Mapped drive blocked by screen saver password gggrrrrr

We have a laptop on our home network that is running as a NAS mapped drive. Very happy except for one thing.

Screen saver kicks in after 5 minutes and needs a password to hide. At that point the mapping is dropped, so the NAS becomes useless until it gets a password.

It makes no sense to disable the screen saver password, so I have to use a VNC to access the laptop, fill in the password and it again becomes our NAS.

How can I get the mapping to ignore the fact that the screen saver requires a password?

Turn off the screen saver, set the display to turn off after 5 minutes instead.

Also, why would you require a password for the screen saver to kick in in the first place?

I had tried that before asking here, but even though I had checked "Require a password" in the Power Manager, it only asks for a password AFTER it **Sleeps,** not just the screen timing out and going black .

Naturally, I have Sleep set to "Never" as it ain't much of a NAS if it sleeps every 5-minutes. So, the screen off and password requirement does not apply. This would give free access to anyone walking up to the NAS computer. They only need move the mouse and the PC is up and open.

This laptop PC is running 24/7 so a miscreant breaking in and making off with the computer will have free access any time before the battery runs down. Non removable battery too, by the way. At least the screen saver requiring a password works for that security, but by then stalled at the Login screen, it is no longer working as a NAS.

As to your other question, I don't understand what you are asking.