> Just a few questions: What is a WINS server?
It translates NetBIOS names to network addresses. It performs a
similar function to a DNS server, except that WINS is a Microsoft
protocol.
> What are its advantages
It allows you to access SMB (aka CIFS, LanManager, WfWg) shares on
hosts which are on a different network segment. The default mechanism
for NetBIOS name resolution is to broadcast a query. This only works
if the host is on the same LAN segment.
> and how can I set it up. Am currently using a Linux 2.0.35 and
> Samba.
Samba can act as a WINS server. See the file BROWSING.txt for more
details.
> Can I boot a remote computer off the Linux server as a dummy client? If so
> how?
I don't understand the question. Linux can be configured as a server
for RARP, BOOTP, DHCP TFTP, NFS and XDM, all of which are standard
protocols used for booting various types of diskless clients.
> If I want to copy a file into the home directories of all the users,
> how can I do this?
If your users' home directories are all under /home, then you can use:
for i in /home/* ; do cp /path/to/file $i ; done
Otherwise, you will need to read the home directories from
/etc/passwd. The tricky thing is deciding which accounts are `user'
accounts, and which are system accounts (bin, daemon, lp, ...).
-- Glynn Clements <glynn@sensei.co.uk> - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-net" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu