HOWTO: Access Windows machines by their names on Eee PC
More often than not, Linux users will end up in a situation where they’d need to access their Windows neighbors on LAN. This can easily be accomplished using IP addresses, but using NetBIOS names is just too convenient to be overlooked.
The Xandros distro on Asus’ Eee PC does not resolve NetBIOS names by default. To make it perform that, you can do the following:
[user@host ~]$ sudo apt-get install samba samba-common smbclient winbind [user@host ~]$ sudo kwrite /etc/nsswitch.conf |
Once the editor opens, spot the line:
hosts: files dns
And append “wins” at its end, making it:
hosts: files dns wins
Save the file, exit the text-editor, back on command-line:
[user@host ~]$ sudo /etc/init.d/samba start [user@host ~]$ sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart |
Reconnect your network, and viola — easy peasy, Eee PC!
(Click on the thumbnail for larger version.)
Good article.. though installing samba and associated software are (in my opinion) a must when u are in a mixed (windows + linux) environment.. few ppl know that in certain benchmarks, samba outperforms windows server..
secondly.. more often linux users think about connecting remotely to windows based systems, which can be easily done by rdesktop package (this helps when u have a low end linux system with few resources).. or conversely, if someone wants to connect to a linux system (graphically), he/she can install VNC on the linux machine (or use a X client) for such purposes.
to summarize:
windows based sharing : samba
windows remote desktop: rdesktop
linux remote desktop: VNC or X Client
just my 2 cents
Comment by Ali Zeeshan Ijaz — March 14, 2009 @ 9:22 pm