Is There a FAQ for Setting Up a Simple Home Network?

[Driver]

I mostly use my laptop as it's much faster, but the bulk of my files are on my desktop as I've added a couple of (small) hard drives to it.

The desktop is connected via ethernet to a Linksys router and the laptop connects to the router via wireless. My printer is connected to the desktop via usb.

Both computers to primarily run UE2.4. They also occasionally run Windows (XP Home on desktop, Vista on laptop). The drives are all NTFS (excepting the linux partitions) to maintain Windows compatibility since Ultimate Edition seems to handle NTFS drives quite well. Both computers have internet access via the router.

Main goal is to be able to access the desktop's files and to print to the desktop's printer - from the laptop while I am in/around my home. I would also like to be able to access them via the internet from across town but that is not critical and there would have to be some form of security access if I did in order to prevent someone from deleting all my files or something.

Secondary goals are to be able to access the laptop's files from the desktop (not critical since I could, if I accomplished the primary goal, send the file from the laptop to the desktop if need be) and to be able to access files from the other computer's Microsoft OS (not critical since I just do not seem to be using them much, thanks to Ultimate Edition).

As many others must have already set up simple "home" networks, I am guessing that somewhere there is a faq for doing so. Does anyone have a link to such a document?

Thanks!

[Cell]

If you only have two machines to connect together look into VNC.You can control one machine while on the other (through the desktop),and I do believe it has file transfer too.Not sure about this,but I think it works with Windows also.

[Cell]

...and when they get off there arses.and pot this over to linux this will be great.

http://support.orb.com/kb/entry/91/


Used to use it to stream live tv,and music when I was away from home.

[Driver]

If you only have two machines to connect together look into VNC.You can control one machine while on the other (through the desktop),and I do believe it has file transfer too.Not sure about this,but I think it works with Windows also.

Interesting. I am not so much wanting to transfer my files from one computer to the other as to just access them as if the drives they sit on were (remotely) mounted. When I was using MSWindows, I ran a program called Network Magic on both computers to set things up for me and then I could just hit the network tab in that OS' file manager and click on the other computer's shared folders (in my case, a two of the folders were physical hard drives and the others were directories on the main one such as my documents folders and one I created called "Shared" which I used if I needed to send files TO the desktop (I just copied them to it and when I returned to the desktop I moved them from that folder to their permanent location)as if they were local.

But other than that, I just accessed them where they were. For example, my laptop's music player application's library included the small set of files stored on it and the larger set stored on the desktop all as one big list and I could play any of them.

I guess I could see the remote control thing working for me. If I see/hear the remote desktop as if I were sitting in front of it... I guess I just put my audio/video/text/ebook/etc. apps on the desktop along with the files and use them remotely?

So there's no easy way to be able to hit Places / Network / (my desktop), see a list of that computer's drives, and right-click on one or more of them to mount them to my laptop?

That's a shame, but I can live with it as long as there is some way to use them. I've been emailing smaller files to myself and copying larger ones to an 8gig flash drive but that is a somewhat unwieldy. It does work though, for everything except setting up a combined audio library.

I will look into VNC. A friend said he thought I could set up some kind of file server (Samba?) on the desktop and pretend it's off across the internet somewhere - and still be able to use my desktop as a regular computer when it wasn't "serving" files to my laptop! That kind of thing sounds pretty cool too, but it might be far more than I need just to activate local file sharing. It would seem to facilitate my secondary goal of using them from remote locations though. But I'd like to avoid using the internet for local sharing if at all possible.

[Uffe]

Maybe it's just Samba share you're asking for Our local network works fine - I can see and use files on other computers and the "Netdisk" in the house after installing just two files
I just open "Places > Network" and select witch PC or the netdisk.

[deate]

Perhaps what you're looking for is "hamachi" ??? Look at it in the "How To section" Maybe this will be your answer??????

[Moebius]

Hi Driver,
My 'rig' has a secondary 500Gb HDD that stores nothing but media in the form of a 'Music', 'Video', 'Art', and 'Literature' folder setup (NTFS). I can access these files from any other PC in my network. If this is what you want to do then try the following.
In Ultamatix, Miscellaneous, install Nautilus Scripts.
Next I opened my 500Gb HDD so I could see my 4 folders. In this open window, right click in the window, choose scripts and root nautilus here. The same window will open again but with root privileges. Right click on the folder you wish to share and choose Sharing Options. 'x' Share this folder, U.E will download all relevant requirements. Make sure you also 'x' Guest Access, then click create share. If I recall correctly, you may have to log out and back in at some stage for it to take effect. Once done, repeat the process for each folder you wish to share. I chose this method so the kids couldn't add or delete to the drive. If you wish to allow this, 'x' Allow others to create or delete files in this folder.

Hope this helps