Trying to understand networking, file systems, and SAMBA

[rbweh]

Hi there,
I'm looking for a solution to keep a hard drive on my LAN network to be accessed from a number of OS's - win xp and fedora mainly.

I have a Hawking Technology 'Net-Stor Network Storage Center' HNAS1 enclosure for a hard drive, it connects an IDE drive to the ethernet.

I'm not entirely clear about how it might work to get files from Linux on the drive, I've heard about SAMBA, but don't quite understand it.
If you don't mind, I have a bunch of questions to ask, if anybody can point me in the right direction towards finding the info I'd appreciate it!
-Where does a 'samba server' actually reside? I've read a bit on samba.org, but it only vaguely makes sense.
-would my networking enclosure support this?
-How would I know about the file system to format the drive? Does it matter?
-Finally, if I'm using a router and DHCP, is there going to be an issue in trying to map the drive?

Again, I only have a basic understanding of all this, I'm not even sure my jargon is correct here..

Thanks,
-ryan

[brandor]

-Samba will reside on the server you install it on.
-Doubt it.
-Depends on your NAS documentation, what does it say you need?
-Not if you have DHCP set up correctly.

How does the documentation ask you to connect to the NAS from windows?

[bytesniper]

-samba 'server' used in this context merely means the application providing the service. samba is providing the means of connecting with windows clients. as stated, you machine is the samba 'server'.

-yes, it does support samba. http://www.hawkingtech.com/downloads.php?file_id=2838. since samba provides windows networking support for non-windows machines/devices any device that is specifically designed to be networked with windows client you would normally be able to connect to with smb form a non-windows client.

-are you going to be accessing it using smb or ftp? if ftp then it probably doesnt matter. if smb/windows (and best compatibilty across platforms) then i would definitely recommend fat32.

-mapping it should be fairly straight forward.

follow the link i posted and read the datasheet. lot of useful info in it.