How to add Linux to my home network

[Zenara25]

I have Windows XP Home with an ethernet connection to the internet. I am currently using a cable modem with a router. Just built a Linux computer with Mandrake 9.1 It also has an ethernet card. And it is connected to the router and able to surf the web.

How do I connect them so I can view and transfer files?

I found out that I need to use Samba. But I haven't found any working web sites that explain how to use this.

http://www.linuxorbit.com/howto/sambahowto.php3

http://www.redhat.com/mirrors/LDP/HOWTO/SMB-HOWTO.html

[QCompson]

You should also check out LinNeighborhood, which is included in Mandy 9.1. It's a nice little frontend for Samba, allows you to browse the Network Neighborhood, and mount directories from there.

[S.D.Willie]

very easy. go into mandrake's control center or "mcc" in a terminal and select " mount points".

in there you can click search servers, or something similar and you will be able to see what machines are on the lan as long as you have file sharing enabled on XP. you can mount the drives in there with the mount button and it will ask you to "save changes to /etc/fstab" after you click "done"

select yes. if you want them mounted at boot time just edit /etc/fstab and where it says "noauto" for the drives you mounted, change it to "auto".

i simply mount my two drives with "mount /mnt/C" or D as root. very simple. kep in mind you DO need samba installed whick come with drake 9.1 so dont worry. if in doubt about it, do a " urpmi samba samba-server" as root to see if you can install it.

in the control panel as well you should have samba running in the services menu as boot time to automount your drives if you want. DONT make a mistake like i did and check off "NFS" its "netfs" i believe. good luck and post the results.

[nukes]

The best samba docs I've found have been here:
/etc/samba/smb.conf
The config file itself explains most of what you need to know in order to get it working.
Also, www.samba.org is a great source of info.