windows xp/linux question

[RGRAT1618]

I have to questions. We just fired a secretary and she had the admin acct and password for one of our xp pro machines. Now I need to gain access to the machine. Formatting it is out of the question. Is there a way to get passed it.



Second question. Is there any good places I can learn how to program a linux machine to be a file server. I want to be able to create a profile for each of my users. they use there name and password to enter the network and it also need to restrict there access to the network.





Thanks for all the help in advanced

 

[rkressg]

1. If the machine was password protected and you don't have the password, just pull out the hard drive and put it in another machine that is running Windows 2000 or Windows XP. You will need that operating system because the File System will be NTFS and can only be read on those OSs.



Set the drive jumpers as a 'Slave' drive and install. When you turn the machine on, it will appear as 'D:/' (or the next logical drive). You will be able to access any files on the disk (I am assuming this user was not smart enough to encrypt the files, if so, I can post those instructions also).



2. Look up a book called "Red Hat Linux 9" published by Sams Publishing, Authors "Ball, Duff". Get a book called "A Practical Guide to SOLARIS" by "Mark G. Sobell". Those two are great places to start.



You can also look up the "Craig Hunt Linux Library". It is around 7 books covering everything you will need to configure Linux machines, including Samba, Apache 1. x, and many other topics. If you are interested in creating a web server, you should look into deploying with Apache 2. 0 (I have not bought a book on it yet; but, in theory, it will run on a Windows machine, I have it running on Solaris)



I will warn you, I have been doing System Administration/Network Engineering for a very long time (Have both a BS and MS in Information Sciences and Professional Certifications), and if you want to do simple administration, I would strongly suggest going with a Windows Active Directory based solution if you are running a small network and want to do simple file sharing and policy administration (Just a note, Small Network for Active Directory in Native Mode will support just over 2,000,000 users).



There is much more information out there with regard to installing and administrating Windows products (I am not boosting anybody, I use a corpus of OSs and I am just giving my $0. 02, Microsoft just maintains around 95% of the global OS share).



You will need to set up Samba if you want to share files from a Linux machine to a Windows machine. There are other options out there, but they cost money, Samba is free. Of course this is assuming that you want users to see these files as shares. You could just have users SSH into the machine using some secure client and transfer files that way.



-Rich

 

[mikel]

Go here and have a look around. You will find the tools you need to change her password to whatever you want it to be.





On linux, for overall ease of use stick with the M$ monopoly. *Everything* works (albeit not always real well) with Windoze, and you can find someone to help alot easier than w/ Linux if you get in a bind.



Good Luck,

Mike

 

[Ol'TrailDog]

On the other hand if you want to set Samba up you could start here:



http://www.linux.org/ and check out the Documentation.



Or do a Google (linux based by the way ) search and you'll find what you need.



Heck, if even a dweeb like me can set up a linux CDROM server and Samba on a Solaris/Window network you can do it. However that was back in '99, and thankfully I'm back looking at the rear end of mules moseying down the trail.



PS: Linux is still my home OS, where I have two linux boxes: Redhat on intel and Mandrake on a Mac.

 

[Byershome]

Couple of possibilities... ... ... .....



!) If what you need was a shared item over the network you do not need her logged in to access it. Just turn the computer on and access the files from another computer on the network. . sounds like you may not have been using it that way though since you want to setup a server using linux now.



2) What's the chance she had a separate user name setup with admin privileges and that the "Administrator" account was setup without a password? If she had her own account and you are not sure about the "Administrator" account, just type in "Administrator" as the user with no password and see what happens... ... ..... I've seen stranger things happen.



3) If you can't get logged in with Admin privileges and she has blocked sharing of user information on that computer between users you won't be able to access it even if you install it on another Win XP Pro machine. I am sure someone can get into it and get the information but it may cost you some cash to do it.



As to the network server (your description of what you want to actually do is a bit vague), you already have a Win XP Pro machine I would us it since the learning curve is going to be a lot shorter.

 

[tp0d]

A second on mikel's recommendation. ntpasswd is an invaluable tool. has saved me butt quite a few times.



good luck.



-j