Samba Domain Controller for windows XP
 

:Pengy:

Good evening people.

Just doing a lot of research on setting up a Server, i have read numerous accounts of people making transitions over from NT4 Domain Controllers maintaining all of their users and groups(with SAMBA), and that sounds fantastic! But the part i'm having trouble with is, that if i am currently running 3 computers each of them wth XP, and i wish to set up a domain based system, where the users groups, files and permissions are stored on a server, could this server be a SAMBA server? And how would the users go about logging in to this server? would it be similar to the method used to log in to Novel? or would there be local users and groups on each machine, that coincide with, and inherit permissions from the Linux users and groups? I'm a network engineering student, so if you could reference the similarities with in Linux with those in windows, i can get a picture of how the whole thing works :D and don't be afraid of getting to technical!

Cheers guys! I hope i can get my AOpen XC Cube running as my Samba server!!! It'll be oh so very sweeeeet.

:Pengy:

Hi Dickohead I would like to do the same thing. You might want to check out samba tng as the LDAP databse (like active directory) should work better.

Samba acts like a domain controller and samba tng replaces a domain controller.

So there is like a complete set of replacment technologies that emulate the windows ones? That sounds awesome!!! Can they all be managed from SSH or Webmin remotely? I want this server to be screenless!

Yes, I do believe that webadmin works with samba. I also know that you can use an SSH conection and terminal window with an editor to do most of it. I have a samba server that is hosting all my shared media. I do not have it setup as a domain controller, just a file server.

From what i have read from other people, Windows xp HOME edition cannot successfully authenticate itself with the Samba Domain Controller.

It will only be authentiated if the client computer is Windows xp PROFESSIONAL edition.

I am aware that XP home has a few networking issues, but thanx for the heads up!:) i will make sure everyone is running Pro, which i think is the case already.

Many thanks for all of your help, it is greatly appreciated, and i shall let you all know how the progress of my server is going! :D

Dickohead.

XP Home cannot log on to any PDC (Windows or Samba). The Home edition lacks advanced networking (that's why it is the Home edition).

XP Professional can logon to a Samba PDC, but will require a registry edit to authenticate properly.

damn Microsoft! They could have easily bundled the networking resources into one XP version. Its greed.

Well, XP Home is cheaper...

If you ask a home user if they would rather save some money ($100), or have domain support, it is going to be a pretty obvious choice.

ya thats true but look at Windows 98. It had bundled networking.