 Dictator for life
Posts: 6828
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Having installed Samba on this server way back when I was first installing it as a way of getting files onto it via the local network, and having to update things now using SSH and vi, I thought: wouldn't it be so much nicer to use Samba to connect to the server remotely, preferably using SSH to secure the connection, thus allowing file editing using a "proper" text editor?
Short answer: NO, IT FUCKING WOULDN'T.
My desktop is now running Vista, mainly because I didn't have to pay for it (long story short: Dad's PC broke, he got mine, I got a new quad core version). Cygwin's usually recommended for getting Windows to automatically set up the tunnel on startup, so I download a copy. First problem: Cygwin won't install. More correctly, it stiffs during the post-install configuration, even with backwards compatibility mode switched on. Several deletions and re-installs, nope. It also did this a few months ago, so it looks hopeless.
So, Plan B, I already have Putty set up to connect to the server using keys and stuff, so I can just add some port forwarding, set up a new loopback interface to handle the remote stuff without breaking local Samba connections, job's a good 'un. I'd have to manually connect to the server for it to work, but that's not too bad. Two hours later, I find out that SP1 broke the ability to do this - or probably it implemented some security doo-dad that stops you doing what you want to do.
Plan C then. Linux is always better than Windows so I'm being told, and I already have a Linux fileserver serving Samba shares: I'll get the Linux server to connect to the remote server using Fuse (sshfs), and then serve that out over the local network via Samba. Fuse is already installed, I issue the command to mount the remote directory to /mnt/foo, and... it works! Just like that! Via SSH, I can list all the files in /mnt/foo, read them, write to them, everything. So I set up the Samba server to farm it out, restart it, and point the Windows box to it. Can't find it. Stupid Windows box, thinks I. So I VNC into the Linux server, use the file browser (Dolphin) to check /mnt... and no foo directory. It's saying it doesn't exist. It does bloody exist! I can SSH into the box and browse it. I can unmount it and hey presto, it appears in Dolphin. Remount it, and it vanishes again. Stupid Linux box.
So not only do I not have the nice Samba setup, I can't even edit the files in vi because I've wasted the entire evening dicking around.
________
 Cheers,
Rich.
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Posts: 3868
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This is old, I know, but for those looking to get the best and easiest-to-use implementation of SSH (server) running on any version of Windows, I recommend finding the CopSSH installer (direct link | mirrors). By far the most user-friendly and works straight out of the box. I've had it running successfully on Windows 2000, XP and Vista (32-bit and 64-bit). You can drop to bash or cmd interchangably. |
