Summary

Summary

By providing centralized file servers, an organization can efficiently share information and applications with people within the organization, with customers, or with anyone around the world. Several different technologies are available in Red Hat Linux to enable you to make your Red Hat Linux computer a file server.

The Network File System (NFS) protocol was one of the first file server technologies available. It is particularly well suited for sharing file systems among Red Hat Linux and other UNIX systems. NFS uses standard mount and umount commands to connect file systems into the directory structures of client computers.

The Samba software package that comes with Red Hat Linux contains protocols and utilities for sharing files and printers among Windows and OS/2 operating systems. It uses SMB protocols that are included with all Microsoft Windows systems, and therefore provides a convenient method of sharing resources on LANs containing many Windows systems.

NetWare was once the dominant network operating system used on LANs. It provided file- and printer sharing services for networked PCs, although in recent years it has branched out to offer a variety of network services. With the mars_nwe package, you can provide basic NetWare file and print services from your Red Hat Linux computer. With the ncpfs package, you can also use many NetWare client services to query NetWare servers and use NetWare file systems and printers.