On Tue, 19 Feb 2002, Kathy Montgomery wrote: > I have a Windows 98/Mandrake regular computer and a Win 98/Mandrake > laptop. That's 4 separate filesystems on which to be confused about > where I have left my files. For that reason, I was thinking about > creating a little LAN (that would not need to be connected to the > Internet), and setting up a third machine as a file server. That way, > whatever OS/machine I'm on I could access the same files > (theoretically). > > Has anyone done this or does anyone have any tips on getting started? > Would I need any hardware besides a hub and Ethernet cards? Could I use > Samba to see the served files from Windows? Do I have to use NFS on the > server? Any recommended backup strategies? Could I find information > about this subject in any system administration book? > The LAN option is the best. One other possibility:
Save all your files to the Windows partition on the regular computer and use Windows sharing to make them accessible to the laptop. The Linux OS on the desktop will be able to access the Windows partition without too much difficulty. Linux on the laptop can access the share via smbclient. As for the LAN setup, I'm doing a similar thing on my home network. I created server using an old Pentium 233/MMX with a 10Gig IDE. The /home/public directory is shared via NFS, Samba and Netatalk for Linux, Windows and Macintosh clients respectively. Things that will be useful: 1) Create a "local" group and enroll all NFS users in this group. Give the /home/public (or wherever) write access to this directory. Map the Samba user to an ID that's enrolled in this group. 2) Make sure that the user IDs are identical on both Linux machines. For backups I use DLT drive with a 5 tape rotation. Your needs may be different though. If you have a CD burner on the server you can use xcdroast to dump the shared directory to CD (I do this occasionally). Depending on what sort of files you're saving you might even consider using CVS. That is, if you work with a lot of text files and source code, CVS will allow you to track versions and merge differences between versions. It works wonderfully for the TeX documents I produce. If you have a lot of MP3s, you might consider installing a streaming server. This allows you to play songs from withing WinAmp, XMMS, or the QuickTime player directly over the network using a single protocol. > Thanks, > Kathy > > -- > Unix fun: > > $ cat "food in can" > cat: cannot open food in can > > > >
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