Hi, I am a newbie to linux and networking and I was just wondering how do I network a windows 98SE computer with a linux red hat 7.2 computer? I have the windows tcp/ip protical installed for the windows machine, but can't tell if the linux has a working protical. I do have a router as well, but just want them networked somehow, even if it's not with the router. What are my next steps? clicking on network neighborhood doesn't help because it can't "browse the network" Thank you for your time.
-calimer

The tool to do this is called samba. Once you have it installed, you'll be able to do something like mount -t smbfs //WindowsComputerName/C /mnt/windows -o username=windowsusername

WindowsComputerName is the name of the windows computer on the network and C is the windows share that you want to mount. windowsusername is the name of the user in windows that has access to the files. You can also setup samba to to act as a fileserver of sorts so that windows can access files on linux. Redhat has some resources availible to help you with this located at http://www.redhat.com/support/resour...ile/samba.html

AS griffin said, Samba is the tool you need. You might already have it on your installation CDs, but if not, you can d/l the latest version from wwww.samba.org. The other thing you'll want is Linneighborhood, the Linux equivalent of Window's Network Neighborhood.

There's a lot of Samba info online, but some of it is dated, and some of it contradicts other things you might find. Pay special attention to instructions that make references to "inetd.conf"; inetd has been replaced by xinetd, which operates in a totally different way.

Some resources I found useful when setting up my Linux box as an SMB server:

http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/intel...ba/samba1.html. This is one of the more dated, which makes reference to inetd. Still, it's helpful.
http://www.troubleshooters.com/tprom...910/199910.htm

http://www.linuxjunior.org/cgi-bin/p...T=Display&id=6

There have been a lot of Samba-related questions posted here, as well as at linuxnewbie.org; use the forum search function of both of these boards to review past threads on the subject.

Well, first of all I want to say thanks for the help, I really do appreciate all that I get. I am a little confused though. It seems like I have samba on the computer, but it doesn't seem like it's a program that I can just load up or something. With that command line you gave me, would I have to put that in the "run" command thing? I was also looking at that lneighborhood or whatever it was, the linux equivalent of network neightborhood, and how would I even install that program? I have drivers too on my computer from an exe that extract into four files for a cd rom drive, but have no idea how to install them. I really am SUPER NEW to linux so your responses were a little over my head but I am pluggin away trying to figure everything out althought that's not really happening. Also, do I need a specific setup for the networking setup thing? The one that configures the ethernet port. It always says it fails to locate the IP for it when I load up the computer. Well, thanks again for the help, take care.
-calimer

I am also new to Linux and would appreciate any help. This seems like the right thread for this question.

I was wondering if samba can be used to share a DSL (pppoe) connection? Either way, could you point me in the right direction as to what I need to do with or without samba. Eventually I want to use linux as a router/firewall for a network of win98 and linux boxes.

thx

samba is really used to share files from a windows box and linux box over a network. if you have a linux box and a windows box on the same network, yes, samba is a way to share the files..

linux is a perfect way to use to setup a firewall and router..
best site recommended is the howto's at www.linuxdoc.org

Well, I am fairly new to Linux as well... but I'll try and help.
I already have my network up and running just trying to get to complicated I think!

First off, are you running KDE or GNOME?
I am running KDE so I'll walk you through that.

1. you need an nic installed! of course, just have to make sure!
2. first thing is go to the shell and type "ping localhost" if you get a response your looking good so far. this means that your nic is working and waiting for some direction!
3. go to the panel and under system you should have network configuration. open that , then click on the tab devices.
you should have eth0 their?!? select that and click edit.
now in this new window that should have opened click protocols.
there should be tcp/ip protocol. Now click edit, ahh here is where the goods are now you need to configure your ip address and subnet mask. after setting these reboot the computer.
4. remember your ip address, go to the shell again and type "ping 192.168.0.1" I chose that ip address because it is a popular class c private address. yours may not be the same but anyhow ping your ip address if you get a response your good to go and then comes the complicated stuff!

if your running GNOME you should be able to go to the shell and type "netcfg" you will be able to configure from the window that should open. Don't know why netcfg doesn't work in KDE, of course maybe it does and I have something setup wrong.

also after everything should be set you can type "ifconfig" from the shell, and see how your nic is configured!

If this is to basic I apologize, if its not basic enough e-mail me and I will be glad to get more in depth.
god luck!
Gritts

Thanks for the direction trickykid. I'll give it a shot but I have a feeling that I'll be back... often.

Okay, I know that I'm supposed to use samba, but how do I use samba? It doesn't seem to be a program I just load up and go to work with. Also, I heard that mandrake is a lot easier for beginners, is the networking process easy in mandrake? Or is it about the same as using red hat 7.2
-calimer

for configuring samba, to start out it might be easier to use swat to configure it.
Samba is a daemon (smbd , and nmbd ; nmbd is for naming services) that you will need to configure to start at boot time or you can manually start and stop it.
I am at work right now and I don't know Linux well enough to rattle off the commands. I will try and get more info later.
or you might try a search on yahoo, and see if you can find any setup directions for samba.

I can help you out i can send you my settings or something. make sure that if you are using windows 2000 or win xp you ENABLE ENCRYPTION or something like that. I forgot exact name. But i was trying without it and it wouldn't work as soon as i enabled encryption it started working fine.

msg me on http://www.linuxforums.net and i can send you the file on that because this site dont support file attachment.

samba is not too hard to setup once you read the docs.

I was beating my head into a wall for a few days trying to figure out how to get samba to work. I installed the samba stuff using the RPMs (on RH7.2) and set everything up with swat but it just didn't work. I was like "what the hell!"...

Then I set an IP for my Win98 box and it worked like magic!

here is a good site for starting a basic samba setup
http://samba.netfirms.com/index.htm