Hi folks. I have a couple of anonymous read-only servers set up at work in order to distribute various files to people. The key word here is anonymous ... no password required. Simply browse the server and grab the file. However, I've recently installed Slackware 14.1 on one of them and noticed this week that Windows users now are prompted for a password. The Samba conf file is *exactly* the same as those used in previous versions of Slackware but now the behaviour on the Windows side is different. The other server is running under Slackware 13.7 and is still functioning properly.

It is distinctly possible that IT services has done something goofy. They do that a lot here. However, just in case, I thought I'd ask if there has been any major change to Samba that would account for this. I've used it heavily at home and at work for many years would hate to see it's security features beefed up "for my protection". I don't like other people deciding what's good for me and what's not.

The conf file is very simple. The security mode is "share", the default user is "nobody", each shared folder is browseable and read-only.

share is now deprecated

i use this code on my machine shared to other machines running Windows:
if i'm not mistaken, i got the reference from here

if can be useful, I posted this a little while ago...

Thanks guys. I'll give it a try tomorrow at work and let you know what happens.

Problem solved! I should have done a testparm before this post. I would have seen that "share" is no longer valid. Anyway "map to guest = Bad User" worked.

Thanks a bunch for your help.