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How Do Your Machines Talk to Each Other?
VonGuard asks: "I'd imagine this is a common scenario out there for Slashdot readers: I have multiple desktops, all sitting right next to each other and all running different OS's. Linux, Mac OS X and 9, Windows 98, and XP. The problem is, despite these machines being only inches arpart physically, in the digital world, they are miles apart. I have no single way to get them all to talk to each other. NFS is impossibly complex, Appletalk is unreliable thanks to netatalk, while PCMacLan, and Samba make me feel like I'm giving into the Empire. Isn't there a simpler way to get files from one of these machines to the other? Right now, I use webservers and write little HTML files that link to the files on each machine. Isn't there a better way to do this?" Is there really a network sharing standard that works across a number of operating systems aside from Samba? Truth be told, Samba "works-for-me", so that's what I us. However, when it comes to simple file copying, sometimes a simple scp is all I need. What protocols do you use in networks that consist of 3 or more operating systems?
Set up WebDAV. It should be supported on all of the OS's you mention. This is what I use between OSX, Linux, and Winders.
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You're seriously limiting yourself by not wanting to use those solutions. At work we have PCs, Unix boxes and Macs (running OS 8 and 9). They all have a common directory that they need to access (called 'atalk' for historical reasons). We have three daemons running such that they can all access it.
PCs: Samba
Mac: netatalk
Misc: ftp
So if all else fails, they can use FTP.
But seriously, by discounting Samba based on the fact that it "makes [you] feel like [you're] giving into the Empire" is a really stupid reason. If it works, it works and you should use it. I mean, if you really didn't want to feel like you were giving into the "Empire" you wouldn't have a Microsoft box on your desktop at all, would you? So instead of being a hypocrite, just use the solution that works. And remember that Samba is open source, if that makes you feel any better.
But I suppose you could always use FTP or http://ubiqx.org/cifs/ (but even CIFS uses SMB).
Works on every platform know to man kind.
I laughed when I read this, but you've obviously never had the pleasure of working with ftp on Mac OS 9. No one should ever have to know that much about resource forks just to share files. Ever try to explain that when you d/l from some Mac OS 9 servers from some non-mac ftp clients, the file gets binhex'ed for no apparent reason (even if they don't have or need a resource fork). Thankfully, I'm not at that job anymore, and OS 9 is dying for all but the niche of anti-spam web servers. (ShapHaus IIRC).
Two words of warning: samba built into OS X has some permissions problems, Dave for OS 9 crashes, and Netatalk has permissions problems as well (if you're thinking of hosting shares on linux for everyone). Samba on the linux box has been my best bet so far, both at home and work. I wish there was a free NFS client for Windows that I could find (but I could look harder really).
I am, and always will be, an idiot. Karma: Coma (mostly effected by
Yeah, that's where the challenge lies. However, even today, kids have it easy: Provided the thing has a serial port and you can code to it, there are small serial-to-ethernet "converters" available (most of them consist of some form of microcontroller acting as a "go-between" from the ethernet interface and the serial port).
I remember one time in the early 1990's when I picked up a Compaq SLT/386 with 6 meg of RAM, running Caldera's OpenDOS (IIRC). No PCMCIA slots - only a serial port and a parallel port. Since network equipment was still fairly expensive (especially those lovely pocket parallel ethernet adaptors), I looked for a solution.
I ended up creating a funky bit-banging parallel port solution using 4 conductor phone line, dual jack adaptors, and custom wired parallel to RJ-11 plugs. I intended to write software to allow all computers on this network to transmit/receive on it - checking for the status of the lines to avoid colisions, random wait times when there was a busy, etc - I was looking to get 9600 baud on this thing. I managed to build enough dongles for three machines, but I never got around to the coding portion. Always wondered how well (if at all) it would have worked...
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
I run a Mac (OSX), Win2k and Linux (RH 8.0) all on the same network. I found that setting up one single standard was next to impossible. I have Mac (OSX) and Win2k Connecting to Linux primarily.
Initially, since Windows didn't support NFS, I installed Samba and used SMB shares on everything. I found that the file transfers between my Mac and the Linux box were painfully slow (Red Hat 7.1). So I switched that connection to NFS. Its not as bad as it initially seemed to setup. The performance gain was amazing and everyone is chugging away.
FTP is okay, but if you want a mounted disk for say digital camera images or ripped audio collections NFS and SMB give you that ability with a cleaner interface.
Don't forget once you get this protocol thing all worked out. If you try to sling 600Megs of MP3's around your WiFi network, its going to take some time still. You might consider getting a nice 10/100 hub or switch if your moving large volumes of files each time you do it.
Lastly, there are lots of other great ways to move one or two small files around. scp, ftp, http (like you have done), email, and sneaker net.
AF-Design, web development.
I have a computer at campus and one at home. Besides that I have a laptop. When programming I always commit my source code to CVS - in that way I can just do an update from whatever machine I code from the next time. I don't just use CVS from Linux. When coding VHDL it's necessary to move the files to windows and do the synthesis there. Works like a charm.
Latex files are also easy to commit to CVS and even PDF files (don't forget to use the -kb parameters when adding!)
For mp3s I simply use Samba - of course it helps that my campus computer is connected to a 100mbit connection to my dorm but for streaming most bandwidths should do.
On the server:
/etc/exports
/mnt/music
echo "/leethaxor/music *(ro)" >>
exportfs -a
On the client:
mount haxor:/leethaxor/music
Was that so hard? Should work for linux and OSx unless OSX sucks. I'm sure there's graphical interfaces for Win32 and OS9.