[Dirk Gently]

Today I set up two PC's to use the same internet connection via a cable modem, one with Windows XP and one with Red Hat Linux 8 (Thanks to everybody that got me that far! ). The internet connection is set up fine, now I'd like to move on to getting the computers to communicate.
Both PC's are connected to the internet now and can ping each other and the router easily, so it seems that the basic requirements are met. However, there are files and a printer connected to the Windows PC that I'd like to share with the Linux PC. I've downloaded and installed the package for Samba 2.2.8. Now I'm stuck, though; I can't seem to find where Samba decided to put itself (can't figure out how to get at it through the command line or in the main menu). I may have just gotten the printer set up without it, so that seems to be ok... any advice for sharing the files though? Samba may not be necessary for that, but if not, then how can I access them?

[codejockey]

You do not need samba to access shared Windoze resources from a Linux machine. You can access Windoze files by mounting the Windoze filesystem(s) from your Linux box (one short example from a recent thread: http://forums.techguy.org/showthread...hreadid=146769). You can use the smbclient command to determine which shares are available from a particular Windoze machine (smbclient is part of samba, I believe).

Configuring Linux to print to Windoze printers varies depending on your distribution and which print spooler you are using (CUPS? lpr/lpd? something else?). For lpr/lpd, it's a matter of editing the /etc/printcap file and adding an entry for the Windoze printer and an appropriate filter script.

Hope this helps -- additional info appreciated.

[Dirk Gently]

That helps a LOT, thanks! I used the smbclient tool, my results are below... that's fine, but whenever I try to use, say, mount -t smbfs //WindowsXP/SharedDocs it just gives me the info on mount. (Oh, and the printer stuff below is a, um, work in progress, so don't take any info from that ) As for the printer, it's a Lexmark Z23... the closest thing to that in the list is Z22 / Z31, which I guess will be fine. It says lpd for the spooler. I used the "Printing" system setting in KDE 3 to set up the printer, which is set up as \\WindowsXP\Printer (which is the same as the settings below, you can see), of Queue type "SMB" on 192.168.0.3. Thanks again!

smbclient -L WindowsXP
added interface ip=192.168.0.2 bcast=192.168.0.255 nmask=255.255.255.0
Got a positive name query response from 192.168.0.3 ( 192.168.0.3 )
Password:
Domain=[CONNELL] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

Sharename Type Comment
--------- ---- -------
CD Drive Disk
IPC$ IPC Remote IPC
print$ Disk Printer Drivers
SharedDocs Disk
Shared Files Disk
CD-RW Drive Disk
Printer Printer Lexmark Z23-Z33

Server Comment
--------- -------
WINDOWSXP Windows XP Home Edition

Workgroup Master
--------- -------
CONNELL WINDOWSXP

[Dirk Gently]

oops, sorry that got a litte jumbled.. well, I guess it's readable...

[codejockey]

whenever I try to use, say, mount -t smbfs //WindowsXP/SharedDocs it just gives me the info on mount.

That's because you haven't provided a mount point (an existing directory on your Linux system) to receive the Windoze filesystem -- and Linux, in its own semi-opaque way, is trying to let you know that . Try something like: mount -t smbfs //WindowsXP/SharedDocs /mnt and see if that makes a difference; you can check the results with a quick ls -l /mnt to see if your Windoze files appear.

Hope this helps.

[Dirk Gently]

"[root@localhost /]# mount -t smbfs //WindowsXP/SharedDocs /mnt
Password:
[root@localhost /]# ls -l /mnt
total 9
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 132 Jul 27 17:22 desktop.ini
dr-xr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Sep 13 2002 My Music
dr-xr-xr-x 1 root root 4096 Sep 13 2002 My Pictures"

Thanks!! Just what I needed :-) That's windows' default I mounted, as you can see... I'll have to change that, tweak some stuff... thanks a lot, though!

[codejockey]

Nice work -- glad to help out .