[SLUG] Copying files from one machine to another

[john at johnallsopp.co.uk]

Hi ppl

As you already know, I've got my old RH9 machine, and a new FC4 one
which is fully updated. They are networked using a Linksys hub, and I
can ping the old from the new.

I want to transfer my work files across from one to the other, then I
can start using the new machine. This is turning out to be far from
simple. I could do it by burning CDs, but I want to do it 'properly'.

Being an internet kinda guy, I looked for ftp. I just tried it and it
fails and, looking into it, it turns out that any inbound requests to
ports are managed by xinetd which works out which service is required
and passes it to the appropriate daemon.

On my old machine, xinetd seems to support things like telnet (I get
connection refused, however) and rsync, but no ftp.

rsync looks interesting, that allows you to synchronise file trees.
Fantastic.

It requires SSH to be up and running. That's not in the xinetd list of
supported protocols on the old machine so, predictably, I get
Connection Refused.


I had tried, previously, to get NFS to work, but didn't manage that
either, but I think I'll have a wander through that again now, since
I've re-installed FC4.

But basically, since I have such a lot of choice of ways that this
isn't working, I was wondering where people think the weak point is in
this wall. Which brick would most effectively reward a little bit more
hammering? Where's my best chance of success? Currently, it appears to
be installing Windows ;-)

J