GUI LAN transfers

[Gavin McCullagh]

Hi,

On Thu, 07 Sep 2006, R.M.Deal wrote:

> My users are teachers mostly who are NOT going to use the command-line at
> all.  So my question is, how do I provide my users with a simple graphic,
> icon-moving technique for taking documents (say in OpenOffice) created
> locally and storing them in a central server?

If you're using a thin client they are already on the central server.  If
they need to move to another location you can create an nfs (network
filesystem share) and have each computer mount it (rather like drive
mapping in windows).

If you want all files on the server, the best bet is probably to run the
home directory as an nfs share.  In other words, you mount /home/ as a
remote share.  Then all of their files are accessed directly from the
server from the start.

If they need to connect to arbitrary servers for file transfer, they can
click on "Places->Connect to server" to connect over ssh, ftp, samba,
webdav, etc.  This is an entirely graphical process.

> Related to this question is:  How do I tell my users how to send their
> documents to a remote computer printer or a LAN printer, graphically?

You set up the printer under the System->Administration->Printers and let
them use the application's print dialogue, just like in Windows, Mac, or
whatever else.

> Please let me know if this is a FAQ but a search I just made of my
> collection of recent Ubuntu digests yielded nothing useful.

It seems like you need to try Edubuntu out and see how things work before
you ask.  Printing works almost exactly like other operating systems "set
up printer, print from application" so I'm surprised you needed to ask.
The file transfer is built into gnome (nautlius) and works entirely by
graphical means too.  Of course, you need to set up the server to take the
connection -- but that's a different question.

Gavin