I'm experimenting with Samba as an alternative to more expensive MS server solutions in situations where secure centralized file storage with user authentication/permissions is all that's needed.

My first test environment should have been simpler but I work with what I got:

1) "Client" will be a high-end PC (Pentium Extreme, 1GB RAM) running Windows XP Home with SP2. I've already enabled file sharing in consideration of the XP bug where you can't browse network shares if local sharing isn't enabled.

2) The Samba server is a used PC (P4 1.5GHz with 512MB RAM - all hardware tested) running FC4. Samba was configured using the GUI tool and set with the following parameters:
Workgroup is MSHOME
USER level access
Guest left at default "No Guest Account"
Password encryption is ON
A single test share was created as \home\SMB\ with "everyone" access and Visible/Write permissions.

3) The network is a basic 192.168.1.x network, class C subnetting. with DHCP being served by a Linksys router (also the gateway and DNS server).

Now the problem - the Samba Server appears in the network neighborhood in the appropriate workgroup but when I try to navigate to it I get the classic authentication/connection error:

\\Localhost is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the admistrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. You were not connected because a duplicate name exists on the network. Go to System in Control Panel to change the computer name and try again.

Sorry about the length of this post. Can anyone give any suggestions? I am very new to Linux but I know my way around the console well enough if that's necessary.

I changed the hostname from the default localhost.localdomain to SMBServer and am no longer getting the duplicate name error. Instead, I'm getting "The network path was not found."

Why don't you attach your smb.conf file?

You will need to add the appopriate users and passwords to samba, using smbpasswd command. That is, if your winxp user is 'mickey' password 'mouse' then you'll need to add that user and password to the linux server using smbpasswd command. Im not sure if these users must exist on the linux system itself also, but it may be the case if you want to enforce strict file permissions.

see: man smbpasswd

Hi

you may also want to make sure that you have allowed the ports on your firewall. I had the same issue and this fixed it :

open up these ports to your subnet so that the connection requests from the XP boxes make it to the server.

On FC2 System Settings -> Security Level, in “other ports” add the string: “137:udp, 138:udp, 139:tcp, 445:tcp” . Click OK.
On FC4 System Settings -> Security Level ->SELinux -> Modify SELinux Policy ->Samba then allow samba (note i selected one at a time and retested it)

then restart your smb service either by GUI or /etc/rc.d/init.d/smb restart

i hope this helps you...

Jitesh allways yahoo me.

hi, I am really new in using open source OS, and I was in the same situation as yours, but all I did was I simply change the workgroup of the folder you want to share, like in your case the smb folder on your /home/smb. and now my problem is how to make samba to be the pdc of my test lab network, I can't seem to login using windows client (specially win98 which base from my research should be able to login and athenticated with no problem) but unlike mine all my workstations are using static IPs, if ever you were able to configured your linux to be a pdc do share the step, really appreciate it (btw I use red hat 9 distro) I know its old but its what I have right now