This quick tutorial will show you how to enable file sharing between Windows Vista or 7 and Fedora 14, codenamed Laughlin. If you want to access files and folders on Windows machines from Fedora, then you must enable file sharing. I will show you how to use Samba to easily enable sharing between Windows and Fedora machines.

Getting started:

Logon to Windows Vista or 7 and click Start –> then right-click ‘Computer’ and select ‘Properties’

Then select ‘Advanced system settings’

Next, select ‘Computer Name’ tab and click ‘Change’ to change or add a new ‘Workgroup’ name. The ‘Workgroup’ name must be the same on other systems. You may have to restart your computer after saving.

After restarting, click ‘Start –> then type ‘Network and Sharing Center’ in the search box. Select it and continue.

Next select ‘Change advanced sharing settings’

The main feature you want to enable is ‘File and printer sharing’ Save and close out.

After that, logon to to Fedora and select ‘System –> Administration –> Add/Remove Software’

Then search for and install system-config-samba:

system-config-samba

After installing, go to System –> Administration –> Samba.

Then select ‘Preferences –> Server Settings’

Enter the ‘Workgroup’ name and click ‘OK’. Then Workgroup should be the same for your Windows machine.

Then select ‘Preferences –> Samba Users’

Click ‘Add User’ and add the users you want accessing shares on the Fedora machine.

After that, go to System –> Administration –> Firewall.

Then enable ‘Samba and Samba Client’ under ‘Trusted Services’

Select ‘ICMP Filter’ and enable ‘Echo Reply and Echo Request’ then ‘Apply’

When you’re done, go to Applications –> System Tools –> Terminal and run the command below;

su -c 'chkconfig smb on'

Restart both computers and you should see that file sharing will be enabled.

Enjoy!