I have a very simple network between a Windows XP machine and an Ubuntu Linux 7.10 one. I simply hooked these two machines up with an ethernet (wired) router and cat 5 cables.

The Windows machine is an Athlon 64 3700 with 1.5 gig of RAM and two internal hard drives, a 250 gig one and a 300 gig one. The Linux machine is a Pentium III with 256 MB of RAM and two internal hard drives, an 18 gig one and a 60 gig one.

All drives on the Windows machine are NTFS ones. All drives on the Linux machine are ext3 ones. I've installed the IFS Drives utility in Windows to give Windows the ability to read the ext3 drives. I also ran the Windows networking wizard.

I want to do one of two things: 1) Share the 18 gig Linux drive on the network so that I can copy files to it from the Windows machine. 2) Share the \home\tom\music drive on the Linux machine so that I can copy files to it from the Windows machine.

The most important thing is to be able to copy files from the Windows PC to the Linux one. The ability to copy other way around would be nice, but is not imperative.

I've been googling like crazy, but can't seem to find how to share a Linux drive on my simple network. How do I do it?

Was installing the IFS Drives utility in Windows a good strategy or would I be better off converting the 18 gig drive into an NTFS partition?

Have you considered Samba?

From a command prompt (change as required for your user account):

From the menu:
System -> Administration -> Shared Folders

Click Add
Select the Path that you want to share
Type a share name (must be a unique share name on that file server)
Specifiy whether access should be read only (tick box)


From Windows file explorer:
Tools -> Map Network Drive
Select Drive Letter
Enter the share location: \\ubuntu\test (change as required)

You should be asked for a user name/password to access the share.

Username should be: ubuntu\disillusionist (change as required)
Password should be the smb password you created in the first step

Hope this helps

As far as I know, IFS works on the same machine (so in multi-boot situations).

Thanks for the help. I'm partway there. Turns out I already had Samba installed on my system -- I probably didn't it via my package organizer. I didn't have its documentation installed, so I installed that.

I've done the steps you've described. However, I've hit an impasse. Frustrating, so frustrating. In the Windows File Explorer, I can see the Linux machine, but I can't access it. Here's what I'm seeing:

http://tommeinenphotography.com/netw.../cantlogin.gif

The Okay button on the browse for folder dialogue box is always greyed out. My Windows machine is named Athlon_screamer and my Linux one is named Toms-jukebox. So I right click on Toms-jukebox and choose Open or Explore. It doesn't matter which. I'm always prompted for a user name and password. I type my user name "tom" in and my password. No luck. It never lets me in. It changes the user name field to TOMS-JUKEBOX\tom. I try over and over, but can't get in. I also don't see the folder I shared under Toms-jukebox.

I thought maybe Windows wasn't seeing the drive because of its being an ext3 one. Maybe that utility I installed in Windows isn't working. So I used Gparted to convert the drive to a FAT32 one. It wouldn't let me make it an NTFS one. Still no luck. I can't get in. Extremely frustrating. I know for certain my Linux password is correct. I haven't changed it, and I have it written down. I can log into the Linux machine just fine with it.

On the Linux machine, I went to System ==> Administration ==> shared folders. I clicked on the shared drive and then on properties. In the "shared through" field I've tried both Windows networks (SBM) and Unix Networks (NFS). I can't get either to work. On the Windows machine, I've tried typing in my user name as it's shown on the Linux machine: /home/tom. Windows doesn't let me do it that way. It gives me a speech balloon: "username@domain DOMAIN\username". So I try TOMS-JUKEBOX\tom -- doesn't work. I try tom@toms-jukebox. @#$% thing still doesn't work. I tried right clicking and choosing properties, and it says I don't have the appropriate rights to access the server.

Gonna take some time away from the computer now. It's driving me nuts. If anyone knows what's wrong, I would very much appreciate suggestions. Your help is greatly appreciated.

The Shared through should be Windows Networks (SMB) as you want to make the file share accessible in Windows.
The username should be Toms-jukebox\tom
The password should be whatever you set via the sudo smbpasswd tom command

Please confirm that the linux account tom exists and has the appropriate access to the directory that you are sharing out.

Please also post the contents of your /etc/samba/smb.conf file.