tech291083 Posted September 26, 2006 Report Share Posted September 26, 2006 (edited) Hi, i have two pcs both running Fedora 5 only, no other os on them. 1. can i make a network of these 2 in order to learn the linux side of networking? i want one of them to be the server and other the client. is this possible? if yes, then what do i need to do? use samba, scp, nfs, sshfs? 2. i want the server and client to share files, folders, printer, mail all that is possible. but i do not know what else is possible. can you please tell me as what i can do more or what the possibilities are? 3. i want the server to be able to take a complete control of the client ie trun it on, shut down etc. is it possible? if yes, then what i need to do. i have been looking around the net to find a guide to setting up samba for newbies like me on Fedora 5 but can't seem to be able to find any thing at all with reference to Fedora 5. most of the material is about connecting windows and linux using samba which is not the case for me. mine is both fedroa 5 pcs as said earlier. can any one please give me a simple step by step guides/urls that i can try to follow on my own. since i want to connect only 2 pcs, i hope it should be not that difficult even for an idiot like me. to be honest, i am completely new to linux and trying my best to learn as much as on my own, so please guide me and thanks a lot for your time. i really appreciate it. Edited September 27, 2006 by tech291083 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soka Posted September 27, 2006 Report Share Posted September 27, 2006 I would use NFS for file sharing and CUPS for printing sharing. Here are some articles for setting them up. NFS Sharing Printing sharing with CUPS Regarding the 3rd topic, you can use SSH to control the other computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SoulSe Posted September 27, 2006 Report Share Posted September 27, 2006 Hi, i have two pcs both running Fedora 5 only, no other os on them. 1. can i make a network of these 2 in order to learn the linux side of networking? i want one of them to be the server and other the client. is this possible? if yes, then what do i need to do? use samba, scp, nfs, sshfs? SAMBA is for networking with Windows clients, so you don't need that. SCP allows you to copy files over an SSH connection and is resident on most every Linux box. NFS is a file-sharing approach that I am not very fond of. I find a better way of sharing folders in a Linux-only network is to just use SFTP. Most file browsers in Linux have built-in support for SFTP, so you don't even need an FTP client or what-have-you. 2. i want the server and client to share files, folders, printer, mail all that is possible. but i do not know what else is possible. can you please tell me as what i can do more or what the possibilities are? The possibilities are endless with Linux! Think of things you want to do and we can help you. Scan serving, fax-serving - you name it, Linux does it (I have just setup a Gentoo box as an Appletalk server using Netatalk - all the OSX boxes in our office think it is native).3. i want the server to be able to take a complete control of the client ie trun it on, shut down etc. is it possible? if yes, then what i need to do. This is more complex, but again - possible. If I remember correctly, some of what you are asking is possible with Webmin. i have been looking around the net to find a guide to setting up samba for newbies like me on Fedora 5 but can't seem to be able to find any thing at all with reference to Fedora 5. most of the material is about connecting windows and linux using samba which is not the case for me. mine is both fedroa 5 pcs as said earlier. can any one please give me a simple step by step guides/urls that i can try to follow on my own. since i want to connect only 2 pcs, i hope it should be not that difficult even for an idiot like me. to be honest, i am completely new to linux and trying my best to learn as much as on my own, so please guide me and thanks a lot for your time. i really appreciate it. Like I said, you don't need SAMBA unless you want to talk to Windows' machines. But the SAMBA setup is the same no matter what distro you use, so general SAMBA instructions should be fine. Webmin can also be used to admin SAMBA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tech291083 Posted October 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 1, 2006 (edited) hi guys, thanks a lot for the replies. i have now figured out as what exactly i want to achieve. all i am going to do is setting up an intranet like situation at home with none of the pc (server or client) actually ever to be connected to the internet but to each other only. 1. i am gonna use two pcs with fedora 5 on both of them. no windows on any of them. both single boot. 2. i want one of them to be the server (pc 1) and other the client (pc 2). 3. none of them is gonna be connected to the internet so this is just a small home network. only the 2 pcs talking to each other only. 4. the server should behave like the one we often find in big companies these days. it should hold the log in details of each user that uses the other pc (client/pc 2). the server is for server/network administrator only and nobody else is gonna use it. the client is for users only. whenever a user using the client pc starts the machine he should be prompted to enter username and password. 5. i will design webpages in php-mysql and store them on server only and these web pages should be served to the client when he types the address of the pages in fireforx browser. just like any body accessing bbc or yahoo sites. this is sort of intranet set up. if a webpage allows users to a file for example their cv from the client machine, they should be able to do so. 6. users using the client machine irrespective of whatever they save or modify as their personal file/work should be saved on the server only. just like a student or employee making a file then saving it on uni/company server space only rather the machine's hard drive. 