I have two computers, one with windows xp and the other with linspire, I have a us robotics 8004 router, and i am able to ping back and forth between the two computers. When I open a Network Browser, I am getting the message "The file or directory Smb does not exist" I installed Samba on this computer, how could I rectify this problem? I would appreciate the help

This isn't very much information but it sounds like you haven't properly configured your smb.conf file which is probably located in /etc/samba. I would guess you have a share called Smb that's pointing to a bogus location. You probably want a stanza like:

[home]
comment = Home Directory
path = /home/%u
browseable = yes
read only = no

This will mount each corresponding user's home directory. This is not the whole story though! You need a global section with sensible options.

Here are mine:

[global]
socket options = TCP_NODELAY
dns proxy = no
workgroup = home
keep alive = 30
printing = lprng
printcap name = /etc/printcap
load printers = yes
preserve case = yes
short preserve case = yes
case sensitive = no
hosts allow = 192.168.0. 127.
security = user
server string = Webhost1 Samba Server
log file = /var/log/samba-log.%m
max log size = 50
lock directory = /var/lock/samba

This means that each user would have to have corresponding account on both the Windows and Linux machine with the same password. Passwords are created with "smbpasswd -a username". Hope this helps. Samba is a bit tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it it's pretty simple. Also, the workgroup should be the same on both systems. Restart Samba when you've made your changes. Hope this helps. Let us know if you have any other problems.

this is what my etc/samba.conf is shopwing hwo could I amodidfy it to what I need

#
# Sample configuration file for the Samba suite for Debian GNU/Linux.
#
#
# This is the main Samba configuration file. You should read the
# smb.conf(5) manual page in order to understand the options listed
# here. Samba has a huge number of configurable options most of which
# are not shown in this example
#
# Any line which starts with a ; (semi-colon) or a # (hash)
# is a comment and is ignored. In this example we will use a #
# for commentary and a ; for parts of the config file that you
# may wish to enable
#
# NOTE: Whenever you modify this file you should run the command
# "testparm" to check that you have not many any basic syntactic
# errors.
#

#======================= Global Settings =======================

[global]
dos charset = CP932
unix charset = EUC-JP
display charset = UTF-8

## Browsing/Identification ###

# Change this to the workgroup/NT-domain name your Samba server will part of
workgroup = WORKGROUP

# server string is the equivalent of the NT Description field
server string = %h (LindowsOS)

# Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section:
# WINS Support - Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable its WINS Server
; wins support = no

# WINS Server - Tells the NMBD components of Samba to be a WINS Client
# Note: Samba can be either a WINS Server, or a WINS Client, but NOT both
; wins server = w.x.y.z

# Pull in wins server if specifed by dhcp client
include = dhcp.conf

# This will prevent nmbd to search for NetBIOS names through DNS.
dns proxy = no

# What naming service and in what order should we use to resolve host names
# to IP addresses
; name resolve order = lmhosts host wins bcast


#### Debugging/Accounting ####

# This tells Samba to use a separate log file for each machine
# that connects
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m

# Put a capping on the size of the log files (in Kb).
max log size = 1000

# If you want Samba to only log through syslog then set the following
# parameter to 'yes'.
; syslog only = no

# We want Samba to log a minimum amount of information to syslog. Everything
# should go to /var/log/samba/log.{smbd,nmbd} instead. If you want to log
# through syslog you should set the following parameter to something higher.
syslog = 0

# Do something sensible when Samba crashes: mail the admin a backtrace
panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d


####### Authentication #######

# "security = user" is always a good idea. This will require a Unix account
# in this server for every user accessing the server. See
# /usr/share/doc/samba-doc/htmldocs/ServerType.html in the samba-doc
# package for details.
; security = user
security = share

# You may wish to use password encryption. See the section on
# 'encrypt passwords' in the smb.conf(5) manpage before enabling.
; encrypt passwords = no

# If you are using encrypted passwords, Samba will need to know what
# password database type you are using.
passdb backend = tdbsam guest

obey pam restrictions = yes

; guest account = nobody

# This boolean parameter controls whether Samba attempts to sync the Unix
# password with the SMB password when the encrypted SMB password in the
# passdb is changed.
; unix password sync = no

# For Unix password sync to work on a Debian GNU/Linux system, the following
# parameters must be set (thanks to Augustin Luton <aluton@hybrigenics.fr> for
# sending the correct chat script for the passwd program in Debian Potato).
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat = *Enter\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n .

