Chapter 6. Hosting a File Server

One of the most popular things to do with a Unix system is to set it up as a file server so that computers across the network can access the same files from a central location. This holds true for corporate LANs serving hundreds of client systems and sharing important documents or software, as well as for small home LANs sharing pictures of the kids or the family's music collection.

In this chapter, you'll learn about two commonly used network file systems, Samba and NFS. Samba is often thought of as a Windows technology (it is technically the native network file system for Windows), but it's an excellent choice for sharing directories on a network with a variety of different systems. NFS is the original Unix network file system, so it can be handy when dealing with older systems that don't have a Samba client.