What is Samba?
“Samba is an Open Source/Free Software suite that provides seamless file and print services to SMB/CIFS clients.” Samba is freely available, unlike other SMB/CIFS implementations, and allows for interoperability between Linux/Unix servers and Windows-based clients
Or for the less geekish – Samba simply allows you, from your Linux box, to access folders, files and printers on a Windoze box on your network.
Please note that this is a basic setup of samba and doesn’t take many security issues into consideration. Once you have it up and running you can then tighten up the security.
1. Create /etc/samba/smb.conf File
vi /etc/samba/smb.conf
# /etc/samba/smb.conf
[global]
workgroup = PDC #Enter your Windows workgroup/domain here
encrypt passwords = yes
wins support = yes
local master = yes
[homes] #Make your /home directories accessible to the users who own them
browsable = no
read only = no
map archive = no
[data]
path = /export/data #Enter any other Linux directories you want to share here
read only = no
map archive = no
# end
2. Setup Samba to Run at Startup
chmod 755 /etc/rc.d/rc.samba
[Either reboot or
run killall -TERM smbd
/etc/rc.d/rc.samba start
to start and stop the server.]
3. Setup a Samba User
smbpasswd -a username
4. Login to Samba
smbclient //localhost/data
If you are able to login, you now should be able to see the ‘data’ directory from Windows, assuming you are setup your workgroup properly and are logging into your Windows system with the same username and password you log into Linux with.