Double parter - Meathods of Sharing a Folder and/or Samba config

akamikeym · 10-27-2011, 10:22 AM

Hi,

I'm trying to Share a folder on a server machine. I would like it if possible to have some security, but it's essentially a group share. I've been using NFSv4 but had to abandon it as it's currently too buggy- caused problems with 'umount' and auto-mounting and suspending. (Also didn't have any security to speak off.)

So I was wondering what other networking file systems could be usable. I spotted sshfs which looked promising but my ssh use passphrases and I couldn't see a way of prompting for them.

I've most recently tried Samba and can run it as a guest share, but I'm not sure how to set it up so that I am prompted for a password when I try to connect with Nautilus.

travisdh1 · 10-27-2011, 10:42 AM

Basically you need some sort of authentication method for samba. I don't have the time to get into many details here so try googleing for something like "samba configuration tutorial" should find lots of stuff to get you started.

akamikeym · 10-27-2011, 11:40 AM

hmmmmm... well I've got Samba working kind of as I'd like (one user with a password). How sensible it is or secure it is is debatable.

The Authentication section of /etc/samba/smb.conf now has:

Code:

   security = user
   encrypt passwords = true
   passdb backend = tdbsam
   obey pam restrictions = yes
   unix password sync = yes
   passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
   passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
   pam password change = yes
   map to guest = bad user

And the share is like:

Code:

[share]
    comment = My Shares
    path = /path/to/my/share
    browsable = yes
    guest ok = no
    read only = no
    create mask = 0755
    valid users = smbuser

I then added a user without a logon (no idea if that is required) and add a samba password:

Code:

sudo useradd -s /sbin/nologin smbuser
sudo smbpasswd -a samba

I'm not actually much of a Samba fan so I'd stil like to know the second part to my question, if anyone could provide me with the alternatives for sharing a folder over a network along the lines of Samba and SSHFS?