Networking when Linux is client instead of server

[jfm2@club-internet.fr]

One of the assumptions in RedHat is that the Linux box will be the
server when coexisting with NT or Windows.  But in fact you could have
a situation where a Linux user wants to mount shares from coworkers
who are using windows (or perhaps from a Samba server) or get the
messages sent by the box handling an SMB printer.

I have looked at Tksmb and it is really a wonderful application
allowing very easy exploration of an SMB network and mounting of
shares.  Its only drawback is that its install is not very smart and
for instance you have to use an Install script who will ask what
kernel version and put it in a config file because smbmount requires
different arguments depending on if you are running 2.0 or 2.2.
Needless to say I think it would be much better to parse the output of
"uname -r", to detect the presence of a config and only file if
lacking ask for SMB parameters, to deduce paramters like netmask from
the output of ifconfig and to add /sbin and /usr/sbin to the path in
case an smbmount fails due to command not found.  Finally it allows
mounting shares but not unmounting.  Anyone willing to fix it (it uses
TCL and Expect)

Another application I am interested on is Linpopup for people having
cowokers using windows or servers sending them short and urgent
messages.

Finally I have fixed the dhcpcd program for being able to work on
Token Ring (a trivial fix just replacing "if (hwaddr_type !=
ETHERNET)" by "if (hwaddr_type != ETHERNET && hwaddr_type !=
IEEE_802_4)" in two places along with the error message folowing.
However when I tried I found the accompanying scripts were not very
good: for one part Token Ring cards are slow to intialize and the
waiting time was too short in RedHat scripts for all the fuss taking
place and for another part Windows was far faster in starting so I
think it does not ask for a new address if lease time has not expired
while the redhat scripts do it systematically.  These scripts need
fixing.  Is anyone else in a DHCPed network and willing to help with
this?

Not related to LANs I have looked at AOL instant messengers for Linux.
There is a TCL client we cannot distribute and a GTK application named
GAIM I couldn't try because it requires GTK 1.1 or 1.2 and I still
haven't upgraded.  Question is: How useful would be an AOL instant
messager for Linux?

-- 
			Jean Francois Martinez

Project Independence: Linux for the Masses
http://www.independence.seul.org