Ubuntu Documentation > Ubuntu 8.04 LTS > Internet and Networks > Home Networks > Share files and folders with other computers

Share files and folders with other computers

You can share files and folders with other people on your network.

  1. Click on the folder you wish to share with the right mouse button.

  2. Select Sharing Options.

  3. Select Share this folder.

    [Note]

    You may receive a message which says Sharing service is not installed. If so, press Install service. Sharing service support will then be downloaded and installed; this may take a while.

  4. If you would like people accessing the shared folder to be able to add, change and remove files in the folder, check Allow other people to write in this folder. Otherwise, people will only be able to view files in the folder.

  5. If you would like to give access to users who do not have an account on your computer, check Guest access. Otherwise, people will only be able to browse the folder if they have such an account.

  6. Press Create Share.

Accessing shared folders via Windows

If you would like to access a shared folder hosted on an Ubuntu computer by using computers running Windows, you may have to perform some additional steps:

  1. Press Applications → Accessories → Terminal to open a Terminal

  2. Type sudo smbpasswd -a username, replacing “username” with your own username. Press Return to run the command.

    [Note]

    You can find out what your username is by typing whoami into the Terminal and then pressing Return

  3. Enter your password when prompted with “[sudo] password for username:” and press Return again.

  4. When prompted with “New SMB password:”, enter the password that you would like to use to access the shared folder and then press Return. You can leave the password blank if you like, which will allow anyone to access the shared folder.

  5. When prompted with “Retype new SMB password:”, enter the password that you just entered and then press Return

  6. You should now be able to connect to the shared folders on the Ubuntu computer

Problems connecting to shared folders in Windows

If you are unable to connect to a shared folder using Windows, try using the IP address of the Ubuntu computer rather than its host name to access the share:

  1. Press System → Administration → Network Tools and select the Devices tab

  2. Select the name of your network connection from the Network device option list (for example, “eth0”). If you have several network connections, you may have to try this several times.

  3. Make a note of the number in the IP address column. It should consist of four numbers separated by dots (for example, “192.168.2.10”)

  4. On the Windows computer, select Start → Run and type \\ipaddress in the text box, replacing “ipaddress” with the IP address of the Ubuntu computer

  5. Press OK to connect to the shared folder

If you are still unable to access the shared folder, check that the folder sharing service is running on the Ubuntu computer:

  1. Press System → Administration → Services

  2. Find the Folder sharing service (samba) and ensure that the checkbox next to it is checked

  3. Press Close

More information can be found on the Ubuntu community help pages.

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