GrannyNAS

Now that I have al my main machines running Linux Mint 20.1, I figured it was time to get really organized. The new(er) laptop, LadyLuck, El for short, has a small drive. Also, sneaker-netting files is tedious. It would be better, I thought, to get my movies-in-bed via a cozy LAN. Old Horse could become a beast of burden for files, Zonker could dump a little extra weight, backups would be easier.

I haven’t done any serious networking in years, and then it was a set of Win98 doorstops (not mine!). I know, I should have been practicing with VMs, at least – but need drives me harder. So I hunted down info on networking. Then I got to work on all three critters and the router.

Right away there were problems. Changing the IPv4 method in the network manager from automatic to manual, as advised, kicked both Horse and Zonker off the Internet. WTF. I’d been running Horse headless, using DWService when I wanted to get a file or do an update, so I was skrewt at both ends. Luckily, I did have a monitor on him yet, so after I got Zonks straightened out again I went around and turned the monitor on and fixed Hoss.

The assigned IP addresses were still OK, so I got down on El. Welp, nobody told me about that . . . lol. No, I’m not going to embarrass myself here and now. I’ll just say that a good night’s sleep put my brain in a fit condition for figuring out what her problem was. In a few more minutes I had a happy little family, freely sharing files.

There are a few details I’d like to take care of yet, but at least I know what I’m doing now. Maybe I will fart around with some VMs too. They’re easier to fix and less frustrating than messing up the workstation. That IPv4 setting was a bucket of ice in the face that I didn’t see coming. I’d like to know some whys.