On Sun, 2006-05-21 at 08:36 -0500, chrisisbd@leary.csoft.net wrote:
Does anyone have any experience of using a network drive with Linux? Nearly all the reasonably priced ones I have seen advertised tell you all about how they appear as a 'local drive' on Windows systems but give no clue as to how/whether they will work with Linux.
Not had much direct experience of them, But I'd imagine most of them are running Samba. If you went for one of the ones with a vibrant community driven alternative to the included Embedded OS (like the Linksys "Slug") then I'd imagine that NFS etc is a given.
One actually appears to be running Samba but that still isn't ideal for Linux.
While I'm asking, if I press an old system into service with a basic Linux OS installed on it how can I network its drives? Can one just mount drives across the local network or does one *have* to run something like NFS or Samba?
You make running NFS sound like a chore :-)
Nope not really, you can transfer files by various methods but I'd say for Linux to Linux NFS is the way to go. NFS does just mount drives across the local network, you need something between the network and the filesystem to allow concurrent access etc.
What I'd do is build a basic box plus NFS, plus Samba (if you have any Windows clients), perhaps put your printers through it and if you don't have a router then your internet connection as well. Later on you can have it processing your mail etc voila a simple home server for free (or at least much less money than a Nas appliance box)
If command lines aren't your thing then install webmin and the appropriate plugins for what you want to manage.
I just replaced my home server with a new MiniITX based 1U Rack server with half a terabyte. By buying carefully I built this for just over £350.
It's my uPnP media server, VOIP gateway, File server (NFS and Samba), automated backup server for the girlfriends and my laptops (using BackupPC, which rocks), web server, print server and when I get round to setting it up my mail server. Every service is configurable via a browser using Webmin,FreePBX, BackupPC and Twonkyvision web control panels.
Actually my old home server (which is a converted NAS appliance box built around a 700nsomething Mhz PIII) may be up for grabs soon, I'll post here when I decide to get rid of it.