Hi,

I am a Windows programmer porting all my code over to Linux (cheaper licences) and there is that much info about networking on the net for Linux I don't know where to start or what is relevent to me and what is not.

At the monment I have 3 computers.
Linux mysql server 192.168.0.3
Linux desktop 192.168.0.2
Winodws XP with shared internet on 192.168.0.1. when ever you share a network on winodws it sets its ip to 192.168.0.1 which I have set the gateway to and DNS to on the linux machines.

The windows machine will be Linux as sson as I know how to set up the Linux network. All I want to do is be able to access the machines via the host names and mount Linux network drives. I don't think I need samba to do this.

Do I need DNS, I don't even know the difference between a Forward and Reverse zone?

Thanks

You mean add names to your /etc/hosts file? Like


mysql_server 192.168.0.3
windowsXp 192.168.0.1


then you can go ping mysql_server (or whatever you're doing) instead of using the IP

Is that the best way to do it?
How can I mount some network drives?

Thanks Looking_Lost (Cool Name)

I dont need samba if there is no windows machines on the network do I?

I dont think there is a way to mount network drives besides samba. You could just use ftp for files and all. To do something similar to windows file sharing, you need samba.

i think there is way to share file between linux, i guess samba is mainly for sharing files with windows,
i am not sure how to , i am finding out too, i know one way, but havent tried it yet , you have to edit /etc/exports in host machine and you can mount from other machine like "mount 192.168.0.3:/blah /mnt/blah, or something like that, could someone correct me , please?

Yeah, make sure you are running NFS

If you want to run a DHCP server on your soon to be Linux Gateway, you should definitely look into running DNS with local dynamic updating. That way you don't have to worry about having static IP addresses. Also, for linux filesystem sharing ,use NFS. The only experience I have had with NFS is configuring the server and clients. However, I couldn't do a ls when I had the remote exported filesystem shared. The mount point had permissions of 500:500 for a local user on my server. Guess I have to look more into it. Or, if anyone knows how to transfer user permissions along with NFS without creating the local user, please let me know.

local dynamic updating = dynamic DHCP updating

sorry for the confusion

Please correct me if I'm wrong but, Samba is another option although I don't think it's as secure as NFS.

I am not to worried about dynamic IP's

rajbaxi : have you looked into setting up a NIS server? It will store your users and passwords on the server so that may work I think.I don't know how to set it up so I can't help you.

I have a ftp for file transfer at the monment. It looks like the easiest way I am a bit worried about mounting network drives of computers that are turned off, can they be remounted etc...

Just so I know A DHCP server is just for dynamic IP's
What does a DNS server do? Will it be helpfull for me?

All a DNS server does is store addresses of computers, etc. Its not much use on a local network. Its basically for telling pc's where to send something when it wants to go to www.google.com. So if you had a bunch of PC's, and didnt want to put them on the same subnet, they would still be able to find where the other PC's are by asking the DNS server.

LOUDSilence: No I haven't had a chance to look at NIS as of yet. An alternative to FTP is SFTP using the SSH protocol (with WinSCP for a Windows client).

Secondly, DNS IS BENEFICIAL if you are running DHCP (dynamically assigned IP addresses) or even STATIC IP's. Instead of typing or remembering you IP addresses, you could type by name. For example instead of typing: ftp 192.168.0.3, you could give it a name like: ftp mysqlserver or something more creative like movie names or something.

rajbaxi: I can already do that with the information that Looking_Lost posted in post 2 of this thread without a DNS server. should I set one up anyway?

what other beifits then remebering the host name does it have? I must admit I have the DNS set to 192.168.0.1 which is the windows xp machine and when my adsl modem gets delivered I will take windows off that machine and I don't know what the network will do. I just want to be able to share files and of cause play unreal tournament on the network

No I have not heard about SFTP I am goint to look it up right now, thanks