Ubuntu
samba package

sharing files on a small domestic ubuntu network

Asked by Tito Sorlini

I am trying to migrate from Win-XP to Ubuntu (I have some experience with Windows but almost none with Linux), and am stuck on trying to access files on my Windows PCs. I click on the "network" item and SOMETIMES get an icon "Windows network". Clicking on this, I SOMETIMES get another icon with the name of my workgroup in Windows. Clicking on this icon, SOMETIMES I get icons with the names of the PCs running Windows and clicking on these icons SOMETIMES AND FOR SOME OF THEM I get the list of folders on that PC.
My questions are:
1. What do I have to do to ensure that I get access to all my Windows PCs ALL THE TIME to share files with them?
2. How do I access and share files in a network between multiple PCs running Ubuntu?
By the way, I have two different levels of Ubuntu on two different PCs, and they seem to behave differently; Is this normal?
Thank you for any answer that can help me get rid of Windows forever.

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Huygens (huygens-25) said : 		#1

Hello Tito,
I have a short time now, so I won't answer all your question yet (I'll come back later), but you can start investigating with those articles (it is for an older version of Ubuntu, but it should still apply)
 * http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=1333185&postcount=2 (you can check for other post I have written on Samba in the forums)
 * http://www.berthon.eu/ice_and_fire/?p=9
 * http://www.berthon.eu/wiki/foss:wikishelf#samba_network_service
 * http://www.berthon.eu/wiki/foss:ubuntu:wikishelf:smb:samba

I will come back later with more information on how to help you, in the mean time, you can tell me if it helped you a bit or not.

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marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra) said : 		#2

You must install and configure Samba from

Then open a Terminal from the menu Applications → Accessories → Terminal and type:

sudo aptitude update
sudo aptitude install samba

give your user password when requested, you don't see nothing when you type it, then press enter.

Then take a look to: http://screencasts.ubuntu.com/

http://screencasts.ubuntu.com/SAMBA_Filesharing

Here questions related to Samba: https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/samba

Always useful is the online Ubuntu doc https://help.ubuntu.com/8.10/

Hope this helps

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