOMAIN

To see a list of shares on a different domain
NET VIEW /DOMAIN:domainname

To see a list of shares on a remote Netware computer
NET VIEW /NETWORK:NW [\\ComputerName]

Create a new local file share
NET SHARE sharename=drive:path /REMARK:"text" [/CACHE:Manual | Automatic | No ]

Limit the number of users who can connect to a share
NET SHARE sharename /USERS:number /REMARK:"text"

Remove any limit on the number of users who can connect to a share
NET SHARE sharename /UNLIMITED /REMARK:"text"

Delete a share
NET SHARE {sharename | devicename | drive:path} /DELETE

Delete all shares that apply to a given device
NET SHARE devicename /DELETE
In this case the devicename can be a printer (Lpt1) or a pathname (C:\Docs\)

Join a file share (Drive MAP)
NET USE [driveletter:] \\ComputerName\ShareName /PERSISTENT:YES

Join a file share (Drive MAP) - Win 2K / XP
NET USE [driveletter:] \\ComputerName\ShareName\folder1\folder2 /PERSISTENT:YES

Join a file share (Drive MAP) - with a "long" share name
NET USE [driveletter:] "\\ComputerName\ShareName"

Join a password protected file share (Drive MAP)
NET USE [driveletter:] \\ComputerName\ShareName[\volume] [password | *]
[/USER:[domainname\]username] [/PERSISTENT:YES]

In the above command /USER can also be specified as:
[/USER:[dotted domain name\]username]
[/USER:[username@dotted domain name]

Join a file share (Drive MAP) and wait before continuing
START /wait NET USE [driveletter:] \\ComputerName\ShareName

Join a Printer Share
NET USE [LPTx:] \\ComputerName\printer_share /PERSISTENT:YES

Join a Printer Share - with a "long" share name
NET USE [LPTx:] "\\ComputerName\printer_share"

Connect a user to their HOME directory
NET USE [devicename | *] [password | *]] [/HOME]

Disconnect from a share
NET USE [driveletter:] /DELETE

Change the default connection type
NET USE [/PERSISTENT:{YES | NO}]

Display all the open shared files on a server and the lock-id
NET FILE

Close a shared file (disconnect other users and remove file locks)
NET FILE id /CLOSE

List all sessions connected to this machine
NET SESSION

List sessions from a given machine
NET SESSION \\ComputerName

Disconnect all sessions connected to this machine
NET SESSION /DELETE

Disconnect all sessions connected to this machine (without any prompts)
NET SESSION /DELETE /y

Disconnect sessions from a given machine
NET SESSION \\ComputerName /DELETE

Notes:
NET SESSION displays incoming connections only, in other words it must be run on the machine that is acting as the server.

NET USE command can map a network printer to an LPT port (for DOS type applications that print to a port.) but this does not add the printer to Control Panel - Printers.

By default Mapped drives, have a 15 minute idle session timeout, you can modify this timeout with the NET CONFIG command. This timeout affects NT/2K/XP but is visible in the XP GUI.

To create file shares the SERVER service must be running, which in turn requires 'File and Print Sharing' to be installed.

Drive Descriptions

Windows 2000 and XP display a drive description in the MS Explorer GUI, this is stored in the registry.
Win 2K stores a description for each drive letter, XP stores a description for each share.

Win XP registry
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MountPoints2\##ComputerName#ShareName
_LabelFromReg=<description of drive mapping>
   (string REG_SZ)

Windows 2000 registry
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\MountPoints\DriveLetter\_LabelFromReg
Cache = <description of drive mapping>
   (REG_BINARY data type)

You can edit the description in the registry or just use the Explorer GUI.

"Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats" - Howard Aiken

Related:

CON2PRT - Connect or disconnect a Printer
You can also map to a drive share using the pushd command
GLOBAL - Display membership of global groups
LOCAL - Display membership of local groups
OPENFILES - List or disconnect open files, local or remote (Win XP)
WMIC NETUSE - WMI access to drive mappings.
fsmgmt.msc - List or disconnect open files - (Win XP GUI)
Drmapsrv - Drive Share for use with Terminal Services (Win 2K Server Resource Kit only)
Q138365 - Autodisconnect (Red cross)
Q305355 - Drives disconnected, and a red "X" appears
Q149427 - Change Password from the CMD prompt
Slow Network Browsing (XP)

Equivalent Linux BASH commands:

id - Print user and group id's
logname - Print current login name
tty - Print filename of terminal on stdin
uname - Print system information
users - Print login names of users currently logged in
who - Print who is currently logged in