Windows 7 uses a feature called homegroup, which enhances the workgroup feature in order to make home networking easier for all Windows 7 computers. However, this feature doesn’t work on Linux or older version of Windows. In order to connect your Linux computers to Windows 7 computers and share files and folders, you need to make a series of settings. First, it is to change the workgroup, so that all computers belong to one workgroup. In this tutorial I will demonstrate how to configure and change the workgroup on an Ubuntu PC.
Step 1: Install Samba
Samba is a package for Unix systems that provides support for cross-platform files and printers sharing, and is needed for Ubuntu to access shared resources on a Windows network. In this case, you’ll need to add your Ubuntu PC to a workgroup in order to connect to a Windows network. To install Samba, access your terminal application from your main panel in Applications > Accessories > Terminal.
In your terminal, you’ll need to install the “samba” and “smbfs” packages, by typing the following command:
sudo apt-get install samba smbfs
