Hello, I have a windows xp laptop and a suse 11.0 desktop. I want to send many very large files from the xp computer to the suse computer. I have a crossover ethernet cable and two network cards in the suse desktop. What is the easiest way to do this? Can anyone point me to a good howto or easy to read tutorial? I googled for one but I don’t understand them, I’m a newbie to networking. Thanks…
From what i see You need to go to YaST Control Center then to YaST Samba Server and set it up accordingly. Think when enabling it as there are some folders You wouldn’t like to share. Alright it’s simpler than i think 
Go to YaST Control Center, go to services, start smb service (use expert mode), tick run level 5 if You want samba to always run. Then simply go to the folder, right click it go to tab share and set it up. After that go to YaST Samba Server and open port.
In my case I can not be bothered to set up samba. On the winXP PC, I always setup WinSCP for my wife to use:
WinSCP - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ensure you have the appropriate port open on your Linux PC to allow access (default is typically port 22).
You may find it useful to brush up on the basic networking section in the openSUSE concepts guide:
http://en.opensuse.org/Concepts#Networking_With_Linux
Hi
If you use a Samba Server on your SuSE desktop, you will not have a need for the crossover cable. Here is a link to a decent tutorial on how to set up Samba on your network.
How To Samba With Suse 10.3 And Windows XP
the tutorial is for 10.3 but should be virtually identical to 11.0
Here’s an idea that is often overlooked: most good distros, Suse included, come with Secure Shell already installed. Simply make sure that it’s running (under Yast, that’ll be in “Network Services”) and make sure that the port is opened in your firewall (under Yast, “Security and Users -> Firewall”).
Once you get SSH running and happy on the Suse machine, download a good SCP/SFTP client for Windows. The one we use here is WinSCP (WinSCP :: Free SFTP and FTP client for Windows). Simply enter the IP address of your Suse machine, then enter your user name and password.
If all you need to do is transfer an occasional file, or do routine backups, this is a heck of lot quicker and easier than setting up a Samba server. On the other hand, if you need full-time access (the equivalent of a “Shared Folder” on the Suse machine that can be browsed under Windows), then sure, Samba is the way to go.
(Edit: apologies to oldcpu, I didn’t see his post until after I’d made mine!!! )
There’s also a lot of info here Linux HOWTOs and Tutorials: Suse Linux 10.0, 10.1 openSUSE 10.2, 10.3, 11.0, 11.1
/Geoff
Thank you everyone for helping.
I want to try the FTP method first, since that sounds easiest. The extra network card in my suse computer does not have an ip address assigned to it, though. It only has a MAC address. I typed “ifconfig -a” and it only shows the IP address for eth0 that my internet is coming into. I need to assign an ip address to the other network card somehow.
Edit: I think that tutorial that pimanac posted will explain everything. I will have to go through it and try to figure it out. Thanks!
How is your network set up? Do you have a router? From what you say above, it sounds as if you are running an ethernet cable directly from your modem to the back of your pc? If that is the case (ethernet cable running directly from router to PC) then the IP address you see is the address provided to you by your Internet Service Provider (and the IP address seen by the rest of the world). You should get a router if you do not have one, run an ethernet cable from the modem into the WAN (internet) port on the router (it will be clearly marked), and then run regular ethernet cables from the LAN ports (most routers have 4 at the minimum) to each of your network cards.
Your router will then assign Internal IP addresses for each computer (network card) on your local network (usually in the 192.168.x.x range). The router acts as a Gateway to the internet, allowing all machines connected to the router to access the internet (without exposing them to the outside world–one of the first steps in network security). Sorry if I am explaining things you already know…but you said you were a network newbie and maybe by typing this now, it will give you a head start on your project!
I have no router or switch. I connected the laptop’s ethernet port directly to the network card on my desktop with a crossover cable. So, I think that means that I have to go into Yast and then to “network settings” and set a static ip address to the second network card. Or at least that is what I think I have to do. I set the ip to 168.192.1.1 and the subnet mask to 255.255.255.0. I made the hostname “Tux”.
