Just installed Ubuntu Server 12.04, but can't connect to it.

[HunterDX77M]

WARNING: I know almost nothing about networking or servers, so speak slowly and don't use big words.

I installed Ubuntu Server 12.04 on an old machine hoping to use it as, well, a server and I used the directions on this site:

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/step-by-st...ver-setup.html

I think everything is up and running okay and I ran /sbin/ifconfig to find that the server's IP address is 172.19.0.10.

Using this information, however, I can't connect to the server via Putty, Filezilla or the ssh in the terminal. In Putty, I am told that "Network is unreachable," Filezilla just continuously tries to connect and doesn't get anywhere, and when I run:

ssh username@172.19.0.10

in the terminal, I get that it is unreachable, as well.

Immediately after installing the server, I remember it had a different IP address and I was able to successfully FTP a file for a test, but now nothing seems to work. Yes, the server is connected to my router via ethernet. Any suggestions?

[linuxman94]

You need to set the IP address of the server so that it is on the same network as your router. Most routers use 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1 as their IP, so the device address is 192.168.1.100, for example. To configure the static IP, your /etc/network/interfaces file should look like this (assuming a router IP of 192.168.1.1).

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.1.10
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.1.1

You can then ssh on 192.168.1.10.

[HunterDX77M]

I believe my router's address is 192.168.2.1. I'll try that and let you know.

[HunterDX77M]

Okay, great. This seems to work fine with Putty and Filezilla, but only when I provide the address 192.168.2.10 (the address of the server). I can't seem to connect to the server by just giving either of these programs the hostname of the server. Is that possible or is this as good as it's gonna get?

[papibe]

I can't seem to connect to the server by just giving either of these programs the hostname of the server.

Hi HunterDX77M.

The problem might be that your router doesn't provide DNS to your LAN (translate names into address). Windows machines use a broadcasting system to let each other its names, and IPs.

Although Ubuntu uses a different kind of broadcasting, you can install a package called 'samba' to add the Windows-style broadcasting. That will allow you to use the Ubuntu server's hostname from the Windows clients.

I hope that helps, and tell us how it goes.
Regards.

[HunterDX77M]

Although Ubuntu uses a different kind of broadcasting, you can install a package called 'samba' to add the Windows-style broadcasting. That will allow you to use the Ubuntu server's hostname from the Windows clients.

Okay, I think Samba was already installed when the server software was being installed (I recall seeing something called Samba) and I read online that it comes by default on GNU/Linux. Umm, so what can I do knowing it is there. I guess my question is how do I use Samba?

[papibe]

Then, it should be a service running in the background broadcasting your name.

Could you post the result of this command?

ps aux | grep nmbd

Regards.

[HunterDX77M]

Okay, here it is. I hope you can make more sense of this than I can . . .

username   1320  0.0  0.3   4364   812 pts/0    S+   15:14   0:00 grep --color=auto nmbd

[papibe]

The service is not running.

Let's see if you have samba installed. Could you post the result of this command:

apt-cache policy samba

If it is installed, it should look similar to this:

samba:
  Installed: 2:3.4.7~dfsg-1ubuntu3.10
  Candidate: 2:3.4.7~dfsg-1ubuntu3.10
  Version table:
 *** 2:3.4.7~dfsg-1ubuntu3.10 0
        500 http://mirror.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu/ lucid-updates/main Packages
        500 http://mirror.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu/ lucid-security/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2:3.4.7~dfsg-1ubuntu3 0
        500 http://mirror.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu/ lucid/main Packages

If there's no version besides 'Installed', it is not.

To install it:

sudo apt-get install samba

Then check again the previous 'grep' command to see if now it's different.

Tell us how it goes.

[HunterDX77M]

My apologies, it looks like it wasn't installed in the first place.

After installing it, here are the outputs:

To see if it's running:

root      3144  0.0  0.7  13304  1780 ?        Ss   15:27   0:00 nmbd -D
username   3158  0.0  0.3   4364   812 pts/0    S+   15:28   0:00 grep --color=auto nmbd

To see if it's installed:

samba:
  Installed: 2:3.6.3-2ubuntu2.1
  Candidate: 2:3.6.3-2ubuntu2.1
  Version table:
 *** 2:3.6.3-2ubuntu2.1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main i386 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2:3.6.3-2ubuntu2 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main i386 Packages

Again, sorry for my stupidity.