[Rav]

I am running Mandrake 8.1 KDE on an older system, and its been working pretty nicely except that I've been having some problems with its LAN functionality. Its working as a router for my internet connection just fine, with an IP and being connected to by my windows machines for internet access via DHCP, but as far as file sharing goes its stuck. When I try to go to 'Local Network' all I get is 'Cannot connect to host localhost'. I can't connect using lan:// to anything, whether I use the computer's name, or IP for it or any other computer on the network. I figure once I get this sorted out I can worry about samba.

Also, is anyone using the SNF for Mandrake?

Thanks!

-Rav

[XWRed1]

You talking about sharing as in file sharing, as in Windows File and Print sharing? Because that is directly tied to Samba... you have to have Samba set up to be able to participate in any of that.

[Rav]

I have the samba client installed, but I beleive that to access it, you have to get to a sub-tree of the 'Local network'.

-Rav

[SpeeDj]

How does one correctly set up a samba file sharing system ? This is something I have always wanted to get working but have never been able to. I either have to mount files off the windows portion of the drive or FTP into my network and grab files off a FTP server. I would love to know how to set this up properly if anyone cares to share their success with it.

J

[XWRed1]

Rav:
I don't know what you're talking about with that 'Local Network' subtree, but I'm pretty sure its incorrect.

SpeeDJ (and Rav):
You just need to get Samba installed properly on your system, then find smb.conf (usually in /etc or somewhere branching from the samba dir), and configure all the Samba settings.

There's a web-based frontend for the configuration called Swat.

Once you have Samba in proper working order, Windows machines should see your shares, and you will have to choose from an array of client tools to get at shares on other machines.

Samba by itself comes with only 2 access tools: smbmount (mount also, I guess) and smbclient. Smbmount lets you mount samba shares like any other device, into your filesystem. You can alternatively just use mount, specifying the filesystem as smbfs and feeding it the right options. Smbclient is an ftp like interface, and is rather crude.

If you have something like Konqueror or Nautilus, you can use those to trawl the shares on other boxen, although you need to know the target ip or computer name before hand. Once you do, just point either one of those file managers to "smb://computername", with an optional "/share" on the end.