Network Setup

[Ken]

New to linux. I have a desktop computer running Windows 7 and a laptop running Windows 7. These are home networked using a Belkin router. I have another laptop running linux "Mint" and am trying to figure out how to connect it to the existing network. When I "look" on the "mint" I can see the home network, but am unable to figure out how to successfully connect to it. Is there a "procedure" to do this?

[dave_boo]

What exactly are you trying to do? Join a Windows network and see the shared drives? Or simply access the internet?

As a hint, check in your start menu for a programme called "Firestarter". It's a firewall that could be interfering.

[Ken]

What exactly are you trying to do? Join a Windows network and see the shared drives? Or simply access the internet?

As a hint, check in your start menu for a programme called "Firestarter". It's a firewall that could be interfering.

Thanks for your reply. I am able to connect to the INTERNET thru the router, so no problem there. I am trying to add a printer that is on the desktop running windows 7. I can access this printer on the laptop that is running windows 7, but I cannot get to it with the "mint". When I attempt to "connect" to the network with "mint", it asks for a user name and password. Don't quite understand how to set this up to work with "mint". I did find "firewall configuration" in Mint and set it to "allow".

[dave_boo]

What exactly are you trying to do? Join a Windows network and see the shared drives? Or simply access the internet?

As a hint, check in your start menu for a programme called "Firestarter". It's a firewall that could be interfering.

Thanks for your reply. I am able to connect to the INTERNET thru the router, so no problem there. I am trying to add a printer that is on the desktop running windows 7. I can access this printer on the laptop that is running windows 7, but I cannot get to it with the "mint". When I attempt to "connect" to the network with "mint", it asks for a user name and password. Don't quite understand how to set this up to work with "mint". I did find "firewall configuration" in Mint and set it to "allow".

Ah. Perhaps this thread could help? There may be sharing issues on the Windows side. Here's a guide that seems to solve the username/password issues.

[dharmabm]

Thanks for your reply. I am able to connect to the INTERNET thru the router, so no problem there. I am trying to add a printer that is on the desktop running windows 7. I can access this printer on the laptop that is running windows 7, but I cannot get to it with the "mint". When I attempt to "connect" to the network with "mint", it asks for a user name and password. Don't quite understand how to set this up to work with "mint". I did find "firewall configuration" in Mint and set it to "allow".

Ken,

If you are getting a prompt for a uname/passwd them you are making the connection, you just need to authenticate with the credentials of the (windows) desktop machine user. If you didn't set one up, it may just be adminstrator with no password (which is very dangerous), I don't have win7 so i don't know if microsoft started forcing creation of a user during setup, but whatever it is it would be the same you used to get your windows laptop connected to the printer. Once you can open the share, you go to administration-printing and add the printer from the network. Pretty straigtforward, once you get authenticated to the share. If you're still having difficulty please post the exact steps you are trying.

Regards,

Kevin

#1 - ArchLinux

#2 - Sabayon

#3 - Mandriva

#4 - Mint

#5 - Ubuntu

(yes, all on one machine) ;>}

[Ken]

Kind of difficult to post exact steps as I've tried so many. But basically I am seeing the home network on Mint, but when I attempt to connect to it, whether directly or trying to add the network printer I always come up with needing to enter a user name and password. I know the password for the Windows network but unsure what user name to use. Tried just my user name on Mint which is Ken. At any rate I can see that an attempt to connect is going on but it errors out basically saying the password and/or user name is incorrect. I did use that password to connect the other laptop with Windows 7.

The attached file seems to indicate that only Windows can connect to Windows with this password but unclear about any of this.

[dharmabm]

Kind of difficult to post exact steps as I've tried so many. But basically I am seeing the home network on Mint, but when I attempt to connect to it, whether directly or trying to add the network printer I always come up with needing to enter a user name and password. I know the password for the Windows network but unsure what user name to use. Tried just my user name on Mint which is Ken. At any rate I can see that an attempt to connect is going on but it errors out basically saying the password and/or user name is incorrect. I did use that password to connect the other laptop with Windows 7.

The attached file seems to indicate that only Windows can connect to Windows with this password but unclear about any of this.

