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4. Basic Windows For Workgroups 3.11 Setup

(written by Paul Wagner, pwagner@uwstout.edu)

For the examples below, we will assume a Red Hat Linux system called RHHOST and a WfWg system called WFWGSYS.

This section of the document covers the following:

  1. General WfWg 3.11 Setup
  2. Using services on your Red Hat server box from your WfWg 3.11 client
  3. Using your WfWg 3.11 system as a server, providing services to your Red Hat system acting as a client

4.1 General WfWg 3.11 Setup

Installing TCP/IP protocol on the WfWg 3.11 system

You need to install and activate TCP/IP to support Samba connectivity (the basic NetBEUI protocol that supports WfWg-based connectivity is NOT sufficient). You can install Microsoft's TCP/IP 32-bit stack, which is available by anonymous FTP from:

ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/bussys/clients/wfw/TCP32B.EXE

(there is also a tcp32 fixes file which we have not yet investigated, as we've not yet had problems with the basic TCP/IP package).

The general steps to install this under WfWg are:

Network (Group)
  Network Setup (Icon)
    (Network) Drivers
       Add Protocol
         - specify drive and path of TCP32.EXE file
         - follow directions
         - will have to specify net address for WfWg machine and 
                   the appropriate subnet

Setting up additional network information for the WfWg 3.11system

You may have already done this if you've used WfWg networking. If not, you'll need to do this now. The general steps are:

Main (Group)
  Control Panel (Icon)
    Network (Icon)
      Computer Name -- specify a WfWg client name; e.g. WFWGSYS
      Workgroup -- specify a name for your group of systems, 
         e.g. MYNET.  The default workgroup from nmbd's point
         of view is LANGROUP; you must modify the nmbd startup
         as noted above if you don't use LANGROUP
      Default Logon Name -- specify a default user name to identify
         the user of the WfWg system; e.g. WFWGUSER.  You may need
         to create an account for this user on your Red Hat system.
      Options -- Startup, Password -- it may not be necessary to modify
         these to get things working, but may want to look at these based
         on your needs and circumstances.

4.2 Using services on your Red Hat server box from your WfWg 3.11 client

Printing from WfWg 3.11 through a printer on your Red Hat system

You should now be able to connect to a printer on the Red Hat host (acting as a server system) by doing the following on your WfWg system (acting as a client):

Main (Group)
  Print Manager (Icon)
    Print (Menu Option)
      Connect Network Printer (Submenu Option)
        Path -- you can directly specify the path to a printer in the form 
           \\RedHatSystem\printer ; e.g. \\RHHOST\LP , or:
        Show Shared Printers On (should show all systems as seen
            by nmbd; click on desired system (e.g. RHHOST) to see...)
        Shared Printers (will show a list of available printers and 
            other services on the server system you've selected)

If your Red Hat server is set up correctly (mostly a matter of a correctly configured smb.conf file), printing on your WfWg system should now pass through to the specified (in the path above) print queue on your Red Hat system.

Accessing a shared drive on your Red Hat system from your WfWg3.11 system

You can also connect to server shares (directories) on your Red Hat system by doing the following on your WfWg system:

Main (group)
  File Manager (icon)
    Disk (menu item)
      Connect Network Drive (submenu item)
        Drive -- specify the next available DOS drive letter, e.g. E
        Path -- can specify the full path to the shared area, including
          the system and the shared area (e.g. \\RHHOST\DOS_DISK ), or
          you can ``browse'' using:
        Show Shared Directories On -- can specify system to browse for
          shared directories; click on system to show:
        Shared Directories -- will show any shared directories on the
          the Red Hat system you've specified

Again, you should now be able to generally access the directory shares from the Red Hat system as if they were local to the Windows client system.

4.3 Using your WfWg 3.11 system as a server, providing services to your Red Hat system acting as a client

Accessing a shared drive on your WfWg 3.11 system from your RedHat system

You will need to get the ksmbfs package which is separate from the basic Samba software on your Red Hat system. You can get this at, e.g.:

ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/Filesystems/smbfs/ksmbfs-0.3.tgz

Unzip and untar this package, and then just type make. You should get a bin subdirectory with three files: smbfs.o, smbmount, and smbumount. The first is a module that only needs to be installed if you are running kernel 1.2.13 or less than 1.3.8 --- newer kernels have this module built in. If you need to install this, you will need a recent modules package (e.g. 1.2.8), which you can also get off of the usual sites. You can then install the module with:

insmod smbfs.o

You can now make directories available on your WfWg 3.11 system by doing:

Main (group)
  File Manager (icon)
    Disk (menu item)
      Share As: (submenu item)
         Share Name -- name for shared directory; e.g. WFWGDISK
         Path -- path of this directory; e.g. C:\
         Comment -- comment seen by browser; e.g. C: Drive on WFWG System
         Access Type -- choose Read-Only or Full (Read-Write)
         Password -- set a password for accessing this share

Finally, you can make such shares accessible from your Red Hat system by using the smbmount utility you've just built from the ksmbfs package; e.g.:

smbmount //WFWGSYS/WFWGDISK some-mount-point -P password

You may have to add the -c RHHOST option if you have a fully qualified domain name for your Red Hat system (here acting as a client). Now, the WfWg directory should be available to use on your Red Hat system.

You can also use the smbclient utility, which does come with the basic Samba suite on Red Hat Linux, to provide an FTP-like file interface between a Red Hat system acting as a client and a WfWg system acting as a server. See man smbclient for more information on this.

Printing from your Red Hat system to a printer on your WfWg 3.11system

Here you can use the smbclient program, which again comes with the basic Samba package, to print Red Hat files on a WfWg system. The basic command to get this going is:

smbclient \\server\service -P

You may have to double up each \ character, as these are normally escape characters under Linux. The -P option says to connect as a printer service. You may be prompted for a password if there is one on the service; if so, enter it and press the [Enter] key.

You will now be given the smbclient prompt, e.g. smb: \>. The smbclient commands to print on the remote service are:

print filename             ; prints the RH file on the WfWg system
queue                      ; examine the print service queue
exit                       ; exit smbclient

Check the man page for smbclient for more command options.


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