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How Do Your Machines Talk to Each Other?

Posted by Cliff on from the chatter-in-a-room-full-of-differing-dialects dept.

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?

5 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. Suppression of revolution by PeteyG · · Score: 5, Funny

    How Do Your Machines Talk to Each Other?

    Hah, they don't. I don't need the devious little things plotting behind my back. If they can't talk... they can't revolt.

    Unless, of course, my brutal oppression is what pushes them to bloody revolution...

    --
    no thanks
  2. Uh.. by DrunkBastard · · Score: 5, Informative

    well, you could always use that little protocol called "file transfer protocol". Go figure. A protocol used to copy files. Works on every platform know to man kind. If you wanted to pull out a good ol' system that fell into disuse, get gopher working! As a side, there are scp protocols for pretty much everything as well.

  3. You've already given in by Jahf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Face it, you're trying to network 2 MS OSes with 3 non-MS OSes. You want to fileshare between them without "giving in" but you're keeping the non-MS OSes.

    Samba is nothing to be ashamed of. I know plenty of folks who use it with no MS OSes in the mix at all.

    You seem to know it is probably going to be the simplest solution ... yet you exclude it off-hand? Sounds like an exercise in frustration to me.

    --
    It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
    1. Re:You've already given in by Josh+Booth · · Score: 5, Funny

      I have opened my Computerus Geekus Bibleus, or Computer Geek Bible for those who don't speak fluent Latin, and it says here, in the Book of "Networking", Chapter 0x03, Verse 0x00, "Thou shalt not use the protocol known as SMB/CIFS on any sort of network, being of Ethernet, Token Ring, Appletalk, or others of this sort, when thou wishest to export thine directory trees, exceptest as thou dost use the Good Software Package that He calls Samba. This Package may only be installed upon thine computers which run some Unix variant, whether they be *BSD, GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, or another." So, as you can see for yourself, you don't need to worry about giving in to the Empire! The good book tells you that it is completely alright.

  4. X2VNC by bite.me · · Score: 5, Informative

    Creates a 1 pixel buffer at the edge of your screen. When you drag your mouse over it, it appears that the curser goes to other monitor, and the control of the keyboard too. Very handy. So with a combination of that, cygwin, samba, and netatalk, I can stay on top of all my files.

    Also, OS-X speaks samba, so there's less and less need for the appletalk protocol.