Sharing an external HD on network

red vex

I have an external usb hard-drive connected to my mac and i was wondering is there any way of accessing its music across the network using my linux/windows machine. (not itunes btw)

SouperComputer

if you are using OS X, a program called Sharepoints will sort it for you

ZENER

It's also possible to edit the /etc/smb.conf file to add the drive so that it's visible to a linux machine with an smb browser like smb4k or LinNeighborHood running then you can map the drive just as you can in a windows environment.

If you're interested I can show you how.

ZEN

red vex

ZENER wrote:

It's also possible to edit the /etc/smb.conf file to add the drive so that it's visible to a linux machine with an smb browser like smb4k or LinNeighborHood running then you can map the drive just as you can in a windows environment.

If you're interested I can show you how.

ZEN

if you could it would be great.
Havent had much sucess with sharepints, whats the best way to view my network details, eg my workgroup coz i cant seem to find my mac on the network now

SouperComputer

sharpoints shoud allow you to change the workgroup and netbios name.

if you can, it would be best to put the mac at a static ip and even use konqurer to browse to the ip address of the mac. That way you dont have to worry about computers not "appearing" and workgroups not being the same.

what problems did you have with sharepoints specifically? I should have mentioned automounts from the same site is handy for removale devices

ZENER

OK but just to be clear, this process works on my system. I take no responsibility for any bad effects it has on your system. I'm assuming you are using OS X Panther and you display drives down the left pane of Finder windows. I'm also assuming you are administrator of your machine.

First lets address the Workgroup issue. Applications > Utilities > Directory Access. Select the SMB section and ensure it's ticked (you may need to click the lock and authenticate yourself) select SMB then click Configure. Enter the Workgroup name that your Windows Machine is in, don't worry about the WINS entry leave it blank. OK that and close the Directory Access window.

1. Click >Go > Go To Folder. and enter "/etc" (without the "")and click OK. (The /etc folder is traditionally where UNIX flavours store configuration files. Deleting or changing any of these files could render your system useless !!! You have been warned.)

The /etc folder will open on the finder desktop. at the top of it's window grap the etc folder graphic and drag it to the left pane to create a shortcut to it. Control Click (Or Right Click if you have a 2 button mouse) and select Get Info from the resulting menu.

2. In the Ownership & Permissions section near the bottom of the info window expand it and click the lock to allow you to edit it. System is selected by default, clicking the button will display all users, select your account and close the window.

3. In the /etc folder find a file called smb.conf, Control click > Get Info and again change the permissions section to your account.

4. Open a Terminal window (Applications > Utilities > Terminal) and type df and hit enter. This will display a list of drives and volumes attached to your machine. For this example we will call your drive USB Disk and assume it appears in the list above as /Volumes/USB Disk.

5. Control Click on the smb.conf file and select Open With . . and select Textedit from the list of apps.
Search for an entry that begins with :

[Public]

Copy it and paste it just under that section. It will have ; bfore each line leave those intact. We are now going to edit one of these [Public] sections to include your USB Disk. Change the [Public] to whatever you want the drive to appear as e.g. [USBDisk] The section should be edited to look like this:
[USBDisk]
path = /Volumes/USB Disk
public = yes
only guest = yes
writable = yes
printable = no

The "path =" section will be whatever the disk appears as on your desktop so if it appears as MyUSB Disk then this entry will be /Volumes/MyUSB Disk but confirm this from step 4 above.

5. Save the file and change it's Permissions back as described in step 3 above and do likewise for the /etc directory.

6. System Preferences > Sharing and unclick Windows Sharing (this will stop the service) and click it again to start it.

7. The drive should now appear an Network Neighbourhood on Windows Clients or on Macs by click Go > Connect to Server and typing

smb://<i.p. address of machine with usb disk attached> in the Server Address field.

and hitting OK. Enter your username and password and bobs yer uncle - hopefully !!

ZEN