Linux & Windows XP

[shugknight]

Hey guys, I'm stumped on this one. Recently for a class, I've had to try to implement a mixed network that is both Linux and Windows. Does anybody have any clue or tips to help me? I am so stumped on this one that its giving me a headache.

[Altimus]

Re: Linux & Windows XP

Do you mean creating a network, such as shared printing, that Windows PC and Linux can share?

[burnwood]

Re: Linux & Windows XP

Hey guys, I'm stumped on this one. Recently for a class, I've had to try to implement a mixed network that is both Linux and Windows. Does anybody have any clue or tips to help me? I am so stumped on this one that its giving me a headache.

Explain more please. What is it you want to accomplish on this network? Just to share files?

[Dame]

Re: Linux & Windows XP

what operating system are you running on your Linux box? Red hat? Do you just need them to see each other onthe network or communicate (trade files) between the two?

[shugknight]

Re: Linux & Windows XP

The network must be able to:

TCP/IP transmissions over Ethernet
Word Processing
Spreadsheet Development
Incoming email via POP3 or IMAP
Outgoing email via SMTP
Secure connections using SSH
File transfers
Apache web services
NFS File shares
Samba File shares

Basically the scenario is, 10+ client computers originally running Windows need to migrate to Linux to have a mixed linux/windows network. I have 2 extra computers, which I think I'd use for a Linux Server (Samba) and Windows XP Server.

I'm clueless in Linux becuase my first teacher was a complete immigrant that didn't know how to speak a word of english. If any of you guys can help me out or point me to the right direction, I'd be forever in debt with you. Thank you!

[fishepa]

Re: Linux & Windows XP

I would start with Google.

[burnwood]

Re: Linux & Windows XP

shug,

Start here at this link. It walks you through a LAMP installation of Ubuntu Linux. LAMP meaning, Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Php.

This will get you the basics installed. After which, use the Webmin web user interface to configure the rest of the services on your list.

[GBrushTWood]

Re: Linux & Windows XP

First, you need to select your Linux distribution. If you are installing servers, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Suse Linux are the presently the most commonly used flavors in the world today. If you are just worried about clients, you can go with any number of popular versions. I know a lot of people seem to love Ubuntu, though I've never dealt with that before. There's too many to even list here, though I know I saw a link on digg showing a selector of what the perfect Linux distro is for your customized needs..

I'm assuming the lower level network infrastructure is already in place as that is obviously operating system agnostic. That takes care of "TCP/IP transmissions over Ethernet". You need to decide which operating system is going to take care of handing out IP addresses (DHCP), processing DNS queries, and that kind of application level network functionality. If you are limited to Windows XP, then I'd go with Linux performing these functions. If you can use Windows Server (2000,2003), then I'd go with that for DNS, DHCP, Active Directory.

NIS/NFS - A pain in the ***. If you don't know what this is: it's a way for Linux/Unix users to use a network wide username/password and home directory across multiple machines. Basically, you have one Linux/Unix server that acts as the NIS/NFS master server, then the rest of the Linux/Unix hosts act as clients checking against this server. Because of this, you need to set up the master server working properly first, THEN configure each of the clients properly through configuration files. Of course, you would make sure that it is working on one machine first before modifying files across all systems. This can be a huge pain in the *** to set up, start praying.

E-Mail: Sort of annoying here. Need to decide if you want a Windows or Linux based server. I'm not too educated in this area, especially in Linux. In my newb opinion, I'd go with IMAP, but that's just me (I'm kinda anti POP3). You need to google installing an e-mail server on whatever Linux distro you'll be using.

SSH - On Linux, very very simple. Just make sure the app is included during the install. Just make sure a hole is poked in the firewall for the SSH daemon if you happen to be using a firewall. Since you'll be using SSH, disable telnet on all SSH servers as a security precaution. I've never SSH'ed into a Windows box before, so I'm not sure how to install an SSH server there. I'm assuming you can just go through the add/remove progs sequence? If you really want to get onto a Win box, just Remote desktop onto it.

File transfers/Samba shares - this goes together as Samba deals with mapping Linux file systems to windows machines and vice versa. Just make sure the Samba client + server is installed on all Linux machines. If you really want to get cute, you can figure out a way to tie in NIS accounts to file sharing cross-platforms. I tried doing this at an old job, but it was just taking too much time to figure out, so I just left the Samba shares wide open to all users.

Apache - See the documentation somebody linked from above. Don't install Mysql and PHP though, because it looks like that isn't required. This install can be a pain in the ***. Just gotta suffer through this.

Word Processing + Spreadsheets - Simple. Easiest thing on the list. Obviously on Windows you have MS Office. For the Linux environment, make sure you install OpenOffice.org, specifically with Writer and Calc (think that's what it's called) included. If you want to get cute, you can install OOO in the Windows environment in an effort to cut costs on licenses and increase cross system document comptability. I'm assuming this is hypothetical, right?

If you actually have to do all of this stuff in real life, I feel bad for you (especially if you don't know Linux/Unix commands!!). If you are just writing a report hypothetically saying what you would do, then this is managable, though time consuming.

[burnwood]

Re: Linux & Windows XP

shug,

Start here at this link. It walks you through a LAMP installation of Ubuntu Linux. LAMP meaning, Linux, Apache, MySQL, and Php.

This will get you the basics installed. After which, use the Webmin web user interface to configure the rest of the services on your list.

Also, if you notice at the bottom of this tutorial you will see links that go into depth on walking you through setting up mail/ftp/web/ssh services.

Here's the link called "The Perfect Setup".

[shugknight]

Re: Linux & Windows XP

Thanks guys for the help. I just learned from my damn teacher, something she should of told me before I got started was that this is a presentation only project. I only have to set up a network diagram but at the same time have all the neccessary things to facilitate within the network.

My problem is now.. I have 2 "other" computers, that I will use as servers. I "installed" Ubunto on one, but I'm not sure what I should install on the other. I thought it should be Windows 2003 server, or another type of Linux server. Any ideas exactly to what?

Also, I will have 10 client computers. Would it be smart for me to have a dual boot on there with both a Linux system as well as Win03 Server system on all the computers? I'm so lost, I'm almost ready to give up and just take an F for this class. Hopefully you guys will be able to help.

[GBrushTWood]

Re: Linux & Windows XP

Well if you want Windows machines to have an active directory login, you'll need at least one Windows server to act as the primary domain controller. Can't get around that. Might as well throw DNS, DHCP, and some simple windows file sharing on there as well. Your other server will be a Linux server (you seem to like Ubuntu; I wouldn't use that as a server, but whatever).

Your Ubuntu server will act as the NFS/NIS master, have the ssh and samba server daemon installed and enabled, and have Apache web server installed.

The rest of the stuff can really be hosted on either OS. As far as e-mails go, in reality, everybody runs their e-mail server on dedicated hardware. You seem to be constricted by this 2 server limit, so you will have to decide which one you want to host e-mail. Neither machine is best option in practice, but for this exercise, just throw it on the Windows server (make sure you explain how this needs to be super ballsy hardware).

If you really want to impress the teacher, tell her you'll need a blade server that acts as a VMware server and has separate instances for the individual applications. Ex - VMware image for the Exchange server, primary domain controller, file server, et al.

This doesn't seem too difficult, and because it's all theoretical, you should be able to BS your way into getting a passable grade, even if you don't know crap. You could also go to the teacher and ask her what exactly she is looking for + help organizing things instead of sitting helpless...