On Fri, 2003-10-24 at 08:12, betty wrote:
> thanks to all of you who tried helping with my setup in samba of a 
> redhat/win network at home. after 8 more hours;  and using /webmin/ 
> instead of /samba/; my former instructor in linux was able to get the 2 
> talking together.
> problems were; security set too high in redhat (standard install),
> old laptop w/windows 98 ; had to go to win xp,
> path for shared files was too long ie; /home/stormy/filename,  worked 
> better with just /shared filename.
> 
> don't think i could help anyone else do this, the total time was 24 
> hours. linux needs to work this out for (simple) desktop users to 
> popularize it. :-P  ( webmin was definitely easier to use than samba)
> betty i
> see you all saturday
-------
I have some thoughts about this...

1a - Windows users have a very tough time setting up file sharing
between themselves when they don't have the specific knowledge of how to
do it.

1b - Macintosh users (remember the easy to use OS) have a very tough
time setting up file sharing between themselves when they don't have the
specific knowledge of how to do it.

1 - conclusion...setting up file sharing is never easy for people that
haven't done it a few times. This ain't necessarily a Linux issue.

2a - software Firewalls / packet filtering on Windows always block
Windows networking ports because they have been abused so badly since
their inception.

2b - software Firewalls / packet filtering on Linux always block Windows
networking ports because they want to protect against all of the Windows
Netbios port attacks.

2c - regardless of stated emphasis of Microsoft's commitment to
security, they still by default have packet filtering turned off -
meaning that when directly connected to the internet , they are nothing
more than a honey pot for hackers. I probably know less than 10 people
personally, who actually know where the switch is to turn packet
filtering on/off in Win2K/XP.

2d - Internet Service Providers that provide broadband will either
provide a NAT box or implore you to use a software firewall for
protection. Even the 'anti-virus' vendors are bundling their AV product
with their personal firewall product because the need is so great.

2 - conclusion - Windows networking has been so notoriously insecure
that security software will always by default stop Windows networking
cold.

3 - security too high from standard install in Red Hat Linux (RHL) -
during install, you were asked to configure - high/medium/low/custom. 
It highlights high security - but you have to accept it to move to the
next screen - consider this a learning experience. Also consider the
differing philosophies...Microsoft XP, will never ask you during install
about security in any way, shape or form, nor will it even suggest that
you consider it. Red Hat not only asks you, but it gives you a
'simplification' choice / high, medium, low.

Lastly...time

Only one learning experience within Linux / Windows / Macintosh has
taken more than 8 hours...LDAP setup.

But I am confident enough to trust what I do is right and thus, it has
me look for answers elsewhere. When things don't work right, I take a
break and relax a bit rather than try to intensely focus on the problem
which if I am frustrated enough, will become much harder to solve.

Samba isn't easily configured - except that with the exception of not
knowing where/what the samba shares are likely to be located on your
hard drive structure, it is already configured and ready to go as a
workgroup - typical of home/very small businesses.

Add to that - if you aren't comfortable working in CLI, you are gonna
have a hell of a time getting the gui configuration tool and I would
agree that webmin is very good for that purpose but my guess the options
on webmin are likely to make much sense to someone that isn't
comfortable with Windows networking already.

So I guess that my point was that much of the time that you believe that
you spent setting up networking with Windows computers was probably time
spent trying to fix bindings/broken TCP/IP stacks in Windows 98 and
learning too many details about Linux that you hadn't already learned.
Hopefully, you will retain some of these - I'll bet you retain the
concept of what packet filtering/firewalls means to communications with
another computer.

Craig