1) How do I access a drive on the network? (i.e. network drive mapping in windows)
You need samba for this.
Read this......http://static.kdenews.org/content/si...rier/20030610/
http://www.samba.netfirms.com/sambconf.htm

2) Is there any way to get a network connection icon in the kde systray (a la windows)?
TRy KNetStat : https://sourceforge.net/project/show...kage_id=130113
or KTrayNetworker ; http://www.xiaprojects.com/www/prodo...ction=download
or Knemo : apt-get install knemo