[Wylug-help] Mounting a networked MS-Win file system

[Shaun Laughey]

On Mon, 2006-02-20 at 19:03 +0100, Trevor Noland wrote:
> I want to access files on PCs running various versions of MS Windows from my
> Linux machine. I hoped to be able to mount a file system, then open, read,
> and write to the PC from programs running in the Linux machine as though
> they were local, but I'm not getting it.
> 
> My Linux is pretty old and doesn't know anything about the option "-t
> smbfs", but recognises "-t nfs" if that is any help.
> 
> I wouldn't be surprised if this is something very simple that I'm missing.
> 
> I've read all I can understand about "mount" and "fstab" and "hosts.allow"
> (to which I've added the IPs of the Windows machines I want to access), but
> to no avail. I must be too thick.
> 
> Can anyone tell this newbie what to do please?
> 
> Thanks,
> Trevor.
> 
> P.S. - All these machines are in an ethernet LAN, not on the Internet.

Hello Trevor,

As no doubt many people will point out windows can sometimes be very
hard to communicate with even with other windows machines.

However one of the things you will need to do with a windows network is
communicate using a common language.

Unfortunately NFS is your network sharing language and that is not
spoken by windows and you do not have samba installed on your linux
machine in order to speak in SMB or CIFS which is the main language of
windows machines.

However all is not lost you can do one of the following depending on
what resources you have available.

1) Install Unix Services for Windows. Available from one of the windows
websites - possibly technet.
	It used to cost additional fees to use, it could still cost thousands
and it _will_ have a restrictive licence on it. I have never personally
used it although several Microsoft engineers I have worked with have in
Solaris / AIX shops where they insisted on using their old fashioned
OS's.
	You could then probably use one central server to create a common share
for your linux and your windows machines.

2) Install samba on your linux machine and mount their shares locally.
	Samba-client tools are widely available and are easy to install with
little impact on your system. 
	In addition install samba-server on your linux machine and allow them
to access your machine too. This sometimes will need a little more work.

3) Use NFS support in cygwin. Its free and relatively easy to install.
But it will mean all new software on each windows machine. Plus NFS is a
different security model and can be a bit harder to lock down if you
have to do that sort of thing.

4) Use some ftp based work around / kludge.
	Easy to do. Built into windows. Authentication can be a bit more
difficult but generally its easy to do.
	But you may see files corrupt or they will get replaced with 0 byte
files or the content just mangle every now and then especially when your
windows machine is using some third rate "DSL Rated" network card which
starts switching on and off when it gets a little too busy. Or the OS
has one of their virus friends over for tea.
	Been there. Still occasionally go there. It's horrible. Don't do it if
you can help it.

So what to do?

	Personally I'd install samba and configure that - go with the flow -
they all use it so you may as well.

	If you need help don't be afraid to ask the list - I'm sure many of us
have used samba in many different ways and in different environments.

	I use it every day in my work and have done for at least 6 years in
OSX, Solaris and Linux systems.
	
	It's only had a serious problem with some bizarre applications one of
which was ACT! and their at the time [CENSORED] database files that
actually were just text files with a special "CORRUPT ME" mode. Another
was using similar text files or DBase files to give them their "pretend
its not a text file" name.

	Performance wise - samba is excellent. I've had shares that held
hundreds of thousands of teeny little files with hundreds of
transactions per minute with no worries except I ran out of inodes once.


Hope this helps,
Shaun Laughey.