Question about Linux and Windows together.

Published on March 9, 2006 By DJBandit In Personal Computing

I am curious about something. I plan on having more than one PC in my house someday and would like to network them together to share files. Would having a sever with Linux be a good idea while the rest of the PCs have Windows? I figure if Linux is a pretty safe system and is widely used on servers would that be a good idea?

Comments

Island Dog

on Mar 09, 2006

It depends what you really want to do. You don't need dedicated server to share files. I share files with all the computers in my house, including my Mac, from Windows.

Dr Guy

on Mar 09, 2006

Either one is fine. Linux is more secure, but you should not have to worry about family members hacking your servers.

Adamness

on Mar 09, 2006

I don't think you really need a server to link a couple computers in your house.

thomassen

on Mar 09, 2006

I live in a student hosue where we are 7, was 8 people, and everyone are connected through local network. No dedicated server. It's a mix of PCs and Macs. I sometimes plat around with Ubuntu and that works fine as well with the Samba network engine.

thomassen

on Mar 09, 2006

Mind you, if you go for a wireless network, like we do in my house cause it's less hassle with cables and more convenient with laptops etc, make sure you secure the network with a password. I get two other networks listed in my network list from some of the neighbours. For a while they wheren't secures and I could easily connect to their computers and leeched of ther internet if I wanted. ...something some friends of mine used to do when they discovered an unsecure WLAN that was avilible at a very spesific point in their living room.

DJBandit

on Mar 09, 2006

I may not have made my question clear so let me try again. The reason I would use a Linux as a server would be so that hackers could not get into my network. At least that's what I understand when making a home network. I want the Linux box to be the link between my Windows computers and the internet, while also being able to share files and internet with the other PCs. What I want to know is if using a computer with Linux to give access to the other Windows PCs to the internet, while also sharing files between each other, would be a good idea for safety?

tjesterb

on Mar 09, 2006

Basic guide to settng up a Linux domain controller with Samba: http://www.freeos.com/articles/3842/

You could set up a shared directories on the server, or user gFTP and give each user their own login and specific permissions for sharing files.

Dr Guy

on Mar 09, 2006

The reason I would use a Linux as a server would be so that hackers could not get into my network.

Buy a gateway/router.

just john

on Mar 09, 2006

What I want to know is if using a computer with Linux to give access to the other Windows PCs to the internet, while also sharing files between each other, would be a good idea for safety?

I'm no Linux master, but I tried setting up Linux as a Firewall/Proxy. It worked fine but since I don't use Linux it was a waste of a PC.

I just bought a Cisco Pix 501 and I don't worry about a thing. DLink Has a CheckPoint Firewall for around $300 and the Pix usually runs about $450 plus config if you can't do it.

DJBandit

on Mar 10, 2006

Great, that's all I wanted to know Thanx for the answer guys.

Frightlever

on Mar 14, 2006

There is an argument to made for giving family members who only ever browse the web and check their email linux machines though.

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