Internet:

Linux seems to do a pretty good job of hooking onto the internet.  In one install, the internet came right up.  In another install, I had a bit of a problem getting the ethernet card recognized (the "tulip" driver turned out to work).  After that, no problems accessing the internet.

Also, Icepack comes with a bunch of internet related tools.  If you select the KDE desktop, for instance, it automatically installs about five different browsers -- Netscape, Mozilla, Konqueror, Opera and Dillo.  Personally, I think this is at least three too many and you should get rid of some of them.

Your internal network:

Okay, this is a different issue.  As surprised as I was to find myself on the internet with no tinkering or setup at all, I was equally surprised to find own computers inaccessible.

Here are some solutions, though they may not be the best ones.

For Windows, "Netbeui" is the easiest small network solution.  Unfortunately, Linux does not support Netbeui, which seems to be a Microsoft system.  As far as I can tell, the trend is to run everything over TCP/IP, so it probably is unlikely that Netbeui will be supported by Linux later -- though of course, you never know.

If you want to have the inter-connectivity that is offered in Windows networking, then you can run Samba.  However, it can be a headache to get it working.  Unfortunately, I did not document everything as I worked through the difficulties, but I will provide some of the points I remember.

There is both a Samba "server" and a "client".  If you just want to access another computer, you only need to run the client.  If you want to give access to other computers, you need to run the server as well.  The basic interface to Samba is via a web browser, although some versions of Linux have another tool.

Seeing your Windows computer:

If you have installed Samba, you probably also have installed xSMBrowser.  It's sort of like "Network Neighborhood" and you can now try to find see your other computer.  So, first make sure your windows computer is sharing some files on you "intranet" -- and once again, remember there are security issues if you computer is connected to the internet and not behind a firewall.

Now, we get into some complications.  xSMBrowser is going to be looking for a "master" computer that provides a list of computer names and there IPs.  Maybe you do not have one running.  What to do?

Well, my suggestion for one or two computers is just to "add Favorites."  Then, rather than try to find the computers via "broadcast" or "name server" you will simply enter the computer's IP into the "favorite" and it will be found.

But where do you get the IP?  Well, if you are running Ishare or the switch/router that acts as a firewall -- both of which I discussed under "security," these run as DCHP servers and will automatically assign your computers an IP number.  What is a DCHP server, you ask?  I have no idea, but it works.

On the other hand, if you are just trying to connect two computers together, then you could assign them an IP number manually.  As long as the number is in the "normal" naming manner, then it will work.  You can't do this if the computers are hooked to the internet!  There is a whole protocol as to how to IP numbers are assigned.  But for a network that you are putting together, you can use any numbers you want, so long as they are not identical.  If you want to be more "correct," there are sets of numbers that are set aside for "intranet" usage.

Assuming you obtained your IP "automatically" by DCHP server, how do you know what it is?  Well, for the Windows computer, you run "winipcfg" and that will give you a display of your IP number and some other information.

So -- now you put the IP number and computer name into a "favorite" in xSMBrowser.  If this worked correctly, you will be able to "see" the resources on that computer.  You will be able to browse the shared hard drive and files.  You can obtain them by "FTP" -- but that's not a very useful system!

What you have to do is "mount" the drive.  At the bottom of the window are icons for "explore" and "mount" when you are viewing the drive's folders in the windows above.  I have never been able to get the "mount" command to work.  However, when I click on "explore" the drive is "mounted."  Now you can use the drive just as though it was physically in your computer.

You have to mount the drive when you are logged in as "root" unless you mark the program "smbmnt" "suid root". (And, note also that the normal mount location in "root" will be inaccessible to users, so you will have to change the mount location to a directory accessible by users.)  (Of course, this is a "home user" solution, since once you do this, any user can log onto the Windows computer and mess with it.)

Printing to a Windows Computer:

Oh, what a mess this can be.  But, it actually works if you can figure out what to do.

First of all, some Linux printing background from someone who doesn't know anything.  Linux has a number of different printing systems and they are largely -- as far as I can tell -- obsolete.  Nevertheless, most of the various FAQs and help will tell you all about these other systems.

What you need to know is that we are going to use the "CUPS" print driver to print.  The Icepack install uses the "KUPS" interface to setup certain things in CUPS, but that is obsolete.  KDE has actually moved forward to "KPrint" as its interface, which is somewhat more refined.

But here is the bad part -- most linux users are not also Windows users, so their FAQs aren't going to help you out on this.  My first install, on the other hand, was on a computer with no printer -- so it had to print to my Windows computer.

Icepack installs CUPS.  However, this is important, Icepack does not install the Samba "backend" for CUPS.  The good news is that the backend is on the CD, it just isn't installed.  So you have to search around a bit for the smb backend rpm and install it.  (Am I being vague?  Well, oops, I did this but didn't make notes ...)

So, to print to your Windows computer, you have to log into the computer with "xSamba".  Then, you run Kups or Kprinter to install the remote printer.  There is a trick to this however.  You have to fill in some information about the Windows computer.  (When I have time, I will look these things up and write this up more carefully.)  But there was an undocumented trick necessary to access the printer.  You can see it, and still not be able to print to it.  The reason is,  you have to provide a password and the password is the password for the harddrive on the windows computer.

Do not ask me why this is.  But, that is how I solved the "print" issue.

Aside from that, Linux seems to have a pretty good collection of printer drivers and you are likely to be pleasantly surprised at the quality and detail of the test page that prints out.  I was, anyway.  That is, when I finally got a test page, after days of trying to figure this thing out.

Special Note:

When the install is setup to run networking at startup and there is no response from the network (eg., can't find a DCHP server) the computer gets really, really slow.  Apparently, it keeps checking for network resources.  You might want to compile a second kernel and have a "no network" boot option.  (I haven't tried this, but it is an idea I am considering...

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