[strudles]

I have a peep to peer network setup at home (2 Windows 98 machines) I have a linux box connected to the same hub, sharing the dsl. do I have to install and configure Samba in order to work with the Windows machines? Has anyone tried this? ANy good tips?

[codejockey]

Yes, you will need to install/configure Samba in order to communicate with Windoze machines. Samba works flawlessly with Windoze 98 machines, so you should not have problems there. However, configuration can be a bit of a pain. A few suggestions:

(1) You will need TCP/IP support for file and print sharing on the Windoze machines; Samba runs over TCP/IP rather than NetBEUI.
(2) Pay attention to password encryption; you need to make sure that both your Linux machines and your Windoze machines are using the same form of password (encrypted/unencrypted).
(3) You'll need to customize your smb.conf file (often in /etc/samba or /usr/local/samba/lib).
(4) Check out the SMB-HOWTO for good info on configuring and running Samba.
(5) I believe there is a graphic Samba configuration tool (swat), although I haven't used it. You may prefer this interface to editing configuration files directly.

Hope this helps.

[Gibble]

Just to add, with SAMBA you can use windoze 95 and windoze 2k machines with your linux box as well, without a problem. (Ironically I have more problems getting win2k to work with win95 and win98 than I have getting my linux samba computer to work with them)

[strudles]

Thanks for the suggestions. Hopfully, I can get my feet wet with Samba this weekend and get it up and running.