Hi everyone.
I will get straight to the piont. I have installed SAMBA and I would not have a clue on how to use or configure it. Sorry that last bit is lie I have herad of the smb.conf file but thats about it. So could someone out there please shed some light on this topic.

Thanks Brad

I'm not that familiar with redhat (I should say anymore, because I cut my teeth on it, but use other distros now), but you should have a fairly easy setup/config program to use, and your docs or online help should be some assistance. If that doesn't help, you can look into something like webmin and/or swat, which are browser-based configuration programs.

One thing that many people get stuck on, is that you need to set up samba user accounts, in addition to your regular user accounts. This is easy enough using "smbpasswd -a username" (as root), but without it, you might go bonkers trying to get that windows box to talk to the Linux one.

As for smb.conf, it is nice to know what's in the file and the options, but save that for later. It's huge, but most people only need a few lines altered. Why chew through hours of reading, sorting out what you need from what you don't, when you can skim through swat and click on the options to read what they mean?

Hope this helps a little.

Thanks but more detail is needed. What is swat? I use webmin on my webserver works wounders. I might give it a go. What about a Network Places/Neighboorhood equilvant on Redhat is there such a thing.

OK I have know installed webmin but how do create a SAMBA account. Can I do it useing webmin or do I have to use that command above.

go look at the docs about samba. it will explain everything. at
http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/linux/

If your using Red Hat, then Red Hat should come with some GUI program that will allow you to configure SAMBA. Its pretty straight forward. Even newbies can figure it out. Good Luck.

I am using the config program and yes it is pretty straight forward. But it still doen't work. I must have some sort of major setting wrong. Also has anyone herd of this. That to see another PC on the MS network in linux you just type in smb://Computername/Sharename into your web browser because I herd it from somewhere else I can't remember where now but I have tried it and it doesn't seem to work.

you have to have user accounts setup. i.e. on the windows machines when you type //computername/sharename you should get a username and password prompt. if your not getting the prompt try just//computername. if you still don't get a prompt then something is wrong w/your config. another thing that comes to mind is, did you restart the smbd & nmbd services after changing configs? i.e.


at the bash prompt :~# smbd stop
at the bash prompt :~#nmbd stop


at the bash prompt :~# smbd start
at the bash prompt :~#nmbd start

I am getting the username & password prompt but every username & password I try doesn't work. I have tried recreating the Samba users many times but it doesn't work either.

And what I was actuly meaning before about smb://Computername/Sharename
was to do it in Redhat. So I could see the other MS machines on the network. Because I dont really see the piont of setting up this samba if it only works one way. Eg Can only see my linux box from a windows PC. and not see the windows box from my linux box.

the user names and machine names get tricky. be sure when you get the promt that you are using a user name and password that is valid on the windows machine. i.e. if you have user 1 and administrator on the windows machine and user2 and root on the linux machine, when you are given the prompt to connect to the windows machine you have to use user 1 or administrator, and, vice/versa.
good luck.

Then what is with the SAMBA user?

they have to be created as well so the windows machines can connect.

here you'll need to use a user name and password that is valid on the windows machine.

But when I do the smb:// thing it says invaild protocole or something like that.

have you added samba users? have you created valid accounts on the windows machine? also as i staed before any changes to smb.conf, or, any added users and you'll have to restart the smb and nmb daemons. i'd also reboot the windows box after every restart of the daemons. have you done any reading here

http://us3.samba.org/samba/docs/using_samba/toc.html

it's very thorough.

First of all, what do the logs say?
Second of all, don't be lazy - read the docs first, there are tons of guides and howtos and faqs on the net that address samba setup. If you don't set it up right, you could be opening your files and network for a major surprise. If you set it up enough to visibly run, this is not good enough, you need to understand what you did and why it is working the way it is. Thus, it is essential to read at least some documentation.

There could be numerous reasons why "samba just doesn't work". You could have username/passwords not set-up properly, your box might be filtering the traffic (depending on what setting you have for your firewall, if any) etc etc... You might have not allowed your IP address in the smb.conf file.

So, more information is needed.

G.