Ahh, ok. The new 'homegroup'. Trust microsoft to come up with new 'features' that do not follow industry standards. Well, what I would try is to follow the instructions here > http://blogs.techrep...windows/?p=1910 to enable connection from earlier versions of windows. Then mint should see you network as a standard samba share, and you should be able to connect using the credentials created in the instructions. Please let us know how it works out. You may still have trouble with printer drivers once you get connected, but mint seems to have good native printer support, and we can look at that later if there is a problem.

good luck!

k

[siamect]

Ok,,, get rid of that samba protocol once and for all...

If you just install an ssh server on the mint box and then you can use WinSCP from the windows boxes to reach into any /home/user directory.

WinSCP is under GPL but is using Putty under a special license agreement.

Putty is under MIT license.

And for the printer... connect it to the Mintbox

Martin

[dharmabm]

Ok,,, get rid of that samba protocol once and for all...

If you just install an ssh server on the mint box and then you can use WinSCP from the windows boxes to reach into any /home/user directory.

WinSCP is under GPL but is using Putty under a special license agreement.

Putty is under MIT license.

And for the printer... connect it to the Mintbox

Martin

sorry, but several issues with this advice:

1 - the printer is connected to a desktop, the linux box is a laptop... why connect a printer to a machine that may not always be there?

2 - you are suggesting several complex configurations to a self-admitted newbie to linux

3 - get rid of samba?!?! can you explain your reasoning for this? it works out of the box with most win, mac and linux clients

4 - that isn't what the poster asked for

not trying to be difficult, but... ;>}

k

[Ken]

Thanks for the reply's. And indeed, I really am new to Linux, thus siam's reply was way over my "knowledge base" (but thanks for trying). None of this is "critical" for me, I'm just trying to learn at the moment.

I'm busy for a couple of days, and then I will try some more of dharmabm's ideas and let you know how it goes. Before I started this thread I did some google searches and while I learned some things I was unable to come up with a solution, thus the thread.

Appreciate the help in learning.

[siamect]

Ok,,, get rid of that samba protocol once and for all...

If you just install an ssh server on the mint box and then you can use WinSCP from the windows boxes to reach into any /home/user directory.

WinSCP is under GPL but is using Putty under a special license agreement.

Putty is under MIT license.

And for the printer... connect it to the Mintbox

Martin

sorry, but several issues with this advice:

1 - the printer is connected to a desktop, the linux box is a laptop... why connect a printer to a machine that may not always be there?

2 - you are suggesting several complex configurations to a self-admitted newbie to linux

3 - get rid of samba?!?! can you explain your reasoning for this? it works out of the box with most win, mac and linux clients

4 - that isn't what the poster asked for

not trying to be difficult, but... ;>}

k

Ok you are right... it was a short form I admit... I guess I was sleepy

1 printer... I have had many issues with networked printers connected to windows machines... not only from GNU/Linux to Windows but also Windows to Windows. Many times this is due to driver problems. HP inkjets have had problems with networking in the past and they have confirmed it in some cases... I have a all in one HP 1410 that is working flawlessly with my Ubuntu / Kubuntu / Gentoo boxes.... Win7 does not work well with this printer. With WinXP it worked better but networking was a problem.

I don't use it over the network at all now.

2 On the Mint box, search for openssh-server in the package manager in Mint or open the terminal and type

apt-get install openssh-server

That will install the ssh server

On your windows box download the WinSCP package http://winscp.net/eng/download.php and install it...

open winscp and use the sftp protocol.

insert the ip address of the Mint box and use the login username and password from the mint box.

save the settings

click log in. and you will ba able to drag and drop files from/to the Mintbox from you windows machine.

I you don't know the IP of your mint box you can type

ifconfig -a

in the terminal.

Actually I had a complete GNU/Linux newbie do this yesterday without problems..

3 Samba is a product that is relying on reverse engineering of some MS protocols. Using this give you problems like this. I had no problems with Samba when the windows boxes were runnng win2k and XP but with Win7 ... another story... I spent over an hour failing to connect to my wife's win7 box.

with ssh and Winscp it works immediately because the ssh protocol is a very rigid standard.

