Connecting Linux To Network

I assume you are leading into that you want to share some/all of your linux files to the NT servers or vice versa. You want the Linux box to be visible to the NT domain and possibly browseable. If that assumption is correct the best thing to do isto get samba. It is freeware that translates file systems. You can download the most appropriate version for you OS from www.samba.org. You may need different complilers (perhaps gcc), make versions or other tools (yacc) which you can find all atwww.gnu.org. I recently installed samba and the only different tool I needed that my OS didn't have was gcc, but every OS is different - I did this on Solaris. I hope this helps. If this is the route you choose to go and you need help with samba you may email my alias.

Good luck.

Refer to the CTDP Linux Users Guide at:
http://ctdp.tripod.com/os/linux/usersguide/index.html

Read the sections about installation and Samba to help your understanding. There is a Linux-NT howto that documents how to dual boot. The installation of the Users Guide references this howto (and gives step by step instructions) which you can find at the Linux Documentation project at:
http://www.linuxdoc.org/

Basically to get your networking running, you set your IP address, netmask, and default gateway. The easiest way to set it up is at installation time or use the netconf program. After that set up the samba configuration file /etc/samba/smb.conf. Then set up your samba users and add their passwords using the command "smbpasswd -a username" command where username is the name of the user to add.

For Dual Boot get LILO http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/mini/LILO.html
You can get LILO here too:
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/boot/lilo/

As for Joining Network, the answer is SAMBA,
Which you will find both the documents and the download:
http://www.samba.org/

Having said this, these come in most distributions. I personally love Caldera and use it daily for exactly what you are trying to do. Another feature that simplifies managing your new Linux box, when you get it set up, is WebMin (comes with Caldera too) and SAMBA is a snap to set up with it.

The prior notes are correct, SAMBA is going to solve your connectivity to your M$ network names. However, keep in mind you may need to play with the configuration files. There's different things you need to do depending on whether you are letting Linux see M$, letting M$ see Linux, and whether you are using shared resources.

[e.g. To print from Linux onto a shared NT print using SAMABA see http://wls.wwco.com/lqh/sambaprint.php]

As for dual booting, and I can't stress this enough, _install M$ products first_ ...once they get on the box they tend to want to rip control away from other partitions. If LILO is unfamiliar to you, drop the money on Partition Magic which comes with a copy of Boot Magic. It has Wizards to walk you though. Failing that, System Commander works very nicely (handles more OS's, but worse GUI).