Simple networking - Linux and XP

  • Thread starter Thread starter Gordon
  • Start date Start date
G

Gordon

OK. I've got the linux to linux networking OK, now how do I get my Windows
XP laptop to see the Linux Desktop?
(In simple terms please!)

Thanks!
 
Gordon said:
OK. I've got the linux to linux networking OK, now how do I get my Windows
XP laptop to see the Linux Desktop?
(In simple terms please!)

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I've got the Ubuntu Desktop to see the XP laptop by the same method I used
for the Linux-to-Linux network.
Now, how do I get the XP laptop to see the Linux Desktop?
 
Gordon said:
I've got the Ubuntu Desktop to see the XP laptop by the same method I
used for the Linux-to-Linux network.
Now, how do I get the XP laptop to see the Linux Desktop?
Click to expand...

You need to run Samba on Linux. Briefly:

1. If not already installed, install the Samba client and server.
2. Set the nmb and smb daemons to run at startup in runlevels 3 and 5.
3. Add the XP users/passwords to the Linux box.
4. Add the XP users/passwords to Samba users by:

su to root in a console
smbpasswd -a username [enter]
enter password [enter]
confirm password [enter]

5. Now you need to configure Samba. You can do this by manually editing
the smb.conf file or (preferable) use tools that come with your distro
and/or window manager. Since I'm not familiar with Ubuntu (SuSE here),
I can't tell you that. In SuSE, I make some configurations with YaST
and then more elaborate settings in KDE. Post in a newsgroup for Ubuntu
for more details about that if you need to.

6. Obviously on the XP box you need to create shares, permissions, and
make sure the firewall allows lan traffic as trusted.

Another great tool for system administration is Webmin. And of course,
no answer about Linux would be complete without:

man samba

HTH,

Malke
 
Malke said:
Gordon wrote:

I've got the Ubuntu Desktop to see the XP laptop by the same method I
used for the Linux-to-Linux network.
Now, how do I get the XP laptop to see the Linux Desktop?
Click to expand...


You need to run Samba on Linux. Briefly:

1. If not already installed, install the Samba client and server.
2. Set the nmb and smb daemons to run at startup in runlevels 3 and 5.
3. Add the XP users/passwords to the Linux box.
4. Add the XP users/passwords to Samba users by:

su to root in a console
smbpasswd -a username [enter]
enter password [enter]
confirm password [enter]

5. Now you need to configure Samba. You can do this by manually editing
the smb.conf file or (preferable) use tools that come with your distro
and/or window manager. Since I'm not familiar with Ubuntu (SuSE here),
I can't tell you that. In SuSE, I make some configurations with YaST
and then more elaborate settings in KDE. Post in a newsgroup for Ubuntu
for more details about that if you need to.

6. Obviously on the XP box you need to create shares, permissions, and
make sure the firewall allows lan traffic as trusted.

Another great tool for system administration is Webmin. And of course,
no answer about Linux would be complete without:

man samba

HTH,

Malke
Click to expand...

hi Malke,

Thanks for the info. I sort-of stumbled on the procedure by various
routes, but I'll keep your reply as a good precis of how it's done for
the future!

(And keep up the good work in the Windows groups, which I visit from
time to time!)

Cheers
 
Gordon said:
hi Malke,

Thanks for the info. I sort-of stumbled on the procedure by various
routes, but I'll keep your reply as a good precis of how it's done for
the future!

(And keep up the good work in the Windows groups, which I visit from
time to time!)
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update and nice words, Gordon. You've reminded me that I
need to look into Ubuntu. People seem to love it and I've got a testbed
with extra hard drives. Then I'll know how to set up Samba in a
Debian-based distro (or at least in that one).

Cheers,

Malke
 
Malke said:
Thanks for the update and nice words, Gordon. You've reminded me that I
need to look into Ubuntu. People seem to love it and I've got a testbed
with extra hard drives. Then I'll know how to set up Samba in a
Debian-based distro (or at least in that one).

Cheers,

Malke
Click to expand...

It /seems/ remarkably easy - there's a GUI which is NOT dissimilar from
the XP "Right-click on network properties" where you can set the shared
directories and give the share a name, set the workgroup name, and
whether you use WINS or not. It even tells you that you don't have Samba
installed and proceeds to install it for you!

As for Ubuntu, I think it's one of the nicest distros I've used,
(started with Mandrake 7, gone thorough fedora core 3 and 4, with a look
at Mepis and Knoppix on the way!) and certainly is as good as say, W2K
for the desktop. The only fly in the ointment was that 5.10 was released
a tad before Open Office 2 final. But there's a way to add your own
repository for that as well. All in all a cool OS!
 
Back
Top