Mounting your Nikhef home directory using SSH

by Jan Just Keijser (janjust@nikhef.nl)

Introduction

With SSH access to Nikhef (login.nikhef.nl) it is possible to mount your home directory at Nikhef as a Windows share on your local computer, at home or whenever you are away from the office. This tutorial tries to explain how you can set up these Windows shares on Windows 2000/XP/2003 as well as Windows Vista/7.

Note: This tutorial now includes a separate section for Windows Vista/7, as Microsoft has horribly broken the SMB/CIFS support in Vista and Win7.
Some ugly hacks were needed to get it working but no special software needs to be installed (other than what is needed for 2000/XP/2003).

Of course it is also possible and much easier to do this on Linux, but that is not the aim of this HOWTO ;-)

For this tutorial you will need PuTTY v0.58+, an excellent and free implementation of SSH for Windows. It is also possible to use other SSH clients on Windows, as long as SSH port-forwarding is available.
The concept behind mounting shares using SSH is this:

The SSH protocol has a feature known as port-forwarding. This feature allows you to forward all traffic from a TCP/IP network port on your local computer to another port on another computer at the "other" side of the SSH connection.
The Windows File Sharing protocol, a.k.a.CIFS, uses TCP/IP port 139 to communicate between the client and the server. Newer versions of Windows also use TCP/IP port 445 to communicate between the client and the server. This is especially true for Vista/7.
Thus, by configuring SSH in just the right way, we can redirect all traffic from the TCP/IP port 139 (or port 445) on your local computer to the Windows file server at Nikhef, beuk.nikhef.nl.
The result is that this will magically allow you to create a network share to view your home directory at Nikhef.

This tutorial has been tested on Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Vista. Other users have confirmed that the procedure for Windows Vista also applies to Windows 7.
This tutorial is split into three chapters:

Win2000/XP With File Sharing for those who already use File and Printer Sharing For Microsoft Networks. A version with screenshots for the Dutch version of Windhoos is also available.
Win2000/XP No File Sharing for those who do not use File and Printer Sharing For Microsoft Networks. This case is actually simpler, safer and less invasive to your precious Windhoos machine.
A version with screenshots for the Dutch version of Windhoos is also available.
Vista/7 (with or without file sharing) for those who are stuck using Windows Vista or 7.

But I don't know if I am using File and Printer Sharing!

In most cases File and Printer Sharing is enabled on your computer, as it is installed by default when Windows Networking is configured. To verify whether File and Printer Sharing is enabled, follow these steps:

Right-click on the 'Network Neighborhood' or 'My Network Places' icon on your desktop.

If this icon is not present then you are not using File Sharing and you can use the No File Sharing tutorial.
Select Properties, after which a new window will appear.
Choose a network device, e.g. Local Area Network Connection and right-click on it.
Again, choose Properties, after which a new window will appear
If you see an entry File and Printer sharing for Microsoft Networks (or Bestands- en printerdeling voor Microsoft-netwerken (ugh)) then it is enabled. Use the With File Sharing tutorial, otherwise go to the No File Sharing tutorial.
And if you're using Vista/7 then you did not even have to do this, as there is only a single Vista/7 tutorial available.

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