Ubuntu Linux – Replacing Windows – Day 6

10 April 2009 1 views No Comment

Ubuntu in 7 Days: Day 6

Day1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7

Lets talk a little networking in this Day 6. You are connected to the internet, so it is safe to say your network is fine. Here I assuming you know how to configure or atleast stop the firewall, if any, in order to proceed.

Connecting to Windows Shares

You have shared your folders in another Windows machine. How to access it from Ubuntu?

Connecting to Windows share is very simple and straight forward affair in Ubuntu. As long as you have shared out folders on your Windows machine and ensured that any firewall in the Windows machines allows the Linux machine to access, it is a piece of cake.

Ubuntu or all Linux makes use of Samba(SMB) to access Windows shares and vice versa.

Click Places >> Network

This part would be familiar if you have shared Windows based PC. Just Click on Windows Network followed by Workgroup.

You should see your Windows PC name. Just double click and access.

Sharing Linux folders to Windows

Samba service makes it easy for us again. To share say a ‘Music’ folder in Ubuntu, Right click on a folder and click share.

You will get a pop up as shown below. Ensure both options are ticked and click ‘Install Services’.

After installation has finished, allow the folder to be shared or written to. You might just leave it to be read only or writable. Your choice.

Conclusion

We are done with basic networking. Accessing a NAS would be the same method depends of which system the NAS is based on.

Don’t forget that the firewall coould cause connection issues. If you encounter any problem, disable both Windows and Linux firewalls and trouble shoot from there. I suggest creating an acception based on either the pc name or IP address. If you done know how, Google it.