Well no. 16 years ago they set up the network either static or DHCP and used Windows 98 networking to manage things, and it "just worked" because that is what Windows and ... NETBIOS(?) would do in a home or small office network environment.

I do agree that there should be some re-engineering here and also agree that if this is a technology class; a great project would be to have the students participate in it and thus enhance their knowledge and get them away from being purely social networkers. :)

None of my computers hook to the internet. And i never want them to. 16 years ago, i purchased 28 win98 computers. Originally back in 1998 , each morning, i arrived to work an hour early every day and i walked around to each of the 28 computers and loaded about 10 seperate files from a cd i burned the night before to each computer. This took about an hour each morning. Eventually I figured out i could connect them all together using network switches and have them read the files from one computer (pseudo-server) The computers still have some value and are useful. I have no interest in reconfiguring each computer as that would almost certainly lead to incompatibility issues. I could just get some older hardware and reload win98 and configure it like i already have it. And five minutes later I would be good for the next 16 years. However, I think it would be cool if I had a linux server for this. And it would probably work with newer hardware. I have tried upgrading along the way with windows but this ability to connect a room full of computers and share files was taken away after win98 and now only 5 windows computers can access the same exact file from one other computer at a time. Winxp, ME, vista will not allow. I tried using windows server and had it configured like my current setup but for some reason it was way too slow and very inefficient. It acted inconsistent. Sometimes allowing access and sometimes not. So, I want to try linux.

it seems like it is something samba would be able to do. i dont use windows so i dont know the specific install process but what i know of the samba-client is that it is a program to fool windows file servers into thinking the pc is another windows machine and allow it to connect.
and the samba-server is a service that tricks windows machines into believing it is a windows file server and attempt to connect to the share.

this level of emulation should be transparent but i assume some assembly(configuration) is required.

______________

can you please provide the output of:is the a router that all the machines are connected to. does it use dhcp / what is the routers ip-address ?

At the moment nothing has to be done to the W98 computers.

I have loaded samba on my server. Do i need to load samba client also?

is their a way to have the terminal and the gui open at the same time in ubuntu. I would like to copy and paste the output results of doing ifconfig -a for schneidz?

probably no need for samba-client. as i understand, its for linux pc's to connect to windows servers (you need the reverse).

i use fedora and its under the 'gnome menu -> system tools -> terminal'. not sure what window manager you are using but it should be fairly straghtforward. does ubuntu have a search facility ?

Take a look at this link for an example how to set up samba, http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials...ty-samba-setup

The key things I feel here are:

1. Do not try to mess with anonymous, too much unknown and potential for blocking because the server would tend to make anonymous not priviledged users
2. Create a user, smbpasswd is VERY IMPORTANT because it is the SAMBA password for when windows connects
3. Use brief simple words for username/password, like username: win98 and password: win98 easy to remember, noting that this is a closed network
4. Case matters in Linux, so Win98 is different than WIN98 as well as win98, remember that
5. From the Windows computers, map a drive letter to the SAMBA share, like map Z: or F: to \\<ipaddress>\sharename or \\<hostname>\sharename, note: backslashes used for Windows conventions
6. IMPORTANT: There should be a way to map the drive drive user a different username and password, look for that in the pop-up where you map the drive and then put in the proper credientials you specified for username/password
7. You can make the drive mappings permanent and when the W98 computers reboot, so long as Linux is already up, they'll re-establish the drive mappings automatically

schneidz replied

it seems like it is something samba would be able to do. i dont use windows so i dont know the specific install process but what i know of the samba-client is that it is a program to fool windows file servers into thinking the pc is another windows machine and allow it to connect.
and the samba-server is a service that tricks windows machines into believing it is a windows file server and attempt to connect to the share.

this level of emulation should be transparent but i assume some assembly(configuration) is required.

______________

can you please provide the output of:
Code:

ifconfig -a
route -n

is the a router that all the machines are connected to. does it use dhcp / what is the routers ip-address ?


the results are....

jo@main ~ $ ifconfig -a
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1a:a0:c3:9e:34
inet6 addr: fe80::21a:a0ff:fec3:9e34/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:44814 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:9973 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:17740864 (17.7 MB) TX bytes:1520768 (1.5 MB)
Interrupt:16

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1
RX packets:996 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:996 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:127682 (127.6 KB) TX bytes:127682 (127.6 KB)

jo@main ~ $ route -n
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
jo@main ~ $

seems like your ethernet card is not getting an ip address and therefore didnt join the network (and obviously there is no route if there is no network). please try:if specific network parameters are needed, only you (or your it staff) would be able to provide. maybe you can copy that information from the windows machine.

jo@main ~ $ sudo ifconfig eth0 up
jo@main ~ $ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:1a:a0:c3:9e:34
inet6 addr: fe80::21a:a0ff:fec3:9e34/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:90924 errors:0 dropped:3 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:24876 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:37396935 (37.3 MB) TX bytes:4460601 (4.4 MB)
Interrupt:16

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:65536 Metric:1
RX packets:2308 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2308 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:297780 (297.7 KB) TX bytes:297780 (297.7 KB)

jo@main ~ $

There is no it staff. No Router, Just me and 30 computers. No internet, just intranet and many Network switches connecting all the computers.

Honestly, im not sure what this ifconfig shows. what is it supposed to let me know?

Firstly you need to get that Linux stations network interface up and configured.

Seems like you're not using DHCP since the network did not discover any address. To set up for static you can use "Network Connections" should be in your menu if you start typing when you click on the Ubuntu symbol and start typing stuff. Run that, likely "wired connection 1" is your Ethernet. Select it, edit it, choose IPV4 settings tab, select "Manual" in the pulldown for Method. Then add an IP address which matches the addresses you've been using. Save that. I would also check the box to make the connection available for all users.

The ifconfig call should then indicate you are up and using the address you just programmed.

An example from my station, note my address, you don't have one at all:

You're not creating a folder, you're creating a share. The share is the place on the server where the Win98 users will create their folders etc...

I think we are on to something! My win98 server just crashed when i changed the ipv4 setting. the old blue screen of death. I think it did this because the name of my linux machine is "main" and my server is also "main".