[nzlug] samba: puzzled user...

[Daniel Pittman]

Simon Bridge <simonbridge at ihug.co.nz> writes:

> I think it is the gui-fication that's got me turned around... 

I doubt it; your questions suggest that you don't quite have the basics
locked in solidly.

[...]

> How can I get an ubuntu box to import a share without exporting one?

Use the CIFS file system, fusesmb, or the user-space VFS support built
in to your desktop environment.  For the standard Ubuntu GNOME front end
that would be under the Network menu, IIRC, just like on most other
GNOME platforms.

> Is it possible to export a share "globally"? (All workgroups on the
> lan can get it?)

Your question doesn't really make sense: an SMB "share" is accessible to
anything that asks the server to access it, modulo any user
restrictions.

The only influence the "workgroup" or "domain" has on this is what the
network browser on Windows lists by default.

> Is it possible to scan a network for workgroups?

Yes, though possibly not through the GUI.

> These must be common questions...

I wouldn't be surprised.  Did you find the Ubuntu documentation, and the
community documentation associated with the distribution helpful?

> The situation is: I have a whole bunch of machines that move around...
> not always on the network. Probably best if I set one machine as an
> nfs server, for this course I'm teaching. Then, when the course is all
> together they can all mount it. Comments?

NFS is going to be a lot less trouble than CIFS if you expect it to act
like a standard "Unix" file system, yes.

Regards,
        Daniel