Re: linux box on XP home network

From: P Gentry (rdgentry1_at_cablelynx.com)
Date: 09/22/04 

Date: 21 Sep 2004 15:36:31 -0700

the black rose <blackrosequilts@netscape.net> wrote in message news:<N3W3d.239796$bp1.142319@twister.nyroc.rr.com>...
> Please be patient with me; it's been 10 years since I played with Linux
> and I've forgotten a LOT. Not to mention, the last time I played with
> Linux I had one computer on a dial-up, not 4 computers on a home LAN.
>
> The situation. I have a cable modem. Attached to the cable modem is a
> four-port router. Attached to the router are 3 desktops running Windows
> XP and one laptop running Mandrake 10. I just installed Mandrake on the
> laptop last night. (FWIW, it's a Dell Inspiron 8100 with a built-in
> ethernet card.)
>
> The laptop can reach the internet. I can browse the web. But I can't
> find the other computers on the home network (which means I can't reach
> the shared printer on one of the XP boxes). I can't find any reference
> to the XP workgroup anywhere, but maybe I'm not looking in the right place.

First thing to confirm is that you can ping the other computers --
ie., that you can acutally reach them. Till then, all else is moot.

> Using KDE desktop, which utility do I use to try to find the network?
> Do I assume correctly that I'm going to have to tell it the workgroup
> name and all that? I can't even find where to do that.

See below for some links that may get you started -- not sure how
complete the instructions are since I don't use MDK. I'm also not
sure what software you already have at hand (on disk or cd) or what
you might have to download.

> Would it be better if I wiped everything and started over with another
> distribution, if there's one better for a mixed home network?

Seems doubtful to me from reading the few docs I read. MDK is
considered more user friendly than most of the others and this is an
area that requires user friendliness :-)

> I have other issues with the touchpad and X -- would someone please
> point me to the proper group to ask about those? I can take a stab and
> guess, but I'm frankly afraid to ask the wrong question on the wrong
> newsgroup.

All things laptop are pretty brand/model specific as well as what
distro you run. Try here for some help:
http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/
http://www.tuxmobil.org/howtos.html

Not sure what on-line support MDK has that might help.

> Any information greatly appreciated. Email addy works as-is if that is
> more convenient.
>
> -km

Here's some links I picked up from Google -- ah, remember Google?

http://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=kde+konqueror+smb+client&btnG=Search
gave up these and many others ...
http://mandrakeuser.org/docs/connect/csamba.html
https://www.linux-magazine.com/issue/28/SMBClients.pdf
These two integrate SMB into Konqueror -- you likely already have the
software and just need to configure it, hopefully ;)

More general results:
http://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&lr=lang_en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=linux+client+cifs&btnG=Search

http://us4.samba.org/samba/docs/
http://us4.samba.org/samba/GUI/
http://linux-cifs.samba.org/

A couple of network browsers (there are a number of others at GUI
above):
http://smb4k.berlios.de/
http://www.obdev.at/products/sharity/

Background on the newer cifs client:
http://www.linux-mag.com/2004-01/guru_01.html
http://www.linux-mag.com/2004-05/guru_01.html

Well, you get the picture. Perhaps someone with recent MDK10
experience can point you directly to what you need to know.

hth,
prg
email above disabled

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