Ubuntu 8.10 And Windows XP File Sharing How-To

This article covers the following:

1. Setting up a workgroup in Windows XP.
2. Setting up a workgroup in Ubuntu 8.10.
3. How to share out files from your Windows XP computer on your home network so you can access them with Ubuntu 8.10.
4. How to access files shared by your Windows XP computer on your home network in Ubuntu 8.10.
5. How to share files out from Ubuntu 8.10 to a Windows XP computer on your home network.

Setting up a workgroup in Windows XP

1. Click Start.
2. Click Control Panel.
3. If in Category View, click Performance and Maintenance, then System. If in Classic View, double-click System.
4. From the new window that appears, click the tab labeled Computer Name at the top.
5. Click the button labeled Change (in the middle of the window).
6. Assign your computer name and workgroup here. See below for example.

Name the computer anything you wish. You can go simple such as “Computer1″ or maybe “BigBox” or “Laptop”. Pick something that you will either remember or that represents what the computer is.

For the workgroup, keep it something very short. The default workgroup is either WORKGROUP or HOME. If you’re stuck on what to name it, simply name it HOME for easy reference.

Once you click OK you will be required to reboot once for the changes to take effect.

Note: Configuring local network settings like this has absolutely nothing to do with your internet connectivity – it is for LAN (Local Area Network) only. The internet is the WAN (Wide Area Network).

Setting up a Workgroup in Ubuntu 8.10

This is done by a quick and simple edit of a text file.

1. Launch a Terminal by clicking Applications, Accessories, Terminal.
2. Type the following command verbatim:sudo gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf

   You will be prompted for your administrator password. Type it in and press enter.

3. In gedit, press CTRL+F to search and search for workgroup. You will notice the default line is workgroup = WORKGROUP. Change WORKGROUP (note the upper case) to the same workgroup name you entered in your Windows XP computer. See image below for example.

Save when completed. Then reboot. You’re done.

Sharing out files from Windows XP

Any folder can be shared out from Windows XP, but it’s highly recommended you share one that isn’t a critical folder, such as C:\WINDOWS or your “My Documents” folder.

The safest way to share out from XP is to physically create a folder under “My Documents” and use that one to share with.

1. Click Start.
2. Click My Documents.
3. Click (at top left) File, then New, then Folder.
4. Your new folder by default is named “New Folder”. To keep it simple, name it xpshare and press enter.
5. Right-click the xpshare folder.
6. Select Properties from the menu that appears.
7. From the window that appears, click the tab labeled Sharing (at top).
8. Click the checkbox for Share this folder on the network.
9. The share will automatically be named xpshare. This is fine; leave as is.
10. Click Apply then OK.

Looks like this:

Sharing of a folder is confirmed when the folder icon itself changes to a folder with a small image of a hand underneath it.

Accessing Windows shares from your Ubuntu 8.10 computer

1. Click Places.
2. Click Network.
3. After a small pause, your workgroup name should appear. Click it to go in there.
4. If you are prompted for a username and password, use your Windows XP user and pass.TIP: To avoid this issue, make your Ubuntu username/password and your Windows XP username/password the same. You are not putting your network at risk by doing this being that it is 100% local. If however, your username/password is the same as other services you use on the internet – this is bad. Your local username/password solely be used on the LAN only.
5. You will see your xpshare folder at this point. Double-click it. There is usually a 5 to 10 second pause at this point while Ubuntu is accessing the share – this is normal. Once found it will auto-mount the folder on the desktop.

Depending on your XP share settings, you either have read-only access, or full access if you clicked the option for Allow network users to change my files. See previous screen shot above for example of that.

Sharing files out from Ubuntu 8.10 to Windows XP on your home network

For this example we will be sharing out the Documents folder under your Home folder (accessible from Places then Home Folder).

TIP: Share out files from very specific areas of your home folder ONLY. Sharing anything else on your Ubuntu system presents a security risk – especially if multiple users use the same computer.

1. Right-click the Documents folder and click Sharing Options.

2. Being that this is the first time Ubuntu will be sharing out files, the system will prompt you to install a service. Do so by clicking Install Service.

Ubuntu will go out to the internet to get the appropriate files (this won’t take long).

Ubuntu will then install the files.

Once finished, Ubuntu will state it’s all done and that you can click Close. Click Close here.

You will be required to restart the session for the changes to apply.

TIP: If for any reason after the session restart you still cannot share files out properly by following the rest of this tutorial, REBOOT the system. If you want to be on the safe side, REBOOT the system immediately after session restart.

3. Click Places then Home Folder.

4. Right-click the Documents folder and click Sharing Options.

5. Check off Share this folder. The share name will by default be Documents. I suggest keeping it this name for simplicity’s sake. TIP: If you want more than just read-only access on the share, check Allow other people to write in this folder (this is Ubuntu’s equivalent to Allow network users to change my files in XP).

6. When finished, click the Create Share button.

7. Check that your Documents folder is shared in your Home Folder.

Head over to the file browser (Places, Home Folder) and see if Documents has a small share symbol above it. If it does, it’s shared. If not, it isn’t.

8. Access your workgroup on your XP computer and see if your Ubuntu share is there.

In XP, click Start, All Programs, Accessories, Windows Explorer (not to be confused with Internet Explorer) and from the left, open up My Network Places, Entire Network, Microsoft Windows Network, YOUR WORKGROUP NAME.

From there you should see the XP computer and the Ubuntu computer.

From here you’re all set. If you like, you can right-click a share from the Ubuntu computer and mount it as a drive letter for easy access. From XP, right click the Documents share on the Ubuntu computer and then select Map Network Drive. Assign it to any letter you wish. For simplicity’s sake, I suggest assigning it drive letter Z – because odds are there’s nothing else on your system that is assigned that drive letter.