I am using Redhat Linux on VMware. My Samba connection from Windows works fine at work when I'm on the corporate network. No login prompt appears. The connection is automatic.

However, if I'm not on the corporate network, I get a password prompt. The username is grayed out and has Linux_ip_address\Guest. I'm not sure what to try for the password. Nothing I have tried works. I can ping from Windows to my VMWare Linux.

Here is my environment:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 4 (Nahant)
• VMware 4.5.2
• XP Pro
• VMware Network setting: Host-only

Here is my Samba settings:

• Authentication Mode: Share
• Authentication Server: empty
• Kerberos Realm: empty
• Encrypt password: No
• Guest Account: root

Anyone have any ideas on how i can get Samba to work when I'm not on the corporate network? I'd like to be able to connect automatically like when I'm connected to the corporate network.

Thanks.

In both cases, Windows is passing credentials to Samba - the credentials that you used to login to Windows itself. In the first case, Samba accepts the credentials that Windows is passing, so the login happens transparently, without needing prompt you for anything. In the second case, your credentials weren't correct, so Windows gave you a prompt to manually resolve the issue.

Is your Active Directory username the same as your local Windows username?

Hob, thanks for your response.

I have always used my domain account to login to Windows, whether I was on the corporate network or not.

So now I have just created an account on the local machine that has the same name as my domain account. I also created an account in Linux with the same name. If I log into Windows with the new account, samba connects seamlessly from Windows just like it did when I was on the corporate network. I don't get a login prompt so that's great but I have one problem. I can only get this to work if I'm logged into Windows using my newly created account. Ideally I would like Samba to work from my original domain account. How? Like i said previously, when i get the login prompt, the username field (linux_ip_address\Guest) is grayed out, and so is the down arrow and the [...] button just next to the user name, preventing me from changing the username.

Now that I can get it to work when I login with the new Windows account, and given the previous reply, I'm wondering why it worked in the first place when I'm on the corporate network using my domain account?

I've only seen that particular behavior when something is fundamentally wrong with the networking or configuration. Probably simplest thing to do is to pick one of these these options, and then setup things appropriately:

Best choice - don't run Samba on the RHEL instance. If all that you want to do is move files between the host and the guest then the "shared folders" feature of VMware is easy to setup, and you don't need to make RHEL a Samba server at all.

Next best choice - make your local, Windows domain, and Samba accounts have the same name and password. Windows should then work with the domain account without prompting you ("pass-through authentication").

In the second case, you should probably go back to the initial Samba configuration file, but change the security mode to "user". Samba has many options, but the defaults work, and people can get into trouble by changing more settings than they needed to.