Before we start configuring samba, we need to establish
if Samba is installed. Again all examples here reflect Mandrake and Redhat
distributions. Consult your distro specific documentation for help
when required.
Ok, how do we tell if Samba is installed?
The most easiest, open a terminal window and type in the following:
This shows that Samba version 2.2.6 is
installed. If by chance this does not return a version number, then you
will have to install Samba before you proceed any further.
In our case we have Samba installed, we can now proceed
to the smb.conf
The Smb.conf file is the configuration
file that controls almost every aspect of how Samba works. The smb.conf
can be the most simplest 1 line config such as
[homes]
Yes thats a real working smb.conf!!
One line, it does not do much, however it illustrates how easy Samba can
be.
On the other hand, your smb.conf can be upwards of 100 lines or more!
My smb.conf currently has 76 lines of actual text.
If you recall, in the
introductory page I mentioned that with the multitude of Linux Distro's the
file locations may vary. With Redhat or Mandrake 8.2 the smb.conf
is stored in /etc/samba.
So lets open this file
with your fav editor. Chances are that it is the example smb.conf
that came when Linux or Samba was installed.
Now it is time to make a new smb.conf. This will be very basic,
however it will give you some sense of what Samba can accomplish
in 16 lines. Open your editor again and type in the following
exactly. After you have done this save it as smb.conf.
Now that you have done typing all this and saved it.
An explanation is in order as to what this all means.
We will start with:
Global Parameters
[global] Anything
in here applies to Samba as a global setting. There is some configuration
info here that is important so that Samba and your Windows pc's
will function properly. However some global settings can be overridden
by share settings (more on this later). I will now go through
each line and give a brief description of what role it plays in
Samba.
workgroup = home: this is the name of your network
group. It is important that both Samba and Windows are in the same
workgroup. Please read your Windows documentation on how to change
your Windows pc's workgroup name.
netbios name = Samba:
netbios name is what you will see in your Windows
pc "Network Neighborhood" for your Samba server.You can name this
anything you wish. If you leave it blank, it will default to your
host name.
encrypt passwords = yes: Samba can work with encrypted
or unecrypted passwords. However, Windows 98, Windows NT, and
Windows 2000 utilize encrypted passwords. The only time that this
should be set to no is when you have any older Windows systems
running on your network ie: Windows 95, Windows 3.x. If this is
the case you will have to do some registery modifications to your
Windows 98, NT, 2000 to allow them to send unencrypted passwords
accross the network. Not the most secure situation though.
Lets move onto the actual share parameters, these are
what actually allows you to share your Linux pc directories and
files with Windows.
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