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Remote file storage on pangea for Windows PCsLast revision November 30, 2007
The School server, pangea, runs Samba version 3.0.10 open-source software,
which gives Windows PC users network access to their pangea
home
directories, the general use
WARNING: Although this file sharing facility on pangea is a convenient method to move files from one PC to another, NEVER use your pangea home directory for that purpose! You will most likely fill the home directory disk, which never has much free space, and cause problems for others who share that disk. Instead, use the /scr1 file share for moving files. This is a large disk with automatic file erasure (after 15 days) that is intended for temporary files only and almost always has space. Please note that these Windows file shares on pangea are only accessible from computers connected to the Stanford network (includes residence halls, Stanford DSL, and Stanford VPN). Because hackers are constantly trying to exploit weaknesses in Windows file sharing to take control of computers, the Stanford Networking Group has blocked all access from the outside Internet to the TCP/IP ports used for Windows file sharing. To access your pangea files from a Windows PC that is not connected to the Stanford network, you must use the secure " sftp" protocol. You will have the same access rights to the pangea directories that you would have if logged in directly to a pangea command shell. For example, you will be able to read, write, create, and delete files in your own pangea home directory, your personal sub-directory within the /play directory, or the /scr1 directory. In the /WWW group directory, your rights will be more limited. Typically, you will only be able to read files there, except for specific subdirectories that you are maintaining (as set up in advance by the web manager). Group directories will be visible to all as Windows shares, but restricted so that only particular accounts can connect to them. WARNING: If you mount your pangea home directory as a file share on your PC, you will see many files in your home directory whose names start with a dot (.) character. Do not delete these files! Many are used to store initialization settings for your account and for pangea programs. Others may be created if you also access this same directory from MacOS X, which uses them to store file metadata such as creator type. Do not try to edit these files unless you have studied relevant documentation and know what you are doing. In particular, if you remove or randomly change .klogin, .cshrc, or .login, you may make your pangea account unusable. You can also connect to any other user's home directory on pangea by mapping a network drive (described below), with read-only access. In some cases, a user will change permissions on his home directory to deny even read access to others. See the page on the Unix file system for more information on file and directory permissions for pangea files. If your Windows PC is not part of the campus-wide Windows domain, then you will find that Windows network access to pangea directories works most transparently if you set the account name and password used for login to your Windows NT, 2000, or XP computer to be the same as your pangea account name and pangea local password (not your SUNet password). In this case, pangea can show you your home directory in the network browser and let you connect without any further username or password prompting. But if your Windows PC is part of the campus-wide Windows domain, then you must login to the PC with your SUNet ID name and password. For example, all PCs in the School computer cluster in Mitchell A65 or the GRID lab in Mitchell A59 have been joined to the campus-wide Windows 2000 domain. If your pangea account name or local password is different than your SUNet ID name and password, then when you try to connect to a file share from such a PC, you will be prompted to enter the pangea account and local password. There are two basic methods you can use to connect to pangea directories over the network from Windows: Browsing is simplest for occasional use, but mapping is better for regular use.
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