[ale] Home Networking Opinions Please

[Jonathan Rickman]

On 12 Feb 2003, Neal Wilkinson wrote:

> I'm about to make the attempt to share files between my machine and my
> wife's and also a printer. They are both running Mandrake 9.0 and
> Windows Millennium. I want to be able to share files/printer regardless
> of the configuration of the other machine. In other words when I'm
> booted into Mandrake and she is in Windows nothing changes and vice
> versa. Also if we both are in Mandrake or Windows at the same time. I
> don't need any help Windows to Windows. I'm assuming from everything
> that I have read that the best way to go is NFS and Samba. I've also
> read about NIS but don't find any inference to its existence on my
> existing install of Mandrake. It sounds better to me but its advantages
> may be limited to much larger networks. I can go get it and install it
> if need be. Everything that I have read indicates to me that I will have
> to run a server for NFS or NIS and Samba. Is this something that I
> should just run on one of the workstations or should I devote a clunker
> to it? I'm guessing that it would need to be on a machine that wouldn't
> change configuration so that the service would always be available and
> that would make it a third dedicated machine. I assume that I could also
> rather than use a third machine run the servers on both workstations but
> that seems kind of hokey. The third machine would be without monitor but
> I could probably pick up a switch box. I've shared the printer before
> Linux to Linux and that was as easy as sharing it in Windows. I'm
> assuming that I can share it Windows to Linux using Samba. I would like
> to hear your opinions on doing it this way or other ways that I've not
> mentioned. I'm pretty tired of reading about it and am ready to do
> something but I want to do it correctly the first time. Ease of setup
> isn't my only consideration. I don't want to sacrifice the best method,
> most reliable, or security for ease of setup. The two machines I have
> now are connected via a BEFSR41 Linksys router if that makes a
> difference. I appreciate your insights, opinions, thoughts on this.
> Thanks.
>

Samba on a clunker sounds like the best bet. Too much complexity
otherwise.

--
Jonathan Rickman
X Corps Security
http://www.xcorps.net

_______________________________________________
Ale mailing list
Ale at ale.org
http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale