This page gives instructions for connecting to Windows shares from a Linux system. The method of connecting depends on whether you are using Gnome or KDE and whether you need direct filesystem access.

Gnome

If you are using Gnome, just follow these steps to connect to a Windows share:

1. Select "Connect to Server..." from the Places menu.

2. Select "Windows share" from the Service Type: pulldown menu.

3. Enter the fully qualified hostname in the Server: box.

4. Enter the share name in the Share: box.

5. If you want to go directly to a folder under this share, enter the path in the Folder: box. Otherwise, just leave this blank.

6. Enter the username you will be logging in with on the remote system. If this is a Windows server at IU, you will probably need to enter your IU username.

7. If the server is part of the IU ADS domain, enter "ADS" in the Domain Name: box. If you are connecting to a Windows system that is not part of an ADS domain or a samba server using a local smbpasswd password file, then leave the Domain: field blank.

8. The Name to use for connection: is optional and you can leave that blank.

Once the required information is supplied, just click Connect.

KDE

If you are using KDE, you can connect using the KDE Konqueror application. Just select Open Location from the Konqueror Location menu and enter a location of the form:

smb://server/share

Just replace server with the fully qualified name of the Windows server and share with the share name on that server. You will be prompted for the username and password to login to the remote server.

Direct Filesystem Access

There are cases where being able to open up a folder on the remote server as explained above for Gnome and KDE is not sufficient. Since the share is not actually mounted within the filesystem some programs will not be able to access these remote files. In such cases, we can set things up so you can mount and unmount the remote filesystem as needed using sudo. In order to have this configured, please submit a service request letting us know 1) the name of the remote server, 2) the share name, and 3) the username you will be logging in with on the remote system.

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