Creating a linux fileserver for the home network

[Mokmo418]

I have a PIII 1GHz with a recent install of Ubuntu 5.1. Biggest surprise right now is the fact you can't really stay in SuperUser mode. Anyway, i did a bunch of searches on creating a file server for my home network. Most of what i get: use Swat.

Ok... how do i get that ?

Or let's make it more simple: What distribution of Linux would be most fitting for a fileserver plugged into a network of 3 Winxp home machines ? I've read a few things about Xp being a little less compatible with Samba thant previous versions...

 

[n0cmonkey]

Swat should come with SAMBA, but I've found it to be relatively useless.

 

[Mokmo418]

ok...
So how would i set it up then... ?

 

[nsafreak]

I'd recommend using webmin. It's not just for SAMBA it's for pretty much every aspect of your linux box. I use it for web based administration on all of my linux boxes. You can download it at http://www.webmin.com very easy to use and install.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Mokmo418
ok...
So how would i set it up then... ?

Install SAMBA. Read documentation. Write a configuration file. Start [ns]mbd.

Pretty much all of those "web configuration" utilities are ass. I'd just ignore them.

 

[nsafreak]

n0monkey, 99% of the time I agree with you on things Linux but this time I have to disagree. Webmin does a very good job in presenting a usable web front end to a Linux computer and cooperates well with the applications it's integrated with.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: nsafreak
n0monkey, 99% of the time I agree with you on things Linux but this time I have to disagree. Webmin does a very good job in presenting a usable web front end to a Linux computer and cooperates well with the applications it's integrated with.

It's ass. Besides being a security nightmare, to get any real use out of these things you'll have to edit the conf file by hand anyhow.

 

[M00T]

Ubuntu already has a nice gui for connecting to shares or to set up shares.

To make shares:
System > Administration > Shared Folders

To mount shares:
Places > Connect to server
or
Places > Network servers

 

[Nothinman]

Biggest surprise right now is the fact you can't really stay in SuperUser mode

sudo -s

 

[imported_DarkPenguin]

The documentation at ubuntu has a whole samba section. Just bring up a term and typey typey.