4... don't know what you are referring to... Maybe Licenses... yes I think it is important...It is about your rights to run a program....

Martin

[Ken]

Kind of difficult to post exact steps as I've tried so many. But basically I am seeing the home network on Mint, but when I attempt to connect to it, whether directly or trying to add the network printer I always come up with needing to enter a user name and password. I know the password for the Windows network but unsure what user name to use. Tried just my user name on Mint which is Ken. At any rate I can see that an attempt to connect is going on but it errors out basically saying the password and/or user name is incorrect. I did use that password to connect the other laptop with Windows 7.

The attached file seems to indicate that only Windows can connect to Windows with this password but unclear about any of this.

Ahh, ok. The new 'homegroup'. Trust microsoft to come up with new 'features' that do not follow industry standards. Well, what I would try is to follow the instructions here > http://blogs.techrep...windows/?p=1910 to enable connection from earlier versions of windows. Then mint should see you network as a standard samba share, and you should be able to connect using the credentials created in the instructions. Please let us know how it works out. You may still have trouble with printer drivers once you get connected, but mint seems to have good native printer support, and we can look at that later if there is a problem.

good luck!

k

Ok. Finally got back to looking at this. I followed the directions on the posted website and set up a user name and password on my Windows desktop. Then I went to the mint laptop and tried to log in to the Windows desktop again, using the newly created user name and password. Unfortunately it still fails the login. It seemed like this should have worked but....Still appreciate your help.

Below I have responded to siamect with the results of trying his method.

[Ken]

Ok,,, get rid of that samba protocol once and for all...

If you just install an ssh server on the mint box and then you can use WinSCP from the windows boxes to reach into any /home/user directory.

WinSCP is under GPL but is using Putty under a special license agreement.

Putty is under MIT license.

And for the printer... connect it to the Mintbox

Martin

sorry, but several issues with this advice:

1 - the printer is connected to a desktop, the linux box is a laptop... why connect a printer to a machine that may not always be there?

2 - you are suggesting several complex configurations to a self-admitted newbie to linux

3 - get rid of samba?!?! can you explain your reasoning for this? it works out of the box with most win, mac and linux clients

4 - that isn't what the poster asked for

not trying to be difficult, but... ;>}

k

Ok you are right... it was a short form I admit... I guess I was sleepy

1 printer... I have had many issues with networked printers connected to windows machines... not only from GNU/Linux to Windows but also Windows to Windows. Many times this is due to driver problems. HP inkjets have had problems with networking in the past and they have confirmed it in some cases... I have a all in one HP 1410 that is working flawlessly with my Ubuntu / Kubuntu / Gentoo boxes.... Win7 does not work well with this printer. With WinXP it worked better but networking was a problem.

I don't use it over the network at all now.

2 On the Mint box, search for openssh-server in the package manager in Mint or open the terminal and type

apt-get install openssh-server

That will install the ssh server

On your windows box download the WinSCP package http://winscp.net/eng/download.php and install it...

open winscp and use the sftp protocol.

insert the ip address of the Mint box and use the login username and password from the mint box.

save the settings

click log in. and you will ba able to drag and drop files from/to the Mintbox from you windows machine.

I you don't know the IP of your mint box you can type

ifconfig -a

in the terminal.

Actually I had a complete GNU/Linux newbie do this yesterday without problems..

3 Samba is a product that is relying on reverse engineering of some MS protocols. Using this give you problems like this. I had no problems with Samba when the windows boxes were runnng win2k and XP but with Win7 ... another story... I spent over an hour failing to connect to my wife's win7 box.

with ssh and Winscp it works immediately because the ssh protocol is a very rigid standard.

4... don't know what you are referring to... Maybe Licenses... yes I think it is important...It is about your rights to run a program....

Martin

I downloaded and installed the ssh server on mint. I downloaded and installed WINSCP on the windows machine. I came up with an IP address of 192.168.2.3 which I plugged in to the log in box along with my laptop user name and password. I received "access denied". See attached.

I think I did this correctly, but of course at this point not 100 percent sure.

Still thinking about this and trying. Thanks.

[siamect]

How did you install the ssh server?

