Guest -BL4S7ER- Posted June 26, 2004 Report Share Posted June 26, 2004 K.. heres my problems Ive just recently setup mdk 10 community this acts primarily as a file server at the moment. This is linked to a win xp machine. later on i will be introducing another xp machine and the linux box will become an internet gateway/file share. (is the default firewall 'shorewall' sufficient for a gateway?) im new to linux so almost everything is confusing (but i am learning) file sharing is done with samba setup thru webmin this appears to be working fine... its just when i stream files there is alot of lag... eg movies, mp3, expecially .exe(setup or iso) when run thru the network, which means i usually have to copy the stuff over, run or execute it then delete when finished... this defeats the whole point :P my other concern is ive bought a new 200gb HD for it. and the pc is always on. does linux power down the hd after x time? anyway to define x's value? so far tho im enjoying the adventure that is linux!! btw if anyones got any valuable links in setting up wat im after pls post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
streeter Posted June 26, 2004 Report Share Posted June 26, 2004 Welcome to Linux! How are you connecting/do you intend to connect to the internet, ie what devices do you have? One word of warning - if you have a look at previous threads here, and Gowator's sticky post at the top, you will notice that the Mandrake internet connection sharing wizard is a bit dodgy - so don't use it. Best have a look at the shorewall docs, and go from there - if you need help, let us know! Are you streaming files through/from linux, to run on windows at the moment, or the other way around? Can't say I've ever thought about powering down HDDs - mine are on pretty much all the time too... Good luck Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
armondf Posted June 26, 2004 Report Share Posted June 26, 2004 Ello, Like all things Linux, you are quite spoilt for choice. Mandrake is an excellent starting point for new Linux Users, and can be lots of fun. I always suggest that people get to grips with the nitty gritty about Linux administration if that's what your primary use for linux is going to be. If you want to use file sharing and setting up this and that via networking, try and do as little through webmin as possible. Webmin is powerful and very good in terms of the "overall administrators" tasks, but it has it's shortcomings. :) Samba is very powerful, and even more so when you start understanding the configuration files. Like all things in linux, understanding the configuration files for any server/app allows one to streamline almost everything. With Linux, your only limitations are hardware based. The software, if 1) configured correctly and 2) optimised/streamlined efficiently, will not hamper speed or performance. The same can never be said of a windows based server/environment ( as much as the friendly folks with their MCSE and MCSD try to deny and denounce this). So, a few questions you should ask yourself: Have you poked around Samba configuration howtos Have you tried to streamline your Samba configuration have you installed the packages you require for the tasks at hand? Have you got the servers that you need AND ONLY THESE servers running? What does your hardware look like? Is it a 10Mbps network, or a hundred? Is your Fileserver doing more than being a fileserver? Check that all the additional servers (like Apache, FTP, postfix/sendmail, Jabber, anonftp, etc etc) aren't running if you don't need it to run.... Does your file server run IDE 4800 RPM disks or better? Is your file system ReiserFS or EXT2/3? ReiserFS performs much better for fileservers and webservers What is your average disk, memory and CPU loads? If these are high, especially when being polled by a networked computer, then you probably have a disk/cpu intensive server running other than Samba, or your configuration is not optimised. Ok, onto the next stuff. Shorewall default is pretty tight, depending on what you let in/out. For internet connection sharing, I would suggest setting up a proxy, like squid (just install the RPM packages). The default configuration for squid should work ok, you will just need to set up ACL (Access Control Lists) to allow your network to see the net via this. If you need other services like FTP, ICQ, etc etc, just open the ports required, and make sure the forward/accept rules are kewl. But for the most part, Squid will handle most of your requests comfortably - and seamlessly. It also gives you a good log of what machine is accessing what website. Powering of Harddisks, etc. This is also configuration. If you are running KDE, look for the power management apps. Generally, Linux handles harddisks like any good servers do, i.e., does not spin them up unles required. Remember, Linux architecture is strongly server based, and this is testament to it's stability. Good Luck, Oh yeah, in future, to get specific help, please ask specific questions, and give us some error messages, hardware configurations, etc to go on, otherwise our help will be as general as this.... Regards, Armond Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest -BL4S7ER- Posted June 26, 2004 Report Share Posted June 26, 2004 thankx for the replies just adding some more info to my original post i'll be doing a bit more research into samba to optimize efficiency as it really isnt running how i expected it to the basic pc system specs are as follows; (i remotely admin it, so theres no attached keyboard, mouse, monitor) which means no GUI just putty+command line p3 500mhz 256mb mem 10gb harddrive (linux) 120gb harddrive (files) split into 2 equal partitions using FAT32 filesystem(not 200gb like i originally said, i dont know y i put that down) 100mbps (full duplex) network system load is practically at a standstill... as it doesnt do anything but serve files ive disabled all the services that arent required - pretty much all of em --adding to wat i previously said when i copy files to and from the linux box this is fast. but when streaming files from linux box the speed is greatly reduced. when i come to setting it up as a gateway, it will be utilising a 512 dsl connection ei. 512 dsl -> linux box -> 8 port switch -> other win XP pc's(2) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted June 26, 2004 Report Share Posted June 26, 2004 do your self a big favour and buy another NIC (or use an old one) Internet connection sharing CAN work on a single interface but its ugly and NICs are $15 its worth it to just have a simple system you can undrstand... I agree with armond about learning the proper conf files but webmin is better than the MDK wizards int his sense. To me the most important thing is to understand what something is doing... once you do then go ahead and use shortcuts but for a server you need to understand what your doing if you want it 24*7 at least understanding what your using is a good idea becuase things will overlap.... SAMBA should be as fast as Windows 2 Windows even on an old machine, if not its misconfigured. NFS is faster but only between *nix machines! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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