Networking with Router and ADSL
 

Hi, my wife and I although being very familiar with the Windows XP OS, are
struggling somewhat with Linux.

We have installed Suse Linux 9.0, and then followed up with Suse Linux 9.1. We
have a Zyxel 643 router feeding three PC's via an ADSL broadband service. We
can both log on to the 'net without any problems at all.

Until we came over to Linux, we used a spare drive on my box as an
archive/file server for all to access. We have tried to emulate this with
Linux with varying degrees of success. But on one occasion both machines
locked up.

My question is this: Which is the best network protocol to use to achieve
this? We don't need to share printers or anything else other than a directory
etc. We would also need to be able to access our Windows partitions as we are
dual booting at present. We have tried to implement Samba, NFS, NIS etc. but
all to no avail.

As there doesn't seem to be a howto that covers all this in one article, can anyone point be in the right direction. :-)

HI!

As far as sharing a directory I think the easiest way would probably be SAMBA, but as I am not an expert in this I will leave those problems for someone else.

As for accessing your windows partition, as far as I know SUSE will generally set that up for you. In Mandrake, my windows partitions are mounted in the /mnt directory, so I have /mnt/win_c and /mnt/win_d. I am not sure if SUSE also mounts your windows partitions in the mnt directory, but I am pretty sure they will be either mounted there or in your home directory.

Networking with Router etc.
 

Hi Floyd, yes that's OK... But it doesn't allow you to save/delete a file from a windows directory into Linux. It only allows you to copy from. :-)

Bob,

I assume from the last post that you are accessing a linux based archive from windows based systems. If so you need samba.

Carl.

Networking with Router etc.
 

Hi Carl, yes I am accessing windows files from Linux. I am also trying to access my Linux drives/files from within Windows.

I have both machines dual booting at present, mainly because there are some things that I can only do from within Windows.....

OK Bob, you definately need samba.

Here's an smb.conf file I use to give access to all the CUPS printers and shared directories we use.

[global]

workgroup = MYWORKGROUP

netbios name = Linux

server string = Linux

printcap name = cups
load printers = yes

printing = cups
printer admin = @adm

log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m

max log size = 50

log level = 0

map to guest = bad user

security = user

encrypt passwords = yes
smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd

username map = /etc/samba/smbusers

socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=16384 SO_SNDBUF=16384 IPTOS_LOWDELAY SO_KEEPALIVE
read raw = yes
write raw = yes
max xmit = 65535

local master = yes

name resolve order = lmhosts wins bcast

wins support = yes

dns proxy = no

[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
browseable = no
guest ok = yes
writable = no
printable = yes
create mode = 0770
use client driver = yes
print command = lpr-cups -P %p -o raw %s -r # using client side printer drivers.

[print$]
path = /var/lib/samba/printers
browseable = yes
write list = @staff root
guest ok = yes
inherit permissions = yes

[common]
comment = Public Stuff
path = /home/common
public = yes
writable = yes
printable = no
browseable = yes
create mask = 0660
directory mask = 0770

[accounts]
comment = Accounts Area
path = /home/accounts
public = yes
writable = yes
printable = no
browseable = yes
create mask = 0660
directory mask = 0770

Install samba, create the Linux users (we put all ours in a group called "staff") with passwords.

change the group for the /home directory (and all below it to "staff")

Allow access to the /home directory (and all below it) for rwx by owner & group.

Create the smbusers file with the format:

linuxusername = "Windows username" (win can have spaces hence the inverted commas)

for each user.

create the samba passwords with:

smbpasswd linuxusername
and fill in the prompt with the WINDOWS password.

edit the /etc/samba/lmhosts file as for a windows lmhosts file

Restart samba (/etc/init.d/smb restart) and you should be away!!

If you're using XP, turn off "web client services" to speed up access.

Hope that helps.

Carl.

Networking with Router etc.
 

Hi Carl, thanks for the info..... I'll try that and see how I get on. :-)