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

It is important that you do it the "mint/ubuntu" way baecause otherwise it may require some more steps to start..

On the windows side it should be something like this if you have a user-name "Ken" and the IP 192.168.2.3 on the Mint box.

maybe you can give use the output of the following two commands, type it in in the terminal of the mint box

ps -el | grep ssh

This will list the processes and pipe it into a filter that searched for any row that contain the word ssh.

netstat -at | grep ssh

This will give you a list of tcpip ports and filter it the same way .

This way we can see if sshd is running and if it is listening to the ports we want...

Martin

[Ken]

How did you install the ssh server?

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

It is important that you do it the "mint/ubuntu" way baecause otherwise it may require some more steps to start..

On the windows side it should be something like this if you have a user-name "Ken" and the IP 192.168.2.3 on the Mint box.

maybe you can give use the output of the following two commands, type it in in the terminal of the mint box

ps -el | grep ssh

This will list the processes and pipe it into a filter that searched for any row that contain the word ssh.

netstat -at | grep ssh

This will give you a list of tcpip ports and filter it the same way .

This way we can see if sshd is running and if it is listening to the ports we want...

Martin

I found and installed the ssh application using the mint package manager.

Below are the screenshots you asked for. Kind of nice as I had to learn how to get the screenshots on Mint as I hadn't done that before.

[siamect]

How did you install the ssh server?

sudo apt-get install openssh-server

It is important that you do it the "mint/ubuntu" way baecause otherwise it may require some more steps to start..

On the windows side it should be something like this if you have a user-name "Ken" and the IP 192.168.2.3 on the Mint box.

maybe you can give use the output of the following two commands, type it in in the terminal of the mint box

ps -el | grep ssh

This will list the processes and pipe it into a filter that searched for any row that contain the word ssh.

netstat -at | grep ssh

This will give you a list of tcpip ports and filter it the same way .

This way we can see if sshd is running and if it is listening to the ports we want...

Martin

I found and installed the ssh application using the mint package manager.

Below are the screenshots you asked for. Kind of nice as I had to learn how to get the screenshots on Mint as I hadn't done that before.

Hmm... It looks ok... do you have any firewall enabled anywhere?

[EDIT] Wrong thinking... you got an access denied... right? With a firewall block you would get a timout...

Wait... did you have Ken or ken as username...

Martin

[Ken]

Siam:

Well, whoops. I had Ken because I thought the K was capitalized. I just tried ken and it appears to be connected at the Windows desktop. So now I guess I need to figure out what next and how to add the printer to Mint????

Edit: Whoops again. It appears that I am connected to my other laptop with Windows 7 using that ip address. Guess I will have to try again later to determine what the actual address is for the Mint. I'll send another post with the screenshot of where I got the current ip address.

Edit2: Ok here is the screenshot.

[siamect]

Siam:

Well, whoops. I had Ken because I thought the K was capitalized. I just tried ken and it appears to be connected at the Windows desktop. So now I guess I need to figure out what next and how to add the printer to Mint????

Edit: Whoops again. It appears that I am connected to my other laptop with Windows 7 using that ip address. Guess I will have to try again later to determine what the actual address is for the Mint. I'll send another post with the screenshot of where I got the current ip address.

Edit2: Ok here is the screenshot.

well you have 192.168.2.3 if the screenshot comes form the Mint box... I doubt the windows machines have ssh servers running.

Did you manage to get connected?

For the printer... What kind of pronter do you have?

It may possibly work just right away, It did for me, a HP 1410 all in one and everything worked out of the box in Kubuntu/Ubuntu.

[Ken]

My mistake. I am indeed connected and at the Windows Desktop I can see the files on the Mint laptop. So far so good. Nice to see it is connected. I am not clear at all on how to do or see anything as I sit at the Mint laptop. At the Mint laptop, how do I look at files on the Windows desktop? How do I add the printer to Mint that is connected at the Windows desktop?

My printer is an HP 380 All in one.

[siamect]

My mistake. I am indeed connected and at the Windows Desktop I can see the files on the Mint laptop. So far so good. Nice to see it is connected. I am not clear at all on how to do or see anything as I sit at the Mint laptop. At the Mint laptop, how do I look at files on the Windows desktop? How do I add the printer to Mint that is connected at the Windows desktop?

