Linux as print server

[timjarland]

I have two boxes networked together at home (internal lan, private ip). One is running win2k pro, the other is running Suse 6.4. The suse box has a printer attached to local parallel port. How could I set up the printer to be shared to the win2k box? Thanks in advance.

 

[d3funct]

Your easiest solution would be to download and use webmin, you can get it from

http://www.webmin.com.

It's a web interface to administer several things on your linux box, from DHCP to Printers, logfiles and Samba. d3funct
vanya43@yahoo.com
The software required `Windows 95 or better', so I installed Linux.

 

[timjarland]

Thanks for the help. I'll download and try it this weekend!

 

[jlstratton]

I don't know what packages are included in the suse dist. Need to ensure that SAMBA is on your system. WEBMIN is great to help you setup those gawd-awful configuration files that SAMBA uses -- but if you don't have SAMBA the WEBMIN stuff is to no avail.

 

[timjarland]

Thanks for the Samba tip, jlstratton. I have heard that Samba is a pretty high security risk. I was thinking of moving my cable modem lan card to the Linux box and utilize ipchains to make the box a firewall/router. I have done this before with a Linux box and it worked great, but I didn't have Samba running. Any thoughts?

 

[jlstratton]

Samba is a reversed engineered Microsoft NetBIOS/NetBEUI client and service provider software (never use with W2K -- gotta have DOMAINS -- LAN Manager / Win NT style).

SAMBA is the software that will provide interconnection services between your Linux box and any Microsoft boxes. I assume you want to use your Linux box as both a File/Print server as well as a Firewall/Router.

This should be fine, AS LONG AS YOU BIND SAMBA STRICTLY TO YOUR INTERNAL LAN CONNECTION. You are right about the high security risk. However, as long as SAMBA is NOT bound to the outside world, you should be OK.

By the way -- you really DO want to use WEBMIN to administer those SAMBA configuration files -- they're an art form all their own to figure out.... Since I've never done this (I've always configured SAMBA on machines BEHIND a separate firewall machine) You will probably need to investigate what TCP Ports are used M$ SMB Message blocks and set IPCHAINS to block them on the OUTSIDE LAN card.

I'd feel better about you NOT providing both on the firewall machine. I do a lot of risky things with my personal home equipment -- but I don't keep anything really important or confidential on them either.

 

[chgwhat]

To block # NetBEUI/Samba
block tcp and udp to 137,138, and 139.
$IPCHAINS -A input -p tcp -s $REMOTENET -d $LOCALNET 137 -j DENY
$IPCHAINS -A input -p udp -s $REMOTENET -d $LOCALNET 137 -j DENY
$IPCHAINS -A input -p tcp -s $REMOTENET -d $LOCALNET 138 -j DENY
$IPCHAINS -A input -p udp -s $REMOTENET -d $LOCALNET 138 -j DENY
$IPCHAINS -A input -p tcp -s $REMOTENET -d $LOCALNET 139 -j DENY
$IPCHAINS -A input -p udp -s $REMOTENET -d $LOCALNET 139 -j DENY


Tony ... aka chgwhat
tony_b@technologist.com

When in doubt,,, Power out...