Could someone explain to me in a step by step process, what I have to do to be able to share files between my PC, and my laptop, both of which are running OpenSuse 10.3? NO WINDOZE systems are connected, just the linux systems, and I want to be able to share files between the laptop and the main PC. I'm hooked up via a wireless router.

I've played with Samba and have gotten so far as to get the PC to see the laptop, but when I go into it (in network folders), I get an error, "could not connect to host."

How should I set up both systems, to be able to read and write to certain folders on each system??

Samba is used to share files between Unix and Windows machines. It is not required for Unix-to-Unix file sharing, though you can use it for that if you like.

But you should really be using NFS in a Unix environment. It is a much more robust protocol, and is generally integrated better into the OS.

Here is a guide for setting up NFS on OpenSUSE which should be helpful.

Ok, that gave me some idea, but I'm still getting nowhere. That guide isn't very clear on what I need to do with the client. What is my hostname? Where do I find that? And how do I setup the laptop to access those files on the host pc? I'm pretty confused at that step, but other than that, I did what it said, and just can't figure past the server point.

Guess you should first check your wireless router and all firewalls are open between your machines. You should also be able to use internal IP adresses instead of hostnames. Once all in place you can for example mount your PC-HD on your laptop.

I'm not much help but I can be moral support. I've tried to use that guide and got nowhere essentially myself. I'm stumped, I can not figure out why I can't get the laptop and desktop networked.