Using Samba

What Can Samba Do For Me?

As explained earlier, Samba can help Windows and Unix machines coexist in the same network. However, there are some specific reasons why you might want to set up a Samba server on your network:

• You don’t want to pay for—or can’t afford—a full-fledged Windows NT server, yet you still need the functionality that one provides.

• You want to provide a common area for data or user directories in order to transition from a Windows server to a Unix one, or vice versa.

• You want to be able to share printers across both Windows and Unix workstations.

• You want to be able to access NT files from a Unix server.

Let’s take a quick tour of Samba in action. Assume that we have the following basic network configuration: a Samba-enabled Unix machine, to which we will assign the name hydra, and a pair of Windows clients, to which we will assign the names phoenix and chimaera, all connected via a local area network (LAN). Let’s also assume that hydra also has a local inkjet printer connected to it, lp, and a disk share named network—both of which it can offer to the other two machines. A graphic of this network is shown in Figure 1.1.

Figure 1-1. A simple network setup with a Samba server

In this network, each of the computers listed share the same workgroup . A workgroup is simply a group nametag that identifies an arbitrary collection of computers and their resources on an SMB network. ...