Help setting up home network

noelc · 06-11-2009, 05:42 PM

Hi,

I have two PC connected via a router and both have acess to internet.

I,d like to set these up so they are visible to each other and share files etc. Their is only one printer so ideally I,d like this shared as well.

I,m sure this is easy but I,m struggling to find an easy "How to" anywhere.

Once I have this setup I then intend to try Synergy as I only have one mouse and keyboard (Both PC have own monitor).

Anyway assitance setting up a simple home network would b appreciated.

I,m running Ubuntu solo on both machines.

Thx

jay73 · 06-11-2009, 06:36 PM

If you just want to transfer files, you can use FTP or SSH. If you would like to have files from one computer available on the other one as if were just one big computer, you could consider NFS.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NFSv4Howto
There are also the older NFSv2 and NFSv3. From a practical perspective, they behave the same but NFSv4 has somewhat better performance and more security options (although none of the NFS versions is secure enough to share files with computers outside your local network, that is not what it was made for). The most striking difference is in the way they are configured (you need to put different sorts of information in the /etc/exports file and NFSv2/3 does not require binding). I am using NFSv4 at this time but may consider returning to NFSv3 as the latter tends is easier to configure if partitions on the server are not mounted at boot time.
I also played for a short time with Synergy around 8.04. It worked well enough but I encountered a number of issues when it started using NFS again. I cannot say for certain whether it was/is the combination of these two that caused my problems as I have since moved to KVM first and now individual computers with their own peripherals. It was just striking that the problems began as soon as NFS got involved. But Synergy was still in its earlier stages back then, it may have matured a lot since then.
Printer sharing can be done by configuring cups. If you have CUPS installed, point your browser to localhost:631 and have a look at the documentation.
There is plenty of additional information on the net.

noelc · 06-11-2009, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jay73

If you just want to transfer files, you can use FTP or SSH. If you would like to have files from one computer available on the other one as if were just one big computer, you could consider NFS.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NFSv4Howto
There are also the older NFSv2 and NFSv3. From a practical perspective, they behave the same but NFSv4 has somewhat better performance and more security options (although none of the NFS versions is secure enough to share files with computers outside your local network, that is not what it was made for). The most striking difference is in the way they are configured (you need to put different sorts of information in the /etc/exports file and NFSv2/3 does not require binding). I am using NFSv4 at this time but may consider returning to NFSv3 as the latter tends is easier to configure if partitions on the server are not mounted at boot time.
I also played for a short time with Synergy around 8.04. It worked well enough but I encountered a number of issues when it started using NFS again. I cannot say for certain whether it was/is the combination of these two that caused my problems as I have since moved to KVM first and now individual computers with their own peripherals. It was just striking that the problems began as soon as NFS got involved. But Synergy was still in its earlier stages back then, it may have matured a lot since then.
Printer sharing can be done by configuring cups. If you have CUPS installed, point your browser to localhost:631 and have a look at the documentation.
There is plenty of additional information on the net.

Thnaks for your comments,

My intention is to have two PC,s operating independantly of each other but operateing off one key board and mouse. Synergy I,m presuming will adress this once I work out how to configure it. I,m not very well experienced will command lines in the terminal and thus far tutorials I,ve far are not detailer enough to help.

I dont necessariy need to share files between the two PC,s but would be a nice to have. However as mentioned I only have one printer so shareing this via a network?

The second PC is only going to used for Ubuntu learning testing experimenting with command lines etc so if I stuff something up I can just reformat/reload Ubuntu/reconfigure netwrok and Synergy (Once I know how lolol)

Aprreciate your help

tredegar · 06-12-2009, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Anyway assistance setting up a simple home network would be appreciated.

This is the link that got my network up & running:
http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/Lin...etworking.html
(Everything I needed to know was there, I just had to read it, and play about a bit).

You may also find these useful:
http://www.yolinux.com/HOWTO/Net-HOWTO.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=571188

I was puzzled at first, but now, networks are fun.

Synergy looks interesting, but I just use vncserver / vncviewer

Sharing your printer over the network is easy. You just need to configure /etc/cups/cupsd.conf on the PC that the printer is attached to, to allow access from your LAN. Your favourite internet search engine will help you here, or just read the file, it is very well commented. Once you have made changes to /etc/cups/cupsd.conf you'll need to restart cups with
/etc/init.d/cupsys restart (as root) for the changes to be recognised.

Then fire up your printers GUI-thingy on your other PC and tell it to look for a networked printer. Add it, set it as a "Raw Printer" (that means, don't select a "driver" because the driver bit is handled by the PC the printer is physically connected to).

Moving files between PCs on your LAN is easy. If you are running KDE, then you can use the built-in fish://user@pcname protocol from KDE's filesystem browser konqueror. Then it is just "drag & drop". Otherwise there's scp ftp nfs ..., you name it

Have fun.