Test Driving Linux

Accessing Network Files

Many people use their computers on a network with other computers. If your computer is part of a network, you'll probably want to access files on other computers. It's perfectly possible to do this with the Move CD. In this section, when I say remote computer , I simply mean any computer on your network other than the one you're currently working at.

Imagine you have a network consisting of three computers, two of which are sharing directories and files. One of these machines runs Windows and is sharing files in the directory wshared. Another computer is running Linux and sharing files in a directory called lshared. And then, of course, there is your Move machine, which isn't sharing any files.

In almost all instances, a Windows computer shares directories with other computers by using the Windows built-in sharing protocol known as Server Message Block (SMB). It's not important to know exactly what this means; just think, "SMB = Windows sharing," and don't worry about the specifics. Windows machines know how to automatically find other computers that are sharing directories using SMB. Usually, all you have to do is look in My Network Neighborhood, and you will see other Windows machines on your network. From there, you can access their shared folders.

Microsoft keeps the workings behind SMB a secret, but some crafty open source programmers have figured a lot of it out. Because of their efforts, you can connect to a Windows computer from Konqueror and view ...