A networking software component installed on a client machine or workstation that allows a client to access file and print services on a network server. The redirector makes it appear to the client that the file and print resources are located on the local machine instead of elsewhere on the network.
On a machine running Microsoft Windows NT or Windows 2000, the Workstation service is the default redirector. However, you can install multiple redirectors on a machine running Windows NT or Windows 2000 if you need connectivity to different file systems. In Windows NT and Windows 2000, the redirector is implemented in the form of a file system driver. When a client program requests a network resource, the request is handed to the I/O Manager, which calls the redirector. The redirector translates the request into Server Message Block (SMB) requests for transmission over the network to the Server service on the remote computer.