can someone who knows stuff about networking help me out?

[boi]

okay, on campus we have this thing called hobbes (http://hobbes.reslife.tamu.edu) that our network uses for file sharing between computers. it allows only linux and windows connection because you've got to set up your network to connect to it somehow (apparently they don't know how to do it for macs). i've no idea how to do networking stuff, so any help is appreciated. here are the steps to do it for windows 2k.

Click on the Start Button in the left hand corner of your screen
2. Go to Settings
3. Go to Control Panel
4. Double click on Network and Dialup Connections icon
5. Right Click on the Local Area Connections Icon and Select Properties from the drop-down menu
6. Scroll down until you see the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) icon, double click on it
7. Click on the Advanced Button on the Right hand corner of this Window
8. Click on the WINS tab on the top of the window
9. Click on the Add button and enter 128.194.70.168 as the WINS number, finally click the ADD button.
10. You should now see the WINS Number in the list box below.
11. Press "OK" to finalize the process.

i tried going go->connect to server and typing smb://128.194.70.168 but to no avail.
anyway, if someone could go to that site and figure it out, i'd appreciate it! thanks.

=- boi.

 

[boi]

i installed samba x and edited the smb.conf file as stated in the linux instructions of the site. i can now type smbclient -L//128.194.70.168 -N and get a list of all shared computers. however, i still can't use the website. this is no big deal, but i'd love to be able to browse the shared folders of the shared computers somehow. i've tried osx's connect to server -> smb://128.194.70.168 after installing samba- and it's still no good.
any ideas on how to browse shared computers with the terminal or with osx's capabilities?
thanks!
=- boi.

 

[attackwolf]

The WINS server is merely a server that stores a listing of all the Windows computers. Connecting to that computer will give you nothing. This is merely something that speeds up network browsing on PCs and allows them to operate over a "router". You should still be able to connect to some if not all of the Windows computers on your school network through the "Connect To..." menu. You DO NOT need to connect to that Wins server.


Your hobbes website link does not work, and it appears that it might be an internal link which means that only people on your campus can access it. If you could post some more information about Hobbes, someone might be able to help.

To answer your second question, there currently is NO WAY to browse PC networks using the normal Mac OS X 10.1 software. You need to either purchase Dave or get an education licensed version of Sharity 2.5
You can find sharity on www.versiontracker.com in the mac os x section.

Good Luck,
Chris

 

[boi]

on the website, it allows you to view all computers, active or non-active, on the network. it also allows you to earch these computers for files, and then it'll tell you which computers have the file. it creates an active link that you can click on to download the file, but only if you're configured to the wins server.
the list of the computers on the website have computer names only, no ips. "JOESCHMO", etc.
i'll give sharity a shot... hopefully someone can guide me through it, as i'm a mac networking newbie =).

thanks a ton for your help.

=- boi.

 

[boi]

okay, with sharity i can view the network, but can't connect to any of the computers due to a required password. when windows users set up the wins connection through windows settings, they can access the computers through the web site. unfortunately, i cannot do the same.
i'm not sure exactly what information is needed to solve this problem (or if it can be solved)... so any help is appreciated.
thanks!

=- boi.

 

[attackwolf]

I just have one question:

When you use Sharity, and it asks for a password have you tried pressing enter with no password inputed?


I ask this because WINS servers themselves don't involve passwords.

Explanation of a WINS Server: (It was my luck that I got to work with a Sun machine emulating a WINS server this past summer.)
A WINS server is EXACTLY like a domain name (DNS) server in that it takes the Windows computer name (NetBios Name) which is up to 15 characters long and associates it with an IP address. (It is also an older technology that Microsoft does not recommend except for backward compatibility)

Hobbes sounds like it just shows you which computers have which files and thats it. When a Windows user clicks on one of those computer names, their computer connects to the WINS server and receives the IP address of that computer, BUT if the Windows user was NOT set up to use the WINS server, his computer would send out a broadcast and the computer whose name he was trying to find would respond to that broadcast (sending his IP address back to the broadcasting computer).

Now a bit about sharity:
According to the Sharity manual, you can use the WINS server for browsing by:
setting up the settings in the:
CIFS General panel--- You can enter the WINS server IP address.

BUT again, this will only make browsing a little faster because your computer will contact the WINS server for translation of computer names to IP address, it has nothing to do with actually establishing those connections.

Your windows using peers have 2 options when allowing people access to their stuff:
1. They can set up a general password on the folder (and that password includes <blank> or nothing)
2. They can set up a per user access to that folder, where only certain, designated users can access that folder.

At my school we have the mix of the two. BUT oddly enough, some computers don't ask for a password, others ask for a password but the password is blank, and others ask for the whole user name and password. Go figure.

Hopefully this information helps.
~Chris

 

[11dave]

You may need to find out the Domain name and change your mapping request to:

smb://DOMAIN;ServerName/ShareName

yes that's a ; after the domain name.

the IP address would go where the ServerName is, and depending if they have mulitpal shares on that server, you could just leave the ShareName off.

This by the way is in 10.1, I would reccomend the upgrade.

Good Luck!