NET USE

The NET Command is used to connect to a File/Printer Share as follows:

Join a file share (Drive MAP) - Win 2K / XP / 2003
NET USE [driveletter:] \\ComputerName\ShareName\folder1\folder2 /PERSISTENT:No

The commands below work in NT 4 or greater -

Make all future connections persistent (auto-reconnect at login)
NET USE /Persistent:Yes
or
NET USE /P:Yes

Make all future connections non-persistent (reconnect with login script)
NET USE /Persistent:No
or
NET USE /P:No

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

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

Connect a user to their HOME directory
NET USE [devicename | *] [password | *]] [/HOME]
This requires the users Home server/folder to be defined in ADUC

Join a password protected file share (Drive MAP)
NET USE [driveletter:] \\ComputerName\ShareName[\volume] [password | *]
[/USER:[domainname\]username] [/PERSISTENT:No]

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

In a script, to map a drive and wait until the mapping has completed before continuing:
START /wait NET USE [driveletter:] \\ComputerName\ShareName
This will be a little slower, but ensures that files can be read from the mapped drive immediately.

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"

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

Examples

NET USE H: /Home
NET USE H: \\MainServer\Users\%Username%
NET USE W: \\MainServer\GroupShare /Persistent:No
NET USE \\MainServer\SharedPrinter

Notes:
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 all mapped drives have a 15 minute idle session timeout, you can modify this with the NET CONFIG command. This timeout does affect NT and 2000 but actually became visible in the XP GUI, this behaviour is to improve the overall performance.

Alternatives

Windows Scripting Host (WSH) provides alternative and arguably better commands, for XP and 2003 this is the way to go:
Wsh.MapNetworkDrive [ example script ]
Wsh.AddWindowsPrinterConnection [Examples]

Drive Descriptions

Recent versions of Windows display a drive description, this can be edited in the Explorer GUI. The text 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)

"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference - Robert Frost

Related:

CON2PRT - Connect or disconnect a Printer
NET - Manage network resources
NET SHARE - Create file share
OPENFILES - List or disconnect open files, local or remote (Win XP)
PUSHD - map to a drive share
RMTSHARE - List or edit a file share or print share (on any computer)
RUNDLL32 - Add/remove print connections
SHARE - List or edit a file share or print share
WMIC NETUSE - WMI access to drive mappings
Wsh.MapNetworkDrive - Map Drive
Wsh.AddWindowsPrinterConnection - Connect to Printer

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
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