Use Samba to Transfer Files between Fedora and Windows XP
Samba is a GNU/Linux network service that provides file sharing between GNU/Linux and Windows. One week ago, I switched my netbook from Ubuntu back to Windows XP thanks to the Google Earth plugin. I need to use Google Earth API for my ColdFusion class and it needs Google Earth plugin to test the API code. However, the Google Earth plugin doesn’t have a Linux version yet despite the popularity of Google Chrome and Google Earth on GNU/Linux. I initially thought that Google Earth plugin could work on virtualized Windows XP through VirtualBox. It failed to display the data due to the low performance of VirtualBox graphics card.
Anyway, to use Samba, you need to first install it by entering the command below to the terminal:
sudo yum install samba samba-client samba-common samba-swat
After the installation, I followed a helpful tutorial on linuxhomenetworking.com to complete the Samba setup. It provided me step-by-step instructions to setup the Samba server using SWAT web interface.
I use Asus Eee PC 1005HA, which means that it has Windows XP Home Edition. The instructions for this tutorial on how to connect Samba server with Windows XP Home confused me. I was never able to connect to the server based on it. Fortunately, I found a post on linuxforums.org that discusses about the same issue. According to the discussion, the firewall must be disabled to allow Samba to accept the connection. This inspired me to enable the Samba and Samba Client ports in Firewall setting without completely disable the Firewall. This prevents any unnecessary security issues. Windows XP successfully connected to the Samba server without any problem.
I have not yet tested with transferring files from Windows XP back to Fedora directly on Fedora, but I think it’s the same technique. Some of the Samba server security concerns would rise if Samba is used on a non-password protected network. According to the article on linuxhomenetworking.com, you need to setup a local HTTPS Certificate for the Samba server if you have any security concerns. I don’t need the certification because I only use the sever on the home network and the network is password-protected.