Re: accessing network - newbie
Sandip P Deshmukh said:
> hello all!
>
> after using windows for ages, i am planning to switch to linux. my
> compaq is already a dual boot machine running win98 and debian 3.0.
>
> i am on a lan which also provides me access to the internet. i know my
> machine's ip address, gateway and dns addresses. i use d-link card for
> connecting to the lan.
>
> i will like to have access to network resources (printers, etc) and the
> net. i tried my best but could not do much.
you make absolutely no mention of what kind of network resources or
printers are available and what kinds of authentication(if any) are
required and what kind of network enviornment the system is in(usually
a business has a more strict setup then home users).
If your lucky, your printer is using an lpd either directly(e.g. HP
JetDirect on a Laserjet printer), or indirectly(e.g. one of them fancy
printer sharing/hub/switch combo thingamajigs), in which case I reccomend
installing CUPS and configuring it to point to that printer. I won't
go into details here since you may have a completely different setup
which may require another method to print.
If your unlucky your printer may be shared out via SMB or perhaps some
other means, which makes life a little more complicated. Also how
is the printer spooled to? Some setups have a central server with the
filters on the server so you spool raw data to the printer(don't need
a local driver), and the server takes care of the driver portion, others
(e.g. in a lpd enviornment usually) require a filter(driver) to be
installed/configured on the client in order to properly format the data
for the printer to understand.
In even more obscure setups you may need special software if the printer
doesn't speak postscript, postscript(from my experience) is the best
"language" for printers supported under linux. Others may be more of
a headache.
www.linuxprinting.org is a good resource on what printers are compadible.
For the fastest setup though I highly reccomend using a printer which
you can print to via lpd.
and you make no mention of what other network resources you wish to
access, what specific operating systems those resources use, what
form of authentication etc. e.g. in some business enviornments which
run on NT domains you may not be able to access any network resources
without using samba and physically joining your system to the NT domain.
post again, with as much details as you can.
nate
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