# This boolean controls whether PAM will be used for password changes
# when requested by an SMB client instead of the program listed in
# 'passwd program'. The default is 'no'.
; pam password change = no


########## Printing ##########

# If you want to automatically load your printer list rather
# than setting them up individually then you'll need this
; load printers = yes

# lpr(ng) printing. You may wish to override the location of the
# printcap file
; printing = bsd
; printcap name = /etc/printcap

# CUPS printing. See also the cupsaddsmb(8) manpage in the
# cupsys-client package.
; printing = cups
; printcap name = cups

# When using [print$], root is implicitly a 'printer admin', but you can
# also give this right to other users to add drivers and set printer
# properties
; printer admin = @ntadmin


######## File sharing ########

# Name mangling options
; preserve case = yes
; short preserve case = yes


############ Misc ############

# Using the following line enables you to customise your configuration
# on a per machine basis. The %m gets replaced with the netbios name
# of the machine that is connecting
; include = /home/samba/etc/smb.conf.%m

# Most people will find that this option gives better performance.
# See smb.conf(5) and /usr/share/doc/samba-doc/htmldocs/speed.html
# for details
# You may want to add the following on a Linux system:
# SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
socket options = TCP_NODELAY

# The following parameter is useful only if you have the linpopup package
# installed. The samba maintainer and the linpopup maintainer are
# working to ease installation and configuration of linpopup and samba.
; message command = /bin/sh -c '/usr/bin/linpopup "%f" "%m" %s; rm %s' &

# Domain Master specifies Samba to be the Domain Master Browser. If this
# machine will be configured as a BDC (a secondary logon server), you
# must set this to 'no'; otherwise, the default behavior is recommended.
; domain master = auto

# Some defaults for winbind (make sure you're not using the ranges
# for something else.)
; idmap uid = 10000-20000
; idmap gid = 10000-20000
; template shell = /bin/bash

#======================= Share Definitions =======================

[homes]
comment = Home Directories
browseable = no

# By default, the home directories are exported read-only. Change next
# parameter to 'yes' if you want to be able to write to them.
writable = no

# File creation mask is set to 0700 for security reasons. If you want to
# create files with group=rw permissions, set next parameter to 0775.
create mask = 0700

# Directory creation mask is set to 0700 for security reasons. If you want to
# create dirs. with group=rw permissions, set next parameter to 0775.
directory mask = 0700

# Un-comment the following and create the netlogon directory for Domain Logons
# (you need to configure Samba to act as a domain controller too.)
;[netlogon]
; comment = Network Logon Service
; path = /home/samba/netlogon
; guest ok = yes
; writable = no
; share modes = no

[printers]
comment = All Printers
browseable = no
path = /tmp
printable = yes
public = no
writable = no
create mode = 0700

# Windows clients look for this share name as a source of downloadable
# printer drivers
[print$]
comment = Printer Drivers
path = /var/lib/samba/printers
browseable = yes
read only = yes
guest ok = no
# Uncomment to allow remote administration of Windows print drivers.
# Replace 'ntadmin' with the name of the group your admin users are
# members of.
; write list = root, @ntadmin

# A sample share for sharing your CD-ROM with others.
;[cdrom]
; comment = Samba server's CD-ROM
; writable = no
; locking = no
; path = /cdrom
; public = yes

# The next two parameters show how to auto-mount a CD-ROM when the
# cdrom share is accesed. For this to work /etc/fstab must contain
# an entry like this:
#
# /dev/scd0 /cdrom iso9660 defaults,noauto,ro,user 0 0
#
# The CD-ROM gets unmounted automatically after the connection to the
#
# If you don't want to use auto-mounting/unmounting make sure the CD
# is mounted on /cdrom
#
; preexec = /bin/mount /cdrom
; postexec = /bin/umount /cdrom

This does not look anything like what you showed me.

I also probably di dno tmake one thing clear in my post I am usoing linspire no tslakc ware could youhelp me with this?

First off, any line with a # or ; is a comment from that point 'till the end of the line. This means that MOST of your file is just comments. Can you be a bit specific as to what you are trying to accomplish with this? For example, you have "shared" level security chosen. What kind of security are you looking for? I recommend "user" level if the persons using it have both a Windows login and a Linux login. You also have a printers section. Do you need to share a printer? Which computer is the printer hooked up to? Or do they each have their own? Are you only trying to share your home directory accross systems?

I've been very busy (had to do some emergency plumbing and pay bills today so I might not get back to you right away. We'll get you set up. Fear not.

I noticed you reposted again tonight. I'm going to assume you're taking care of this for yourself. Also, you never answered my questions before reposting. The part that rubs me the wrong way, is that I've already provided the functionality you were asking for in the new post on this thread.

I see this as unfortunate. I want people to learn about this stuff, but you have to do your part too. No one here (at least not me) gets paid for this. We do this to help others because we like to help people. All you have to do is let us.

Paul62's posts on this Samba question:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=505099
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=505197
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=504642

Paul62, why don't you just try taking some of the advice already given to you? In all your posts you have continued to ignore any feed back. You could have easily solved this by now if you had simply read some of the documentation (which was also suggested by someone on one of your threads) and listened to people's suggestions.