File sharing troubles

[hazet_cham]

Hello
I'm new on this forum, have little admin experience with UNIX/LINUX and have searched a solution for my troubles with file sharing since a few days without succcess for the time being. . .
The situation is like this:
- Host is SUSE LINUX 12.1 32bit member of WORKGROUP
- most recent VMBox 4.1.6 with extension pack
- Guest is WIN7 home premium with SP1 member of WORKGROUP
I configured the VMBox with a shared folder like this /svr/www/bastide/wetterstation_cham wetterstation. When I attempt to bind the shared folder within WIN 7 with the command "net use Z: \\vboxsvr\wetterstation" I get an error msg "system error 53 networkpath not found".
Are there any additional services required on the LINUX host like samba etc.? Are there any other methods to enable file sharing between the LINUX host and the WIN guest system. Would samba be a viable solution for file sharing?
Thanks for any hints/solution
Rgds Hans

[Perryg]

You should read chapter 4.3 Shared folders in your VirtualBox users manual if you would like to use the VirtualBox shared folders.
If you want to use a network share instead you need to use Bridged or host-only networking so the host and guest are in the same subnet.
And if this does not work well you will need to install Samba to get the network share to function properly (although the Linux OS should have a minimal Samba share installed)

[hazet_cham]

Thanks for your reply!
I solved the problem by installing the guestadditions in the guest system (WIN 7). Would be very helpful if the VMBox configuration window would contain a hint about the guestadditions (the same place with "net use . . . ."). This would certainly help to prevent many frustrated users . . .! Reading Unix/Linux manuals is hard bone work and mostly not user friendly, at least not for "non UNIX" experts like me . . .).
Regards
Hans

[mpack]

"Guest Additions" is chapter 4 of the user manual. It's hardly a secret.