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skcloo 01-22-2012 11:24 PM

Mapping a network drive on a Windows PC to access a Debian Linux PC
 
From my Windows PC, I would like to map a network drive to access a Debian Linux (version 2.30.2) PC. Could you please let me know if I need to install any client on my Windows workstation and the mapping command syntax?

Thank you.

Steve

ukiuki 01-22-2012 11:28 PM

Try Gigolo you can use it to map Windows folders or to share folders in your Linux box. You might need samba client too.

Regards

Dark_Helmet 01-23-2012 12:00 AM

As far as I understand it, Gigolo is meant to handle network shares where Linux is the client.

My reading of the OP's question is that Windows is the client. That is, the OP wants to access files on the Debian machine through a mapped drive on the Windows machine (and not vice versa).

If my reading is correct, then the answers to your questions are:
1. No, you do not need to install a client on your Windows machine
2. You need to install Samba on your Debian machine ("apt-get install samba" as root or search for "samba" in the GUI synaptic package manager), and configure it to allow access to one or more directories in your filesystem

Samba comes with a sample configuration file that has simple file sharing examples. It's quite simple to set up as long as you read the comments in the configuration file.

jebe88 01-23-2012 03:03 AM

Although not necessarely required I'd suggest to use the same user name on the Linux and the Windows machine.
Don't forget to restart samba after you modified it's configuration: /etc/init.d/samba restart
Once you have samba up and running, just use 'map network drive' from the Windows explorer.

skcloo 01-23-2012 02:59 PM

Thank very much for all the response. The direction of the traffic is to access the Linux box from a Windows 7 station. How about using the SSH client for the Windows? I just found about this on http://www.bitvise.com/tunnelier?gcl...FehgTAodTCQTfA. Any advice?

Thanks,


Steve

jebe88 01-24-2012 02:32 AM

SSH is a protocol for secure data communication (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Shell). It's main purpose is to provide encrypted data communication between client and server for otherwise unencrypted services. One of those is SFTP which allows file transfers between machines.
If you want to use this, you'll need a specific client software for your Windows PC and, depending on what you intend to do, you might have to fiddle around with the configuration on your Linux box as well. The client software for Windows will most likely cost you some money and the file transfer service will not be fully integrated into the Windows environment - you'll always have to use the client software for transferring files between Linux and your local Windows hard drive. For these reasons I'd strongly recommend to use samba on the Linux machine. This is far more flexible and you'll have a seamless integration into Windows, where a mapped network drive shows up like another local hard drive allowing each and every Windows application to access it transparently.
As mentioned by Dark Helmet already, it shouldn't be too hard to set up a working samba server. If you don't need any sophisticated stuff and if the username on your Windows PC is the same as your normal user name on the Linux box, it should be sufficient to login as root on your Linux box, then do:
#> apt-get install samba (you'll be asked for your workgroup name. Use same as the one of your PC, which can be found under system settings->system some lines below 'computer name')
#> smbpasswd -a <your user name> (Give yourself a password. This doesn't need to be the same as for the Linux user)
On your Windows PC, open the Windows Explorer, click on 'map network drive' and choose a drive letter you want to use. Click on 'Search' near the 'Folder' edit field (might take a while until you see something there), choose your Linux machine and the folder with your user name, click OK and then 'Finish'. Provide the password you entered above when you are asked for that.

skcloo 01-25-2012 10:50 PM

Thank you so very much for all the advices.

Steve


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