How to access a drive or a folder in a network through Kali Linux

In this scenario, I have Windows 7 and Kali Linux operating systems. Kali Linux is installed in a virtual server, i.e. vmware player. 

(A) Now to create a shared drive or folder in Windows 7

• Click on Start  and then on Computer. 
• Select the drive or the folder you want to share. Right click on it, then click on Share with and then on Advanced sharing...

• Goto Sharing tab and click on Advanced Sharing...

• Check on Share this folder, then click on Add button to give Share name and Description of the drive or folder and select the number of users that you allow to share the drive or folder. Then click on permissions and add number of users to whom you grant permission to share your drive or folder in a network. Click on OK to all pop windows that has opened so far. This will take affect and you will see shared drive or folder in the network.

(B) Open vmware player and allow Kali Linux to boot.

• Login with username and password
• Press Alt. + F2 key to bring run dialog box. 
• type smb://username/shared, where 'username' is the host name and 'shared' is the drive or folder name that has to accessed (smb is a program of samba distribution that allows to maintain interoperability between linux/unix server and windows client), then click on 'Run'.

• type 'username' and 'password' of windows 7 user to access the drive or folder (username and password is the account of the user where the drive or folder has been shared) and click on 'Connect'.

This will mount the shared drive or folder and it will appear on the desktop of Kali Linux.

** An Important Suggestion

A suggestion to those who want to experiment or do testing with their OSes. I suggest you not to make your system with dual or triple partition. If you are not sure with partition table or with boot loader, then you may mess up with mapping partition of OSes in boot loader. It's really a tedious job, and if the OS is not mount properly your important data may be lost which you may not able to recover in future. Dual partition makes you no good to your system other than the user interface to access different OSes of your choice. I suggests you to install virtual manager or server, like vmware player, oracle virtualbox, virtual pc in your OS, where you can experiment with different OSes, do testing, unlocking of codes, hacking and lots more than you can expect. Happy Hacking.......

Installing Kali Linux- A step-by-step instruction

Kali Linux, ver.: 1.0.3

Prerequisites:

• Minimum 8 GB of HDD space to install Kali Linux
• For i386 or amd64 architecture, a minimum of 512 MB RAM (1024 MB RAM recommended)
• An ISO or VMWare image can be downloaded from Kali Linux site

Here, I am going to guide you step by step to install Kali Linux (ver. 1.0.2) in a virtual machine. Procedure of installation is very much similar to Backtrack.

Click on the above link to download Kali Linux. When you goto this link it will ask you to register, however registration is not mandatory to download Kali Linux. Either, you can register by giving your name or email address to receive information updates or simply you can skip this step and click on "No thanks, just want to download!". Depending on the type, you can customize your download in ISO or VMWare format. Click on "Download Kali". Once Kali Linux is downloaded you are ready to install it in a virtual machine. I am using VMWare Player version: 5.0.2 build-1031769 here.

1. Open VMWare Player and click on Click a New Virtual Machine. It will open New Virtual Machine Wizard.

2. On this screen select I will install the operating system later and the click on Next.

3. Select Guest operating system as Linux (kernel of Kali Linux is based on Linux) and then select Version as Ubuntu. Click on Next to goto next screen

4. Type Virtual machine name and specify the Location where you want install Kali Linux, however you can leave the default Virtual machine name and Location. Click on Next to proceed to the next screen

5. Specify Disk Capacity. Default is 20 GB. Select Split virtual disk into multiple files where file transfer is a major issue. Click on Next

6. On this screen, either you can click on Customize Hardware to customize settings and then to goto step no. 8 or click on Finish to complete the process of creating virtual machine

7. Click on Edit virtual machine settings

8. This is the screen where you can customize or edit your Hardware Settings. As mentioned above, the minimum system requirement is uni-processor of i386 or amd64 architecture processor, so click on 

(a) Memory, to select minimum 1024 MB of RAM;

(b) Processors, as 1 or 2 (depending upon the processing speed) and Preferred mode as Automatic;

(c) Click on CD/DVD IDE. Now, on right hand panel you will Connection. It has two options: 

      Use physical drive- select this option if you have Kali Linux is in your CD or DVD drive; or

      Use ISO image file- select this option if you have downloaded Kali Linux on your hard drive. Click on Browse to locate the ISO file 

(d) Floppy drive is optional, as now a days most of the computers do not floppy drive

(e) Select NAT if you have network adapter for Internet

Other Hardware settings can be modified once installation process is completed. Now click on OK.

9. Select kali linux on left side panel screen and then click on Play virtual machine

10 VMWare setup will startup

11. You will be greeted with Kali Linux boot screen. Choose either Graphical or Text-Mode install and press Enter to boot

12. Select your preferred language and click on Continue

13. Select your location and click on Continue

14. Select option to configure your keyboard and click on Continue

15. Once disc is detected by operating system, it will copy the image to your hard disk and probe your network interfaces

16. Enter hostname to configure your network and click on Continue

17. If you have a domain name, then enter here in the box. Make sure that you have a correct domain name. You can enter the domain name later and leave this box blank. Click on Continue

18. Enter robust password for your root account

19. It will auto-detect time from network time server

20. Installer will probe hard disk and offer you four choices of partitioning of disk. Beginner can select Guided- use entire disk however experienced user can setup partition as Manual

21. Below are the screenshots of manual partition. I have created three partitions

      a. /boot (a partition from where your operating system will boot)

      b. / (root partition for super user or admin)

      c. swap (a portion where buffering is done)

22. This is the screen where you’ll have last chance to review your disk configuration before the installer makes irreversible changes. After you click Continue, the installer will go to work and you’ll have an almost finished installation.

23. Configure network mirror to give additional software that is included on the CD-ROM

24. Install GRUB boot loader

25. Finally, click on Finish to reboot Kali Linux installation

26. Login screen of Kali Linux