hello everyone! i am trying to add my linux red hat 7.1 to my windows based lan. i am using cat 5 and a linksys router. i understand i have to use samba, but thats about it, the book i have is pretty basic! i need help, and soon! please someone let me know if you can help! where do i even begin!

thanks,
newbie~lucky

Welcome to LQ.

You only need samba if you want to share files. So it whether you need it or not depends on what you want your LAN to do.

Go to www.techtv.com and do a search for Linux. There is a page for setting up linux and a good 3 or 4 pages of how to set up Samba.

ROB

What are you wanting the Linux machine to do on this network? Host a web server, ftp server, share files, or simply be a client to access files on other hosts of the network?

i want to do two things. first i want to share files and use it for a back up machine for my windows files. second, i want to build an irc eggdrop bot. thanks for the info so far, please keep it coming!

i am also getting a bit confused on setting up the network config. i don't understand how to put in my domain names and all that, all i am doing now with my windows network is running a broadband connection into my linksys router. i use dhcp for the other computers. i have a name for my workgroup. but the linux setup seems so much more involved than just telling it to use dhcp. where to i put what! lol, sorry, i'm a linux rookie!

Go to System Settings -> Network
click on the interface then choose the "Edit" button at top
Check on the checkbox to use DHCP to get network address

edit /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver <ip address of linksys router>

Well, as far as the sharing, the easiest way to do it probably is with Samba. That allows your Linux box to use Windows SMB/CIFS sharing.

If you want, you could also share with ftp, which would be a little more work. Of course, you could also do that with Apache/http. I think Samba is easiest route.

As far as the IRC stuff goes, I don't really know what to tell you there, so I'll let someone else address that.

It would probably be easier for you if you upgraded RedHat to 9 or at least 8. Those are both free. If you wanted the most recent version of RedHat, you could get the Fedora for free.

i still can't understand the hostnames and all that. someone please give me a rookies step-by-step? how to i obtain the upgrades? i can work on the irc bot later. for now just want to see my linux machine on the lan. this shouldn't be so hard, but it is for someone like me who is just starting linux. i tried the above on the networking, but i still don't get the connection. i think i truely just need a step-by-step from the beginning to end (in laymen's terms) if anyone has the time to do that for me, it would be much appreciated! thank you guys for your help!

I would recommend finding RedHat ISO cd images somewhere online and then reinstalling w/ those.

But if you don't want to do that, I may be able to help you with what you have now. But reinstalling with a newer version would be considerably easier I believe.

What upgrades are you looking for?

If you don't own a domain then just use "localhost" as it will be defined in your hosts file.

To set up your network config run "netconfig" and select to use dhcp then restart network services:
service network restart.

Then to see if it has worked run:
ifconfig

And you should have an IP address for your ethernet card - ie "eth0". if you do then try to ping it from your windows box:
ping ip.of.server.here

Let us know the results.

can i ask the obvious. what differences are there in 7.1 vs the versions you are suggesting to me?

Installation and configuration will be easier for a newbie in RH9. Also, you'll be able to download the latest version of Samba for that version easily and get it setup quite easily. Also, RH 7.1 is past its end of life support from RedHat, so you won't be able to get security updates as easily as you would be able to for RH9.

But its not 100% necessary, if you want to use 7.1, we can help you still. I just think you may find RH9 easier to use as you are new to Linux. If you think you may want a later version but don't have the bandwidth capabilities to get it, let me know, and I could burn it for you and send it via snail mail.