I’m trying to connect my Linux laptop to the network at my workplace so I can share files with colleagues, but it’s not clear how to do it.
I can plug in the Ethernet cable and get a connection to public internet but cannot see any storage drives on the local network.
What should I do?
Debian 13, GNOME 43.
Ask the IT department.
There’s no IT department as such - it’s a small business. My boss had everything set up by a guy who moved away and if there’s a problem these days he gets people from the local computer shop to come over! All the other machines here are running Windows.
somewhat relevant: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_IT
That’s really funny - I’m definitely running a Shadow IT Operation at my workplace! My attitude is that as long as my output is interoperable with the software and systems that my colleagues are using I should be free to work however I like.
Network scan your workplace network. I wouldn’t recommend it for a proper IT managed network, but this is clearly a much looser situation.
Install zenmap, and do a scan of the network. Look for a device that looks like a NAS, and then you’ll be able to use its address to connect to it.
Manually connecting to it will depend on your file manager, but it’s a quick google away once you find the NAS address.
If you can see how the other machines on the network access the drives, like with
net usein the windows command prompt, then you will know the protocol and address and share name to connect to.If it’s something like \\computername\a\path\here that’s a windows file share which you can connect to with samba. On modern Linux desktop systems you can sometimes get away with opening a file browser and typing in a location like smb://computername/a/path/here and it may just work
Keep in mind computername could be an IP address instead, and some file browsers are sneaky about letting you type in a path (nautilus/gnome, which I think is Ctrl+L) if smb://… Doesn’t work smbfs:// may be worth a try
Unless your company’s IT department specifically setup the drives on the local network to be accessible from other OS’s then Windows, you won’t be able to connect to them, without setting up Samba/CIFS.
As others have status, if you are allowed to use Linux as a company device, ask your IT department how to access the company stuff. If you are not really allowed and are just doing, you probably won’t have access to much that is not a webapp.
It depends on what you mean by “local private network”. Probably, you need samba.
You need to know the server and share name. You don’t have to use /mnt/sambashare, just make an empty directory somewhere.
sudo mount -t cifs //server/share /mnt/sambashare -o username=your_userIt’ll prompt you for the password.
This won’t work if you’re on a domain (I think?) but it works for regular SMB shares.
most probably your it blocks all devices from the network unless whitelisted. that’s a rational thing to do imho.
