small network

[Advent Systems]

Well I don't need it on all the boxes but there are a couple programs 
that I need to run on windows, but as I replied somewhere else I could 
keep a stand-alone machine just running windows.  I have heard a lot of 
great stuff about VMware and your suggestion sound great but I heard 
it's expensive?

Thanks,
Bob Randal

Cyber Source wrote:

> If you need to have windows, you could run VMware on all the boxes and 
> run windows as a guest OS inside of Linux!
>
> Advent Systems wrote:
>
>> Dave,
>>     When you say:
>>
>> If you have a Linux only network,  NFS is simplest, if you have a mixed
>> windows/Linux then samba is probably the better route, as there 
>> isn't' a decent
>> FREE NFS client for windows that works worth a damn.
>>
>> Do you mean I would have to remove windows completely from the 
>> machines on the network?  I could not do that with all the boxes, but 
>> if NFS is MUCH simpler then Samba I could take one of the machines 
>> off the network and use it to run its windows programs stand-alone.  
>> So I guess the question is how much simpler or better is NFS compared 
>> to Samba?
>> Regarding:
>>
>> depends on what you want to do. If all the stuff that you want 
>> accessible by
>> the other machines is located on 1 box, then make that one hte 
>> serve,  if all
>> the machines have stuff that the others need to get to,  then they 
>> should all
>> be setup to serve. (think it out,  sometimes sketching it out on a 
>> paper ahead
>> of time helps, and consistently implementing it across the machines 
>> makes it
>> easier to troubleshoot and manage later..)
>>  
>>
>> Are there any benefits to making one box the dedicated server?  It 
>> would be far nicer for me if all my machines could share files 
>> amongst themselves.
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Bob Randal
>>
>> Dave Andruczyk wrote:
>>
>>> --- Advent Systems <adventsystems at verizon.net> wrote:
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>>> Hello All & Happy Holidays,
>>>>    I know this can get long and involved and I by no means want you 
>>>> guys to do my homework for me, just let me know if I'm on the right 
>>>> track.   I have (4) pc's and (1) laptop.  After spending 1-2 hrs. 
>>>> on the Internet researching I ran my cable, plugged them in, loaded 
>>>> my firewall software,  and clicking my mouse about 12 times at each 
>>>> box and my network was up and running, including wireless access 
>>>> for my laptop!   In trying to get the boxes networked with Linux 
>>>> I',I've spent easily 100 hours "surfing" (I use different distros 
>>>> and everyone seems to approach it and place network files and 
>>>> commands differently) I've purchased (3) books ( $100+)  and after 
>>>> months I can now ping each machine!  Questions: 1.) Do I need or 
>>>> "should" I run the same distro on each box, I know it sound stupid 
>>>> but hey!   
>>>
>>>
>>> Nope,  you can run whatever distro you want,  but when learnig 
>>> keeping them all
>>> the same can sometimes make it easier, as not every distro 
>>> configures the
>>> intefaces the same way.
>>>
>>> 2.) What do I "need" to share my files  
>>>
>>>> amongst my boxes w/o unduly exposing them to the Internet, ie. NSF, 
>>>> NIS, Samba,Firewall, etc.   
>>>
>>>
>>> If you have a linux only network,  NFS is simplest, if you have a mixed
>>> windows/linux then samba is probbaly the better route, as there 
>>> isnt' a decent
>>> FREE NFS client for windows that works worth a damn.
>>>
>>> 3.) Do I need to setup one box as a dedicated  
>>>
>>>> server and the balance of the boxes as clients?
>>>>   
>>>
>>>
>>> depends on what you want to do. If all the stuff that you want 
>>> accessible by
>>> the other machines is located on 1 box, then make that one hte 
>>> serve,  if all
>>> the machines have stuff that the others need to get to,  then they 
>>> should all
>>> be setup to serve. (think it out,  sometimes sketching it out on a 
>>> paper ahead
>>> of time helps, and consistently implementing it across the machiens 
>>> makes it
>>> easier to troubleshoot and manage later..)
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>>> Again I don't need a step by step here.  I'm willing to put in the 
>>>> time It's just that its getting ridiculous and want to make sure 
>>>> I'm going in the right direction.  To Illustrate how bad it is I 
>>>> have NO boxes running Linux at  all right now  ( my boxes are all 
>>>> duel boot w/win2k) because  of my file sharing requirements.
>>>>   
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> =====
>>> Dave J. Andruczyk
>>>
>>>
>>>        
>>> __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Dress up your 
>>> holiday email, Hollywood style. Learn more. 
>>> http://celebrity.mail.yahoo.com
>>>
>>>  
>>>
>>
>