Home Networks

This section provides instructions on how to communicate with other computers using a Local Area Network.

View other computers on the network

To view computers on the network, open ApplicationsSystemRemote Filesystems.

You may need to enter a username, password, and domain. You should obtain these from your network administrator where necessary. The username and password will normally be the username and password for a user of the computer on which you are trying to connect.

The domain can often be left blank.

See the Gigolo website for more information.

Share Files and Folders With Other Computers

You can share files and folders with other people on your network through Shared Folders.

Sharing Folders Via the Shared Folders Application

To share folders using the Shared Folders application:

  1. Press ApplicationsAccessoriesTerminal to open a Terminal.

  2. Type shares-admin and press Enter to open Shared Folders.

  3. Press the padlock button labeled Click to make changes and type your password.

  4. Press Enter or the Authenticate button.

  5. You may receive a message that says Sharing services are not installed. If this happens, ensure that the two checkboxes in the message box are checked and press Install services. Sharing service support will then be downloaded and installed; this may take a while.

  6. Select the Shared Folders tab and press Add.

  7. Select the location of the folder you wish to share by changing the Path option.

  8. In the Share through option, choose Windows networks (SMB) if you want to share your folders with other computers running Windows operating systems. Choose Unix networks (NFS) if you want to share your folders with other Unix based computers.

  9. Press the Add button.

  10. In the Add allowed hosts box, you can specify which hosts (other computers) will have access to your shared folders by entering the IP address, Host name or Domain of the other computers.

  11. If you would like people accessing the shared folder(s) to be able to add, change and remove files in the folder, uncheck Read only. If you leave Read only checked, people will only be able to view files in the folder.

  12. Press OK to make the shared folder(s) available. Other computers on the same (LAN) as you should now be able to access the folder(s).

[Note]

You may receive a message that says You do not have permission to create a usershare. If this happens, contact your system administrator or configure the Folder sharing service (samba).

See the Shared Folders Administration Tool manual for more information on managing network shares.

Accessing Shared Folders Via Windows

If you would like to access a shared folder hosted on an Xubuntu computer by using computers running Windows, you may have to perform some additional steps:

  1. Click ApplicationsAccessoriesTerminal to open a Terminal.

  2. Type sudo smbpasswd -a username, replacing username with your own username. Press Enter to run the command.

    [Note]

    You can find out what your username is by typing whoami into the Terminal and then pressing Enter.

  3. Enter your password when prompted with [sudo] password for username: and press Enter again.

  4. When prompted with New SMB password:, enter the password that you would like to use to access the shared folder and then press Enter. You can leave the password blank, which will allow anyone to access the shared folder.

  5. When prompted with Retype new SMB password:, enter the password that you just entered and then press Enter.

  6. You should now be able to connect to the shared folders on the Xubuntu computer.

Problems Connecting to Shared Folders in Windows

If you are unable to connect to a shared folder using Windows, try using the IP address of the Xubuntu computer rather than its host name to access the share:

  1. Press ApplicationsSystemNetwork Tools and select the Devices tab.

  2. Select the name of your network connection from the Network device option list (for example, eth0). If you have several network connections, you may have to try this several times.

  3. Make a note of the number in the IP address column. It should consist of four numbers separated by dots (for example, 192.168.2.10)

  4. On the Windows computer, select StartRun and type \\ipaddress in the text box, replacing ipaddress with the IP address of the Xubuntu computer

  5. Press OK to connect to the shared folder.

If you are still unable to access the shared folder, check that the folder sharing service is running on the Xubuntu computer:

  1. Press ApplicationsSystemServices

  2. Locate the Folder sharing service (samba) option and ensure that the checkbox next to it is checked. If it is not checked, press Unlock and enter your administrative password. Press Authenticate, then enable the Folder sharing service.

  3. Press Close

More information can be found on the Ubuntu community help pages.