7. i want users on the client machine to be able to check their e-mails. like on windows machines people can send e-mail to each other within the company using outlook express. i do not know which software is used on linux pcs to do so. please let me know. 8. when i am installing fedora 5 on server (pc 1) and client (pc 2) i should be giving them static ip addresses as read some where. is this right? what should be the ip addresses then? 192.168.0.1 and 192.168.0.2 respectively? or something else? i think in order to achieve the whole thing, i must use http, apache, ftp, ldap, nis etc. but do not know which one for what purpose in specific. i have mentioned as what i want above. please guide me to achieve this. i am sorry i m very new to linux and need a lot of help. please help me. i will do my best. thanks. Edited October 1, 2006 by tech291083 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted October 2, 2006 Report Share Posted October 2, 2006 i would suggest using ssh/sftp instead of ftp. while ftp is fine in a non-internet-connected environment, in the real world you'd want to use sftp as ftp sends username/password in clear text across the wire, which is just a bad idea. might as well get into the habit of using sftp (admittedly, they function pretty much the same way). yes, give them static ip's - 192.168.0.X is good. to connect them you should be using a crossover cable or going through a switch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted October 2, 2006 Report Share Posted October 2, 2006 I'd try and do this incrementally.... for instance if you move the home directory to the server you effectivly are using the user settings on the server... its a bit pointless with 2 PC's other than learning but if that's your aim then thats cool. You might want to look into a complete thin client network boot.... where the whole boot sequence is done over NFS... mail retreival is simple just set up the client for local mailbox. In the past Ive done this across the network by just creating a symlink to the mail dir on the "server" which is shared using NFS. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonEberger Posted October 2, 2006 Report Share Posted October 2, 2006 so in response to some of your posts... 1. how are you connecting these together? are you connecting the server to a router and the client to the outgoing ports on the router? or are you connecting them directly. would this require a crossover? 2. you mention apache and http. apache is the web-server. the process name is typically httpd. 3. i'm with everyone who has discouraged ftp. 4. mail servers abound. just google linux and mailservers. 5. considering nfs, it's solid and well known. many companies and academic entities use openafs. it's also just a way of sharing files. 6. NIS (network information service) is what standardizes login names and such between server and clients. people can feel free to correct anything i write. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted October 2, 2006 Report Share Posted October 2, 2006 i would suggest using ssh/sftp instead of ftp. while ftp is fine in a non-internet-connected environment, in the real world you'd want to use sftp as ftp sends username/password in clear text across the wire, which is just a bad idea. might as well get into the habit of using sftp (admittedly, they function pretty much the same way). Is using ftp, for example, configured with SSL any better? I've been using vsftpd with SSL enabled. Of course, I only use it internally at home, than across the internet. I found ssh/sftp to be a lot slower when transferring files, than when I used vsftpd. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted October 2, 2006 Report Share Posted October 2, 2006 Is using ftp, for example, configured with SSL any better? I'm not sure if FTP with SSL encrypts the username/password or just the data that gets transferred. I've never used it myself, preferring to run as few services (server programs) as possible - and since I use SSH a lot, I just use SFTP. After all, the more services you run, the more vulnerable you are ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted October 2, 2006 Report Share Posted October 2, 2006 Luckily I don't provide services to my machine from the internet, so I'm safe - my firewall should be doing the rest - outbound only, inbound none. :P Or at least, I think I am :unsure: :lol: Yeah, I'm not sure either if the password is encrypted or not. I suppose I'll have to use ethereal to do some analysis and find out if it is there unencrypted or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted October 2, 2006 Report Share Posted October 2, 2006 If you aren't paranoid about security, then webmin is all that you want. You can have complete control of the remote machine, browse its HD contents, perform remote commandline operations and all that nice stuff. Webmin can be easily tunneled via SSL, so you do have security as well, albeit some security freaks may argue that such compromises aren't needed. The only issue is that a few parts of webmin need java RE (e.g. the file manager), but unless your machines are old+anhaemic, this isn't much of a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted October 3, 2006 Report Share Posted October 3, 2006 If you aren't paranoid about security, then webmin is all that you want. You can have complete control of the remote machine, browse its HD contents, perform remote commandline operations and all that nice stuff. Webmin can be easily tunneled via SSL, so you do have security as well, albeit some security freaks may argue that such compromises aren't needed.The only issue is that a few parts of webmin need java RE (e.g. the file manager), but unless your machines are old+anhaemic, this isn't much of a problem. I gotta go with this.... but just choose one PC and incrementally start adding server type services.... don't try and do the whole thing at once unless you have experience in building servers. ultimately you will probably want to reinstall FC from scratch for server use or remove a whole load of SW but don't sweat it and just take it a step at a time... For instance if you want to run a DHCP server etc. start sharing disks via NFS because its a doddle.... Yes it has some security issues but you should staret off with basic stuff and since your isolated its not a risk.,.. and then you can replace programs with more secure alternatives as when you want. Choose one task at a time like http and then just get that working then move on to other stuff.... My FC install has sendmail already configured for local delivery.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spinynorman Posted October 15, 2006 Report Share Posted October 15, 2006 This discussion is now continuing here. This thread is now closed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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