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Configuring a Windows File Sharing (Samba) Server

IN THIS CHAPTER

Getting and installing Samba

Using Samba security features

Editing the smb.conf configuration file

Accessing Samba from Linux and Windows clients

Using Samba in the enterprise

Samba is the project that implements open source versions of protocols used to share files and printers, as well as authenticate users and restrict hosts, among Windows systems. Samba offers a number of ways to share files among Windows, Linux, and Mac OS/X systems that are well known and readily available to users of those systems.

This chapter steps you through the process of installing and configuring a Samba server. It describes security features you need to know to share your file and printer resources and describes how to access those resources from Linux and Windows systems.

Understanding Samba

Samba (www.samba.org) is a suite of programs that allows Linux, UNIX, and other systems to interoperate with Microsoft Windows file and printer sharing protocols. Windows, DOS, OS/2, Mac OS/X, and other client systems can access Samba servers to share files and printers in the same ways they would from Windows file and print servers.

With Samba, you can use standard TCP/IP networking to communicate with clients. For name service, Samba supports regular TCP/IP hostnames, as well as NetBIOS names. For that reason, Samba doesn't require the NetBEUI ...

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