Can Someone Please Post "The Complete Idiots' guide to samba networking!' ???
 

Hi All,
before flaming me for putting a topic that has been asked before, please note that YES i DID search the forums extensively, AND yes, I did post similar topics before.

After fighting with Samba / Windows XP and trying zillions of things i STILL seem to not be able to communicate both ways between Windows XP and SuSE Linux Professional 8.1

BOTH firewalls have been switched off (SuSE side and XP side), and gues account privelages have been set up for Samba and on WIndows XP as well.

Can someone PLEASE post a complete IDIOT'S guiide to how to get basic file sharing to work Between Linux and Windows XP pro ??

Thanx

I think this one is really good:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/samba...ook/index.html

I agree with jownas, the O'Reilly book on Samba is really good. You can read the online HTML version, or download the PDFs to view them offline, or just buy the book!

That book rules. Well worth purchasing.

Add webmin and linneighborhood to the mix ;-)

Get it here:
http://rpm.pbone.net
www.rpmseek.com


Have a lot of fun :-)

?????:( :mad: :confused: :eek: :cry:

I use LinNeighborhood, but I am having trouble establoshing the Linux machine on the network. I can't see the XP machine either! :(

Try adding "er/book/index.html" to your URL

Open your linneigborhood (Kicker -> Internet -> Tools -> LinNeighborhood)

Click on your LinNeighborhood's Option -> Preferences, fill:
Workgroup: yourworkgroup (mine is WORKGROUP = windows default)

If you click on the LinNeighborhood's pingu you should see under your 'linux' tree 'WORKGROUP' click on that. Voilla you will see your xp/windows machine names appeared (shared folders, printer, scanner, etc may not yet appeared).

Click again on any machine name and login as user on that machine with correct password. Voila: appears shared folder on that machine (right click and mount as root) and voilla suddenly you can e.g. copy or open the shared files ...

Install webmin and access it using your webbrowser: https://localhost:10000/

Don't forget to post your
/etc/samba/smb.conf
here for us to easily assist you

And check in /usr/share/doc/packages/samba/README.SuSE for the pecialities of the Samba package are described.


So good luck and have a lot more fun :)

Try the path /usr/shared/swat/using_samba/index.html

On RH8 this is the table of contents for Robert Eckstein's eBook Using Samba It's a tad advanced at times, but it has a good basic section on setting it up at first.

[b]Nope![/b]
 

Nope! Tried That Already. That was one of the very first steps I tried to make sure I scan the right workgroup, and still nothing. By nothing I mean NO MACHINES nothing. This behaviour takes place under both Windows XP (where it fails to see Linux) and Linux (where it fails to see Windows XP).
Also Note: I tried Windows 2000 on this very same network and it works like a dream :(

Thanx for the replies everyone. Keep them coming!

The Oreilly Link:

I tried the Orielly link. It has good directions for Win 95/98/NT. However these directions do NOT (repeat: DO NOT) work for Windows 2000/XP. In fact Windows 2000/XP looks different (A LOT different).


Can anyone please help?

WinXP NIC settings
 

Make sure that your advanced TCP/IP properties for your NIC in windoze XP is set to enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP under the WINS tab. Seems WinXP disables this by default. It has caused many headaches for me as it is very easy to overlook. I think they did this as a security measure but who knows .... Hope that helps :)

Thanx for the reply timfair. I always make sure its enabled when i mess with the network. It IS enabled, adns still nothing. NOTE: both nmbd and smbd ARE running!!!

]

OK, lets go back to basics.

1. Can you ping to and from both machines by IP address?
2. on win2000 type "nbtstat -A <linux_ip>", do you get the name table?
3. on linux type "nmblookup -A <windoze_ip>", do you get the name table?
4. now on win do "nbtstat -a <linux_name>", does it resolve by name?
5. similarly on linux do "nmblookup <windoze_name>", does it resolve the windoze IP address?

IF OK so far you have proven that basic IP and Netbios/tcp is working as it should.

6. Now on Linux do "smbclient -L <windoze_name>", hopefully it will ask you for a password, which you won't know yet. Hit return and it will deny you entry. Thats good! at least the server is actively denying you so comms is now good.

7. On win do "net view \\<linux name>" you may get pw asked for again or you may get a list of shares, either way its good.

See how far you get with this. If its all OK up to here then we need to sort out user names etc.

OK just had fiddle with mine (as it were).

On 2000 set your guest account to no password. On linux you should now be able to do -

smbclient -L \\<win_name> -U guest

at password prompt, just hit return, you should get a share listing from your windoze box.

Now on Linux, add a user and make sure that user, password and smbuser password match the user and password that you logged onto windoze with. You can do it differently but windoze can be a bit funny about it.

now on windows do "net use * \\<linux_name>\<share>" and it should go.