techMonday, October 31, 2005
forget SMB
having trouble networking your windows machines? or maybe a linux machine to a windows machine using Samba? Forget it!
SMB doesn't work anymore. It's bloated with different versions in each version of windows. You can't even network two Windows XP machines running the same version without bashing your head against the wall. It's a pain in the neck.
Just run an anonymous FTP server. Linux, Windows, it doesn't matter. You can connect to it from any computer, you can run it on any computer.
There are many, many ftp clients out there (you can just use windows explorer in a pinch).
There are also many ftp servers to choose from. I am currently using proftp. It works, I don't have any complaints. It's free (open source). Configuration may be a bit tricky, but once the server is setup, connecting to it is foolproof.
For configuration, look for some howto's on the internet or something (I didn't find any very good ones, but I figured out enough on my own (and with the proftp man pages) to get it working)
If you are running an ftp server that is visible on the internet, you will want to read about the security concerns that are involved with running such a setup. (it's probably safer than using any of those peer-to-peer networks out there).
Next time: run your own http server.
SMB doesn't work anymore. It's bloated with different versions in each version of windows. You can't even network two Windows XP machines running the same version without bashing your head against the wall. It's a pain in the neck.
Just run an anonymous FTP server. Linux, Windows, it doesn't matter. You can connect to it from any computer, you can run it on any computer.
There are many, many ftp clients out there (you can just use windows explorer in a pinch).
There are also many ftp servers to choose from. I am currently using proftp. It works, I don't have any complaints. It's free (open source). Configuration may be a bit tricky, but once the server is setup, connecting to it is foolproof.
For configuration, look for some howto's on the internet or something (I didn't find any very good ones, but I figured out enough on my own (and with the proftp man pages) to get it working)
If you are running an ftp server that is visible on the internet, you will want to read about the security concerns that are involved with running such a setup. (it's probably safer than using any of those peer-to-peer networks out there).
Next time: run your own http server.
