my current main use of my linux machine is a file server (eventually i will make it a media center/server, but thats neither here nor there....)

i've been using samba and like it very much, except for a couple problems.

the first problem is that after i startup my linux machine i can't access it through my windows (xp) machine unless i go into the samba user/password settings and push ok. (as a means to refresh the settings i suppose-frankly im not totally sure whats going on with that.)

the second is that when another computer tries to access the linux machine it either wont work or it will ask for the password every time

im assuming that this may be a conflict with other network programs on my linux machine, as i am using fedora core 4 and when i installed it i selected all networking features because i was going to use it primarily as a server.

that being said i would rather not have to find all my server programs and end them every time i boot up, i may make a script for that eventually, or simply make a samba restart script, but for now i want to do something entirely different

i'd like to do 2 things: remove user/password on access, and give access ONLY to specific ip's.

i know this may sound a bit scary, but the network my linux machine is on is NEVER online.

if you can give me a script or guide on how to do this i would greatly appreciate it. if such a thing is NOT possible i would be willing to move to a different/better server program, or solve the possible conflict between networking programs. either way i will need a bit of help on this matter, being that im a linux newb (cant you tell that already? )

thanks for the help ~sickley

I think you would have to have a null password for a user that is allowed to connect to the share to be able to access it without a password. To only allow specific IPs you could use xinetd to run Samba and put the IPs you want to allow is hosts.allow