Accessing Windows Shared Folders

[John Toliver]

On Sun, Jun 29, 2008 at 12:06, Lynn Ziegler <yadaoser at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> One more thing to add to the confusion. I can use Nautilus and add shares or printers,  BUT I HAVE TO USE THE IP ADDRESS. If I use the Windows name it does not work. It >seems like >Nautilus (or SMB) can no longer find the PC's under their own name.

JT:
I don't quite remember how I fixed this problem.  I want to say it got
fixed in Hardy but I think you mentioned earlier you also have Hardy
so never mind.

Short answer is windows has some way of electing for one computer to
be responsible for updating a file called "LMhosts".  The file keeps
records of the computer names and IP's of all the machines on the
network.  Maybe someone else could explain that better than I did.

Linux doesn't handle it this way, it normally uses DNS.  It's been
suggested to setup a DNS server for your internal network but I think
it's overkill for two or three machines.

Here is how I worked it out.  Go to:

1. system>administration>networking

2. Set manual IP's for the machines in your network and then configure
DHCP to give out IP's in a range above the ones you've set OR figure
out how to have your router reserve a specific IP for the MAC
addresses of the NICS for these PC's you want to access.

(Some way to make sure the PC's you need to talk to always get the
same IP's without interfering with the rest of the network
functioning.)

3. Select the hosts tab and manually add the ip's of the machines on
your network.

You'll find that once you give the computer name and the ip address,
pinging by computer name then works.

Aggravating I know but I can't program yet so I can't fix it myself
for the time being :-)
--
I've discovered the key to success is to never give up. You either
learn the right way, or you run out of ways to do it wrong. A win/win
situation!