Mepis Laptop as Part of MS Network

are you using the xp firewall or zonealarm? this would answer that one.

if your using the xp firewall you can permit file and print sharing under the exceptions tab under windows firewall in the control panel.

does your router have a built in firewall? as you don't want to allow anybody to access your files.

Alan

Using Mepis...and proud of it.

Actually I have 3 machines on my network. The one that is cabled to router is using zonealarm, as is one other machine. The last one is using EZ firewall.

Also, my router does have a firewall.

FYI, am using SBC DSL and router and two wireless cards are 2Wire brand.

Thanks for the reply catbert.

Hal,

I'm not sure if you can achieve the results you desire running Mepis 'live' (opposed to installed on the hard drive).

All computers must belong to the same Workgroup (e.g. 'Home'). So, in this instance, the Samba workgroup 'Mepisgroup' should be changed to 'Home'. This setting is found in the Mepis OS Center under 'system tweaks'.

q

If you treat your beta-testers as if they're your most valuable resource, they will respond by becoming your most valuable resource.

Q,

I would be installing on HD. However, thought I could at least modify session using 'live' CD to see if attaching to network could be done easily.

Thanks for the response.

Hal

Even tough I'm not completely sure about your needs, I think they are among the most commons in a home network.
Just for your information, my personal computer runs Mepis, has attached an Epson printer which is shared in my network and used mainly by my wife through her windows 2000 PC with no problemas at all. My linux printer is seen as a windows printer inside windows, you will not see any difference.
On the other hand, sharing files is more than possible, the w2k PC uses my linux server to store certain files, it is absolutely transparent to the user.
Based on the fact that Linux is based on Unix it is possible to affirm that, in terms of networking, when unix computers started to talk each other, Microsoft hadn't been created.

The account would be an account that exists on your Mepis box and the password would be the password for that account.

I don't recall whether Mepis opens up all user accounts as potential SAMBA accounts or not, but you may want to lock down some of the accounts so that you can't get into them via SAMBA. But make sure that SAMBA works first then I'm sure one of us can help you tighten it down a bit

Jon

put in your mepis username and password.
sometimes this doesn't work and then you need to alter the samba configuration file or install a small workaround on your windows machine

sgb7930, most of the cofigurations are fairly liberal by default. You can check /etc/samba/smb.conf to see how your system is set up. You must be root and edit the file with your favorite editor (make a copy of the file first).

Some of the important items to check:
Near the top of the file in the [global] section is a variable workgroup. It will say something like:
workgroup = yourworkgroup
You should be able to see yourworkgroup from your Windows system(s).
hosts allow = one.or.more.ip addresses.or.valid.names
That is one that may be your "gotcha". Put the IP address(es) if your different systems here. One way you can allow all local 192.168.x.y IP addresses is to enter it as "192.168." (with the trailing ".")

Go to the bottom of the file. You can have different "shares" by marking them with [username]. Under [yourusername] you can specify
path = /home/yourusername/someshareddirectory or just /home/yourusername
You can also set
read only = yes

If you make any changes to the file, save it and then issue the following command as root:
/etc/init.d/samba restart

Once samba restarts, give Windows a few moments (it's a little slow sometimes) and check to see if you can see the shares.

Let us know what happens!

Jon

Oh, I just remembered! Did you make any changes in the guarddog firewall yet?

Here are a couple things you can do sgb7930.

Either you can open your Mepis accounts up to a "guest" account that doesn't require passwords (security risk), or you can set passwords for the accounts (less security risk).

Make these changes as root in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file.

To set up [yourusername] to allow "guest", enter
guest ok = yes
You may also want to add
read only = yes
if it's not already there. This will allow access with no password.

If you want to have a password on the account, then don't put in the "guest ok" line or comment it out by preceeding the line with ";" (semicolon).

If you make any changes to smb.conf, save the file and then, as root, execute:
/etc/init.d/samba restart

To create/change a password for samba, do the following command as root:
smbpasswd -a yourusername
New SMB password: supersecretpassword
Retype new SMB password: supersecretpassword
Added user yourusername

If you get an error, you may need to delete the user's password from the file. You can do that by entering as root:
smbpasswd -x yourusername
deleted user yourusername

Give that a try!

Jon

I'm glad to hear that it's working now! Congratulations.

When I was testing on one of my systems I had the same experience as you; when I tried to change the password I was informed that my user was already set up. That's why I was able to tell you to delete the thing

I think when SAMBA is initially loaded it creates the users, but I don't know what the default password(s) might be. So I found that it was easier to delete the user and reinstall.

So again, I'm glad that you were able to finally get things going

Jon