Pimanac, thanks for your help. I really appreciate it. You and everyone are taking time out of your day to help me out, a total newbie who hasn’t written a single line of code for Suse. I ordered a Linksys WRT54GS router a few days ago (it has wireless, but I will only use the wired ports for greater security). I hope that is a good router. Actually I got on ebay and bought 4 of them. I thought I might need one. Good thing I bought them. They are at my parents’ house though, so I don’t have them here with me yet until I go back for spring break, unfortunately. For now, I guess I have to just go into yast and assign the static ip address like I did.
Oh by the way, would monowall or smoothwall do the same thing as the router?
I actually have a WRT54G wireless router, its the same family as the WRT54GS. I havent had any complaints with it save one – you cannot reserve IP addresses for specific computers (however that may be different in your version)–however that is an “extra” feature and isnt required for setting up a network.
based on what I just googled… Monowall and smoothwall (never used or researched them before) would do the same job (in theory), however they are more geared towards people looking to build their own routers in an embedded system–it may be something to consider, but I think it would be a pain to set up and maintain. With the router, all you have to do is pretty much plug it in and go.
no problem for the help. Ive toyed with suse over the past three years but never used it as a primary operating system. Then I built a new PC a few months back and decided windows was not worthy of such a fine system 
… so i am still in the “newbie” stage as well!
just an afterthought (sorry) did you buy four routers or ethernet cables? the setup we are discussing will only need one router…
I actually bought four routers and power adapters for them, all of them Linksys. It was $90 for the whole deal. They’re used, but I thought that was a good deal, since MSRP on one of those WRT54GS routers is $60.
good deal.
Ok, I have winscp installed on my laptop, and it’s connected to the desktop’s network card with a crossover cable. I went in yast and assigned the extra network card a static IP of 192.168.1.1 and subnet mask 255.255.255.0. When I try to connect with my laptop, though it says “Host does not exist.” Hmm…was I supposed to configure the extra network card with DHCP instead?
try setting the windows machine to a static IP of 192.168.1.2 subnet 255.255.255.0, then restart the windows PC. After it is restarted, try pinging?
(btw this is a guess, ive never set up a crossover connection)
Ooooooooh…
I had 192.168.1.1 set as the IP address of both the laptop and the desktop. Can’t have both IP addresses the same! After I changed the laptop to 192.168.1.2, it is now working. I’m copying files over as I type this.
Thank you so much pimanac! I really appreciate it.
It says my transfer speed is 2.3 MB/s. That’s pretty slow for going over ethernet. At school, the download speed is only limited by my network card, 11 MB/s. I am using a cat. 6 ethernet cable too. Maybe that new network card I put in the desktop is only a 10 MBit card? It was a PCI-slot card though, and looked new. Hmm. Well, at least it’s working.
Ok I can’t edit my last post, but I found a solution in the FAQ:
"In case the speed is throttled by connection latency, it may help if you use SCP protocol instead of SFTP. SCP is less affected by latency. In this case, it may help if you turn on compression. "
no problem! Im glad I could help you get it working. Ive recently discovered the world of podcasts…dont know if you listen to them or not, but there are several great linux podcasts out there. Linux Reality has some really good pocasts on networking in linux (as well as two episodes dedicated to networking linux with windows).
Newsuse33 wrote:
> Ooooooooh…
>
> I had 192.168.1.1 set as the IP address of both the laptop and the
> desktop. Can’t have both IP addresses the same! After I changed the
> laptop to 192.168.1.2, it is now working. I’m copying files over as I
> type this.
>
> Thank you so much pimanac! I really appreciate it.
>
> It says my transfer speed is 1.8 MB/s. That’s pretty slow for going
> over ethernet. At school, the download speed is only limited by my
> network card, 11 MB/s. Hmm. Well, at least it’s working.
You need to learn the difference between MB and Mb.
On 2009-01-10, Newsuse33 <Newsuse33@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
> Ok I can’t edit my last post, but I found a solution in the FAQ:
>
> "In case the speed is throttled by connection latency, it may help if
> you use SCP protocol instead of SFTP. SCP is less affected by latency.
> In this case, it may help if you turn on compression. "
I had the same kind of slow speed (1.8 MB/s) with winSCP.
Did the above solution work?
Otherwise, you could just define a Windows share, and pick that up in
Konqueror with the address smb://192…
That’ll give you a speed much closer to 10MB/s than to 1.8 MB/s.
–
Elevators smell different to midgets