My printer is an HP 380 All in one.

Well ... hmm normally you should be able to just share a folder on the Windows box and see it from the Mint box... but this is more complicated as they started with this "home network" thing... That's why I suggested this as a way to get the files over.

I do it that way (My wife still on win7)

The windows world just get more and more odd and absurd... It's definitely outside my range of experience now... or you can revert to XP...

You can... install an ssh server on the Windows machines to get the same but the other way around...But I have done it 6-7 years ago... don't remember how.

Printer sharing... I guess still involves the Samba protocol and Microsofts odd conventions... I just plug in the computer directly to the printer... or pass the files to the box that is connected to the printer and print from there, sharing between the GNU/Linux boxes you can install "cups" if it is not already there...

So I'm afraid I cannot give you a total solution..

I guess we have to ask others in this forum for that.

Martin

[Ken]

My mistake. I am indeed connected and at the Windows Desktop I can see the files on the Mint laptop. So far so good. Nice to see it is connected. I am not clear at all on how to do or see anything as I sit at the Mint laptop. At the Mint laptop, how do I look at files on the Windows desktop? How do I add the printer to Mint that is connected at the Windows desktop?

My printer is an HP 380 All in one.

Well ... hmm normally you should be able to just share a folder on the Windows box and see it from the Mint box... but this is more complicated as they started with this "home network" thing... That's why I suggested this as a way to get the files over.

I do it that way (My wife still on win7)

The windows world just get more and more odd and absurd... It's definitely outside my range of experience now... or you can revert to XP...

You can... install an ssh server on the Windows machines to get the same but the other way around...But I have done it 6-7 years ago... don't remember how.

Printer sharing... I guess still involves the Samba protocol and Microsofts odd conventions... I just plug in the computer directly to the printer... or pass the files to the box that is connected to the printer and print from there, sharing between the GNU/Linux boxes you can install "cups" if it is not already there...

So I'm afraid I cannot give you a total solution..

I guess we have to ask others in this forum for that.

Martin

Ok. Fair enough. Indeed, at the windows computer I can "see" whatever it is I want to print from the Mint computer, then transfer it to a folder on the Windows computer. From there I can open it on the Windows computer or print it on the printer connected to the Windows computer. Since that ultimately is what I would want to do, this would work.

So, like yourself, I am not sure whether I can get this Windows printer to actually show up on the Mint laptop and print directly to it thru "samba"???

At any rate I appreciate your help on this and you have taught me quite a bit already. Looking forward to learning some more...keeps me busy and sort of out of trouble. Lots to learn.

Thanks again siam (Martin).

Ken

[siamect]

My mistake. I am indeed connected and at the Windows Desktop I can see the files on the Mint laptop. So far so good. Nice to see it is connected. I am not clear at all on how to do or see anything as I sit at the Mint laptop. At the Mint laptop, how do I look at files on the Windows desktop? How do I add the printer to Mint that is connected at the Windows desktop?

My printer is an HP 380 All in one.

Does printing directly from Mint work?

Search in the package manager for "hplip"

on my computer the hplip and hplip-data are installed. That makes my hp 1410 work both print and scan locally from the Ubuntu / Kubuntu...

Martin

[Ken]

My mistake. I am indeed connected and at the Windows Desktop I can see the files on the Mint laptop. So far so good. Nice to see it is connected. I am not clear at all on how to do or see anything as I sit at the Mint laptop. At the Mint laptop, how do I look at files on the Windows desktop? How do I add the printer to Mint that is connected at the Windows desktop?

My printer is an HP 380 All in one.

Does printing directly from Mint work?

Search in the package manager for "hplip"

on my computer the hplip and hplip-data are installed. That makes my hp 1410 work both print and scan locally from the Ubuntu / Kubuntu...

Martin

I just USB connected the HP Printer directly to the Mint laptop. The Mint successfully "found" the printer and installed the required driver. I then printed a sample test document. So yes, printing directly from the Mint does work.

And yes hplip and hplip-data are installed.