Ubuntu - Setting up your home network with ubuntu and windows, using samba

 

What i wanted todo

I have 1 ubuntu desktop 7.04 which i wanted to host all the files on the network.

I then have server ubuntu desktops and windows pc’s which needed to be able to access these shared files

 

Step 1, install samba on the ’server’

The first thing you need to do is install samba on your ’server’ and then configure it accordingly.

This is a very simple and already well documented process, i recommend following the excellent tutorial which you can read by clicking this link

 

Set 2, connect your windows and ubuntu pc’s to the server

To connect your windows pc’s to your samba server is already well documented in the tutorial available here.

To connect your ubuntu desktops to your samba server, follow these steps:

  1. Click ‘Places’
  2. Click ‘connect to server’
  3. Change the drop down box to ‘windows share’
  4. In the ‘Server’ field, put the same name you put in for the ‘netbios name = YOUR_HOSTNAME’ in the ‘/etc/samba/smb.conf’ ie: the hostname of your server
  5. put your ‘username’ in the ‘username’ field.
  6. Put in the password when promted

You should now have your ubuntu machine connect to your other ubuntu machine, this should be visible in the ‘Places’ section.

 

Symlink your local home dir to your samba ubuntu ’server

So your on your ubuntu desktop, and u want to access files easily that are on the samba ubuntu server.

ntom@localhost:~$ sudo apt-get install smbfs

 

Then create a folder in your home directory… eg: /home/username/sharedfiles

Then mount your ’server’ to that directory..

ntom@localhost:~$ sudo mount -t smbfs //server/foldername /home/username/sharedfiles -o username=usersname,password=password

 

I hope this helps others out there :)

Please leave comments on bugs and how you fixed them if you encounter any