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Support for Windows XP ends in (approx.) 13 Hours... So I loaded Lubuntu on my computer. I have a hard drive attached to my router so all the computers in the family can share files. I don’t know how to get to those files with Lubuntu. Shouldn't I be able to see my (network) files with PCManFM?

I’m sure being in alien territory is just getting the best of me. From the start menu of Windows7 I click on “Computer” then “Network” on the left, tree branches drop down and voilà there they are. I searched the web and could only find info on a program called Samba. I'm not sure that’s what I want. I don’t want to arbitrarily install something I don’t need. Furthermore, all the articles mentioned being able to view Windows files. Isn’t a JPG or PDF file the same regardless the operating system? Hope you can dumb it down/point me in the right direction. Thanks!

Shiny Toaster
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  • Try this: http://askubuntu.com/questions/109505/how-do-i-access-an-external-hard-drive-plugged-into-my-router - if that does not work consider to [edit] your question for additional information on your router brand. – Takkat Apr 08 '14 at 18:09

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Its looks like your router is sharing the files over Samba. This is a protocol for sharing files over a network, ussually associated with Windows networks.

To obtain support for this in Ubuntu you need to install cifs-utils: sudo apt-get install cifs-utils

You will have to find the server and share names from your Windows computer. Navigate to the network folder in Windows Explorer. Then check the address bar to get the server and share name. It should look like \\. Where could be a name or an IP address.

Now, from within Ubuntu create a directory in your home directory (the name doesn't matter) mkdir ~/smbShare

To manually mount the file run sudo mount -t cifs //<server>/share /home/username/smbShare

There are additional options for the mount coommand, and you may need to provide a username and password to access the share.

Dan
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