iptables is disabled at my Fedora core 6 linux PC by these commands to check:
# system-config-securitylevel
# ps -ef|grep iptable
root 3170 2926 0 10:15 pts/2 00:00:00 grep iptable

However, my windows PC cannot access a linux drive through samba unless iptables is stopped on the linux PC.
Why?
What is the best way to allow samba disk access without stopping iptables?


# service iptables stop
Flushing firewall rules: [ OK ]
Setting chains to policy ACCEPT: filter [ OK ]
Unloading iptables modules: [ OK ]

Googling samba firewall reveals it all.

In the samba configuration wizard, or system-config-security, there should be a check box to open the ports for samba.

A related question, the iptables service is already disabled, so why it still block samba?
i.e. Why it need to be stopped?

Check the firewall settings on both computers.
Also make sure all of the samba services are running.