For some utterly rediculous reason Im still a microsoft ho... Neways i need to access some files i backed up on my win2k pro box from my new Slackware box... Ive searched the networking forums for Windows and Linux sharing but all that seems to come up are articles relating to samba...
basically i wanna copy over some game config files. Any help would be great thanx

You want an automated process of transferring files from your win2k box to your slackware box?

Samba is the smb implementation for unix. (network neighborhood)

With samba you can create shares on your win2k box, mount those shares on your slackware box, and script up the process of moving files around.

Am I on the right track?

basically all i want to do is set up a network share where i can share out specific files... it doenst have to be an automated process. the goal is simply to be able to send a txt document from one computer to the next using the pre-existing network.

ok well, the best thing would be samba then.

It comes with slackware 8.0.

man smbd
man smb.conf

Those two docs are your best friend.

There is a file someplace called smb.conf. It has a ton of documentation right in the file.

Good luck!

You basically want to setup a samba share... This means that yu are going to make a folder on your nix box that, by using samba, can be seen and utilized by your ms network. This is not a difficult task....

I use an ms Win2k network and heres a step by step guide that I made to remind myself:


This tutorial will help you get started with using samba 2 to share space on your linux box to a network. Do not be fooled! This tutorial was writen by a Linux newbie so you can be sure that its in the easiest wording and style.


For this tutorial, my network is a win2k network, but this will work with windows of any type. We will also be using pico int his demonstration. For technical reasons, ( I havent figured it out yet), this tutorial, doesnt tell you how to setup up printers, that will be my next feat and tutorial making project.

find the etc/samba directory and then edit the smb.conf file. If there is not wound in this directory, make one. To do this, type:

pico smb.conf


Once here, you need to know that there are two main things that go in this file, [global] and [share]. The global section should look like this:


[global]
workgroup = home
public = yes
log file = /etc/samba/log.%m
encrypt passwords = yes
smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd

[share]
comment = Linux share space
path = /home/share
browsable = yes
writable = yes
read only = no


Heres the break down of that file.

First the [global] section:


workgroup = home

This is the workgoup name of my network, set this to match the network of you network in order to have it be seen by other computers on the network.

public = yes

This is the spot that allow you to make this computer accessable by the other computers on the network. If this is set to "no" the comp will still be seen, but NOONE will be aloud remote access.

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

This is a log file of everything that happens with the interaction of users on the network and the linux computer.

encrypt passwords = yes

This says that tells it that the passwords in the password file are encrypted and that it need to decode them and match them up with the inputed username and password input by a remote user.

smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd

This tells samba where the file with the encrypted passwords and for accessing the share space is.



Now for the [share] sections of this file:


comment = Linux share space

This shows up on the remote users network access program telling tthat user a little comment about this space.

path = /home/share

This tells samba that the space you want to share is the /home/share directory. You can make the directory anyone you want, but for securites sake, make it something with out anything important in it, or just make a new one.

browsable = yes

This says that the remote user can freely browse, ie look through the files in this space.

writeable = yes

This tells samba that the user can save stuff to this space. If you dont want people saving to this space, change it to "no"

read only = no

This lets samba know that the user can freely edit and delete any files that they choose to. If you dont want this to happen, just set it to "yes".



Once you input all this into this new file, save it. In pico you save by hitting Ctrl + o. You need to make sure that you save the file as "smb.conf". Now to exit the text editor hit Ctrl + X. Dont worry, your almost done! now you need to create a new file called smbpasswd. So you type:

pico smbpasswd

This will bring you into the pico text editor, you dont need to put anything into this file, just save and exit bye hitting Ctr + X.


Now for the final 2 steps.

You need to make a samba username and password. The user must already have an account on the linux machine (for this example the username is: Brian password: 12345). If this is not so, than you need tyo create one. We are asuming that you already have a sperate user besides root on your system. To create a new user for samba, type the following command at the prompt:


smbpasswd -a Brian

Brian would be replaced by your username or whoever... But, after you do this, it will ask for a password for this username. What this command does is take this information and put it into the smbpasswd file for samba to use for access verification.


The last and final step. at the console, type:

chmod a+rwx /your/share/space

(/your/shared/space) would obviously be the directory that you used asd the share space on you linux box. what chom a+rwx is doing here, is allowing anyuser with a valid samba username to access and edit data on the share space.


Now try connecting to the share via "network neighborhood", enter your username and password and start sharin! HAVE FUN

Hope that helped