[vox-tech] home network - how to make a UNIX known to the other PC (Windows)

[Brian Lavender]

On Wed, Sep 26, 2007 at 10:07:23PM -0400, Hai Yi wrote:
> This might be a very simple question, so forgive me if it is.
> 
> I have two PCs at home. One is Ubuntu the other is Windows XP.
> 
> Ubuntu machine has a name "zodiac", how can it makes it known to the
> Window XP machine? I want to install a tightvnc server on Ubuntu and a
> client on Windows so it can visit the Ubuntu.

Did you try to ping zodiac from your Windows machine? Did you try to
connect to Ubuntu from Windows using vncviewer? It is already probably
already pingable from Windows and accessible using vncviewer via the
name, because Ubuntu is probably already broadcasting its netbios name,
which Windows will translate to an IP address. Just do this on Ubuntu.

System -> Preferences -> Remote Desktop 

and enable it if it doesn't already work. You'll see an instruction once
you enable remote desktop telling you how to connect from Windows.

Now attempt to connect from Windows.

vncviewer zodiac:0

> 
> I  guess I need to modify the hosts and network files on Win XP to
> include the IP and name of the Ubuntu machine?

No. It probably already works.

Go to

System -> Administration -> Shared folders

and your workgroup name info. 

FYI, Ubuntu likely already has winbind installed so that it will resolve
Windows machine names. 

If not, install it.

sudo apt-get install winbind

Now check the following line in /etc/nsswitch.conf

hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4 wins

It should already be similar to what you see above.

brian
-- 
Brian Lavender
http://www.brie.com/brian/