I am running the samba server on an old desktop and I have two problems.

The first problem is one of functionality. I am able to access my list of shares when I use my laptop equipped with Windows XP MCE which I believe is Windows XP Pro with some add-ons. When I try to access them with a Windows XP Home computer, I can't access my shares. It says I might not have permission. We are all in the same workgroup and everything. How do I get samba to let the XP Home computer to access its shares.

Another issue which is inconvenient is how do I get samba to be something other than "localhost". When I boot my laptop with Mandriva, both computer's shares cannot be seen at the same time since they are both "localhost". How do I change the host name?

1. Functionality

I think you're on to a non-starter with XP Home. It has crippled functionality and networking is one of the things affected. I've never even looked at an XP Home machine but I do remember working out that should my dementia advance far enough to actually install XP it would need to be Pro. Home would not work for me.

2. Name

In your /etc/samba/smb.conf file insert a line:

# netbios name is the name you will see in "Network Neighbourhood",
# but defaults to your hostname
netbios name = <your desired name>

Sometime during installation you get the chance to name your computer. I don't know how to change this post-install but the above should sort you out for Samba.

It didn't ask me to set a host name during install. I guess that varies from distro to distro.

I think that happens when you're setting up networking. Host Name.

Hi I'm not sure if this will help but I got my Samba working using this tutorial. I am able to connect to mapped drives from XP Home without any issues, and they also reconnect at login....

I looked at the tutorial, sounds like a decent set of instructions. If setting it up as a network drive is the way to make it work with XP Home, then thats what i'll have to do. Thanx for the help.

Name can be defined in /etc/sysconfig/network. See if you have one. I know it is a Redhat/Fedora_Core thing.

Also if you have a firewall up on the Linux machine make sure you have opened the needed ports. If there is one disable it completely first and see if you can connect.

Brian1