I am also not really concerned about security since everything is at home. Hence, all my Linux configurations are done in root user mode. This removes the confusion of which commands will work and which won’t.
To set up networking, both PCs need to be assigned IP addresses and put on the same workgroup. For the sake ofthis story, Darkstar is configured on an IP address 192.168.0.10 and Moonshine on 192.168.0.20. In Linux, IP addresses are specified at the time of install when the network adapter is configured. If it was not, then you can use a command like
# Redhat-config-network
in a terminal window. This will bring up the network connection dialog. You can configure the network card as well as specify the I P address.
Once you have connected the two PCs with the crossover cable, check the network connectivity using the PI NG command. You can use it on both Windows as well as Linux.
So to check the connection from my Linux PC to the Windows PC, I type:
# Ping 192.168.0.10
where 192.168.0.10 is the IP address of the Windows PC.
I have two rigs at home that were waiting patiently for this story to get introduced. They are called Darkstar and Moonshine. Darkstar runs Windows XP Professional with a Pentium III - 667 MHz processor and 128 MB of RAM on an ASUS CUBX mainboard. Moonshine runs Red Hat Linux 8.0 with an AMD Athlon XP 2600 and 256 MB of RAM on a state-of-the-art Biostar M7NCG nForce2 mainboard. They both reside on my home workgroup which is called Aquanova.
Since it is a home network, I do not have the need for a client-server domain which will require me to have a network switch or hub in place. I have connected the two PCs with a crossover CATS network cable. You can get such a have the need for a client-server domain which will require me to have a network switch or hub in place. I have connected the two PCs with a crossover CATS network cable. You can get such a cable from your local vendor–just mention that you want to connect two PCs directly.
SAMBA solved all our interoperability problems at the lab and the transition to a complete Linux-based system was so smooth that many of us realized the difference only after a week. The most noticeable thing about it was the simplicity. I decided to implement SAMBA at home the day I had two PCs at my disposal. This story is about that day. The day I set up a SAMBA-based network with a Linux and a Windows PC at home. I will take you through my setup and try to help you do it yourself. As the SAMBA slogan goes: Opening Windows to a Wider World!
One caveat here: this is a very basic step-by-step workshop that will let you set up a SAMBA server in no time with the bare minimum configurations. To really understand its power, you will have to read and experiment with stuff that is way beyond the scope of this story. I will assume that since you intend to go ahead with this, you can manage to configure LAN cards and make both machines network ready. And you understand basic networking principles such as IP addresses, workgroups, hostname resolution and the PING command. I will refer to my home network all through the story.
The solution came in the form of SAMBA-which we came to know later, was a standard feature on Linux systems. SAMBA (hey that’s a form of dance right? Not this one though) comes from 5MB or Server Message Block, a network protocol that allows sharing of files on Windows. It is also called CIFS (Common Internet File System), which is Microsoft’s new acronym describing the more recent version of this protocol.
SAMBA is an incredible tool that implements the 5MB/C1FS protocol for UNIX to allow seamless sharing of resources between Windows and Linux over a network SAMBA provides file and print services for Microsoft Windows clients. These services may be hosted on anyTCP/IP-enabled platform. The original deployment platforms were UNIX and Linux, though today it is in common use across a broad variety of systems.
This is one of my personal experiences that I would love to share with you all. I would go in detail but it may take quite a few days to actually cover it. So if you are here bookmark us so that you dont miss any part of it. And yes next month we have an ergonmics series coming. So be sure to be check us every week.
About three years ago when I was in college doing my MBA, I had the good fortune of coming across a rather bizarre problem that changed my whole idea of interoperability in the software world. You wonder how a problem could be fortunate. Well, it was the solution of the problem that is the point of discussion and which will be the subject of the workshop that you are about to read.
We had a huge computer lab with state-of-the-art infrastructure. One fine September morning, the faculty gave us the wonderful news that a slow but sure make over from a Windows-based environment to a Linux-based one was in the works. The reasons were academic as well as financial. Though I was already tinkering with it on my home PC, I was ecstatic; finally I could taste the power of Linux on such a large scale over a network. But the ecstasy very soon passed away as I realized that interoperability between Linux and Windows machines over the network was going to be a major issue since the makeover was going to happen in batches. Even if a set of PCs were running Linux, they had to be connected to other Windows-based machines for basic resources such as file and print servers.
