I have 1 Desktop and 4 laptops...All the machines are a mix of Linux and Windows OS...The Desktop has only one OS - Windows XP - Pro..

The printer is a HP Deskjet connecting thru USB to the Desktop

The Desktop is connected thru ethernet cable and all the Desktops are connected Wirelessly to Internet..

I want to use the Desktop as a Hub for my Music files as I have too many and cant spend time copying from one machine to another...I also want to print directly from the laptop by sharing the printer.

There is a locational problem in the sense ,The Desktop is in the ground floor of my house...I have the laptops in 1st and 2nd floors..So at night time I cannot be running up and down to turn on / off the Desktop.

I installed VNS tight viewer which allows me to control the remote desktop from my laptops...It is beautiful in the sense at night I can switch off the desktop from first or 2 floor after the work is done.

But I guess you cant pull files from remote desktop as it seems like a chrooted environment... Even If I try to play any file it would be from my Desktop and not laptop....

So how do I go abt it ? ---Samba for share and VNC for physical control --(on/off)??

Hi there,

so money can't be that much of an issue, can it? ;-)

Why not take another few dollars (or Rupiah, for that matter) and purchase a really small, cheap mini system?
You would set up this system as a hidden server that doesn't even need a monitor or keyboard; rather, a box with just a network connection. Install a Linux distro of your choice on it (I would recommend a minimalistic Gentoo), and Samba along with it. So you should be able to access files on that machine and printers connected to it from any other host on your LAN.

These mini-PCs typically have a power requirement of 20W or even less, so running them 24/7 is not really a problem.

[X] Doc CPU

i second the server be it a mini system, a full sized custom built, pc, an off the shelf pc or a garage sale special with added ram and hard drive. you could share the filesystems with samba and nfs, heck you could even configure samba and NIS to share your user accounts/home directories so you have roaming profiles and a centralized point of access for your files.

Samba on the Linux computers so as to see the Windows shares on the Windows desktop.

It might be a little easier on XP if you install NetBUEI.

You should then be able to stream or copy the media files with no problems. I do it regularly back and forth between Windows and Linux computers.

Thanks Frankbell I will install it and See....

Doc , What are you saying? Money is a huge problem.. You would not be saying this if I told you the configuration and how I got it!! One laptop is a discard by my brother , 1 laptop is my company's , 1 laptop is given by my wife's company,, 1 is a marriage gift!! The only one which I had to shell money was for the XP Desktop! Whether it is Rupee or $ it is better to save it for a rainy day rather than buying more than necessary!

Hi there,

of course I didn't want to offend you; I apologize if I did.

But please read your own posting again very critically: Telling us that you have one desktop and four laptop PCs sounds like you've got much more than you need, does it? Maybe that wasn't a clever wording on your behalf.

However, your situation being as it is, I think you might still consider turning one of the laptops into an always-on server - whether it's Linux-based or Windows-based, is a consideration of its own. If there's Windows installed and running reliably, leave it that way.
And if your laptops aren't the most advanced, bleeding edge machines: It doesn't matter. It doesn't take much CPU power or RAM for a small file/print server. Any machine that is capable of running Windows can easily do that job.

[X] Doc CPU