Connecting to other computers on home network

Connecting to other computers on home network

Postby OKCLinux » Jun 8th, '11, 13:11

Performed a fresh install of Mageia last night, and got all updates.

Went to the hardware detector and let it find any hardware.

Then in the control panel went to set up the option to connect to other windows shares (SMB). Mageia wanted to install the Samba-Server package, and I said ok.

I called the group SKYNET, to keep it in line with the windows computers on the network.

Once it was finished, I went to Dolphin/Network/SMB Shares but it was unable to find any of my computers on the network. It gave me an error that an existing firewall might be causing the problem.

So under the firewall settings, I checked the "SMB Windows Shares" option.

Now when I go to Dolphin/Network/SMB Shares the only group that comes up is something called "MGAGROUP". There is something called "local host" inside that, but there is nothing else.

The other computers on the network now see a group called "MGAGROUP", but when I try clicking on it, nothing is found.

Am I missing something? And why did it default back to MGAGROUP when I told it to use SKYNET? Thanks!
User avatar
OKCLinux
 
Posts: 7
Joined: May 29th, '11, 13:36
Location: Oklahoma City, OK

Re: Connecting to other computers on home network

Postby djennings » Jun 8th, '11, 17:53

I tried it out myself and confirm the workgroup name does not change when you use the GUI. It sets the workgroup name correctly in the configurations file /etc/samba/smb.conf but does not restart the samba server so it does not take effect until you reboot or restart the samba server.

If you restart the samba server in a root terminal with the command
Code: Select all
service smb restart
I think you will find the new workgroup shows up. If you confirm that is what is happening then it might be an idea to raise a bug on bugzilla.

As for browsing the windows network I find both Dolphin and Konqueror pretty flaky. It is complicated by the fact that it can take some time for Windows machines to register themselves with the Domain Controller and they can diaagree about which of them is the domain controller and wins server.
You might find it better to use the samba mount gui in Mageia Control Centre to manage your samba shares.
User avatar
djennings
 
Posts: 613
Joined: Jun 2nd, '11, 23:51
Location: Wokingham, UK

Re: Connecting to other computers on home network

Postby OKCLinux » Jun 9th, '11, 01:57

Ok, making some progress. Now the Mageia machine can see and access the other computers on the network.

I created a folder in the /home and called it "public", then shared it with SMB.

The computers on the network can see the mageia machine (as localhost), but when I click on the computer, the public folder doesn't appear.

For testing purposes I went in and completly disabled the firewall, and that seemed to help.
User avatar
OKCLinux
 
Posts: 7
Joined: May 29th, '11, 13:36
Location: Oklahoma City, OK

Re: Connecting to other computers on home network

Postby djennings » Jun 9th, '11, 09:52

Could you post the contents of your /etc/samba/smb.conf ?
It is much easier to diagnose samba problems by looking at the configuration file.

BTW: Did you add any samba users? If you are using user level security then all samba users have to be declared to samba The command
Code: Select all
smbpasswd -a username
in a root terminal does the trick. The password does not have to be the same password as the users Linux log in.
With the default set up all registered users will see their home directories shared over samba.
User avatar
djennings
 
Posts: 613
Joined: Jun 2nd, '11, 23:51
Location: Wokingham, UK


Return to Networking

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

cron