So I'm fixing a co-workers windows box. I figured while I have it at my house, let's try to get a small network up. Easy in the Windows world, but kicking my ass in the Linux world.

I installed Samba. No problem. I edited my smb.conf file to change my workgroup name and computer description.

Then I went into the command line and

samba start

Then I went to the Win2k rig and looked for the Linux box in network neighborhood. No good. I hear Samba uses TCP-IP, and that's installed, along with Net-Bui on the Win2k. The internet connection works fine for both systems. So the potential to see each other is there.

What am I missing? Also, How would I see the Win computer in Linux? There is no Network Neighborhood in Linux, so how do I browse files on another computer?

I'm still kind of new at this, bus since no one else has posted I will give it my best shot.

First, you don't need the NetBEUI protocol.

Second, please post your smb.conf file.

Third, before you change anything, leave your samba server the way it is and try to go straight to it's IP address in Windows. Enter '\\192.168.1.105' or whatever the samba server's IP is in Explorer and see if Windows will connect to it.

If it does connect this way but you can't find the machine in Network Neighborhood, then there is something wrong with NetBIOS and/or DNS (I think) and I can't help too much there. It sounds like you already have the 'netbios name = ' and 'workgroup = ' parameters under your [global] section in your smb.conf file. You might also want to make sure you have a 'browseable = yes' parameter under all of your shares. I had trouble with this at one point that I couldn't fix, but I was able to get to my samba server via IP and then mapped a drive to it.

If it doesn't connect this way, then there is obviously something else wrong with the way samba (and/or your network) is set up. By the way, please also indicate how your home network is set up (static IPs/DHCP, etc.).

In terms of how to connect to a Windows machine, you will have to mount a network drive. Once you have your Windows share up, the best way to do it is via IP. You can mount your Windows share in the following way:

mount -t smbfs //192.168.1.101/share /mnt/winshare

Of course, substitute the IP address and share name with the Windows machine's IP address and share name, and the mount directory (/mnt/winshare) with whatever you want on your Linux machine. If your Windows machine needs a username and password to access the share, use:

mount -t smbfs -o username=user,password=pass //192.168.1.101/share /mnt/winshare

Once you've successfully mounted the drive you can just go to /mnt/winshare to access the files on the Windows share. If you want this to be done automatically every time you start your Linux machine (otherwise you'll have to remount it every time), you can put it in your /etc/fstab file. Search the forums or Google for 'fstab' and you will find all the info you need.

Hope that helps.

How do I find out what my IP is on my linux box?

The ifconfig command. You'll probably have to use:

ifconfig eth0

But how is your network set up? You must not use static IPs if you don't know your IP address. Are you behind a router? This info helps.

I have cable internet that does not have a static IP. I have that going into a little hub. I disabled my firewall (software, in Linux) to do this.

The hub has worked before, so I know it's not that.