I have a network setup where there are mixed operating systems. I have specialized tasks that I like to use different systems for. One of which is web surfing on Ubuntu 8.04. Occasionally I find the need to save a file or two on this machine and I want to get it onto my Windows XP computer. It is easy enough to use external drives or thumb drives but why not just share a folder so that you can retrieve the files directly from your windows XP computer? Why not indeed!? *Note: Guide built for Ubuntu 8.04 with all updates as of 6/26/2008.
1. Open Synaptic Package Manger (System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager).
2. Click on the “Search” button and perform a search for “nfs-common”.
3. Click on “nfs-common” and select “Mark for installation”, click the “Apply” button, and click the “Apply” button again to confirm. Close Synaptic.
4. Now browse to the folder that you want to share. Right click the folder and select “Share Options”.
5. The ‘File Manager – Folder Sharing’ window will now open. Check the “Share this folder” box and you will be informed that the sharing service is not installed.
6. Click the “Install service” button … NOW pay attention, proceed to step 7 and read it carefully.
7. Once the above service is done installing click the “Close” button, then click the “Cancel” button and restart your system. Do not continue until you restart your system!!!!
8. Once logged back in browse back to the folder and right click it again. Select “Share Options” and the ‘File Manger – Folder Sharing’ window will open again. Check the “Share this folder” box again and click the “Create share” button.
That was easy right! Much easier then it was in Ubuntu 7.10 in my opinion. Now in order to access the share that you just created, from your windows XP machine simple type in the network path and share name. In my example it would look like "\\192.168.1.2\share". You will need to type in your Ubuntu credentials to access the folder. You will only have read access to the folder.
Not good enough for you, you say? What’s that? You think that you should be able to not only access your files from XP but add, modify, and delete the files to? ..... Ok.
1. Back in your Ubuntu system, browse back to the shared folder and right click it again. Select “Share Options” and the ‘File Manger – Folder Sharing’ window will open again.
2. Check the box labeled “Allow other people to write to this folder” and click the “Modify share” button. You will now be prompted to accept the defaults to allow read, write, and execute by others. Click the “Add the permissions automatically” button to continue.
3. Now restart your system again.
You still need your Ubuntu credentials to access the share. I also like to create a shortcut to this share on my Windows XP desktop for easy access. That’s it, you now have a network share that you can read, write, and execute from a Windows Xp computer. Enjoy!
Posted by
Mike Wright
