[ale] Networking Linuxboxes

[Thompson Freeman]

On 05/27/2008 11:28:23 AM, Marc Ferguson wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I know this might be a silly question, but how do you
> network two or more
> linuxboxes.  I've done google searches on this and for the
> most part they
> write about SAMBA and how to network linux within a
> windows network.
> 
> My wife, finally installed linux on her machine this
> weekend - happy day!
> She's running openSUSE 10.3 and I'm running Fedora 8.  I
> thought they would
> automatically see each other, but it looks like there is
> more to it than I
> originally thought.  Right now it's a simple peer-to-peer
> network, I don't
> know if we'll should do a client-server structure, but
> I'll listen to any
> suggestions.  Thanks.

Couple of questions, the answers to which may help you  
track down your best approach. To begin with, how are  
things networked on the physical level? I'd assume that  
your and your ladys machines are simply nodes on a lan  
behind a router/switch to your isp. I'd also assume that  
your individual ip addresses are dynamically assigned by  
that same router. I could be easily wrong about this tho.  
Next question would be what needs sharing between the two  
or more boxes: files, printers, web pages, data base, chat??

The following partial discussion will be vigorously  
corrected by those who know better (and I'm sticking my  
neck out here just so that I can _get_ that correction!)

Asssuming that you have your machines behind a  
firewall/router/switch type box to the internet, you want  
to configure the router to assign each machine the same ip  
address eachtime that machine connects to the network. If  
that router will also provide local dns name service, use  
that as it will simplify administration of the rest of the  
network. Otherwise, you will need to add entries to each  
machine's /etc/hosts file corresponding to each machine.  
Also, you need to make sure that the firewall on each  
machine has a hole poked in it for each service you need to  
access. Obviously, disabling each machine's firewall  
amounts poking _lots_ of holes in the firewall.

As to sharing stuff. I _think_ printer sharing with cups  
should be pretty automatic at this point, but I'm not sure.  
You may have to enable sharing manually when you set up the  
printers.

File sharing could be via nfs (more of a client-server  
style arraingement) or samba, or possibly by a FUSE based  
system like sshfs. Google is your friend here. Personally I  
use nfs regularly, sshfs for fun and giggles, and samba  
historically but not now out of being lazy.

FWIW, assuming you are behind a firewall/router/switch, you  
might want to consider converting to some third party  
firmware to assure yourself the ability to run a local dns  
service, and possibly to host some print spool capability.

Hope this helps some.