Connecting Windows and Linux With Samba

Today's networks are more heterogeneous than ever. Gone are the days when one platform was enough to do all the work that users required. Often, multiple operating systems are required for differing business solutions, and Windows NT and UNIX are almost always among the mix. For administrators given the task of making everything work together, fortunately, there is SAMBA.

SAMBA is an implementation of the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol, which is the heart of Windows Networking. Any computer capable of exchanging SMBs with other computers can participate in a Windows network.

Before We Begin

Before we begin, you will need the following:

• Samba 2.0.7. You can try other versions or precompiled binary packages, but the version used herein is built from this source tarball.

• You will need at least one Windows PC and at least one UNIX system. Which UNIX version you choose shouldn't matter. The examples herein were all tested on SCO Open Server 5.0.5 and RedHat Linux (Kernel version 2.2).

Some Windows Network Basics

Before we get started, a primer on Windows networking is in order for those who aren't familiar with it. If you feel comfortable with Windows network internals, you may skip this section.

Windows networking is based on RPC and NetBIOS. Without these services working in the manner that Windows expects, nothing else will work. All computers that participate in Windows networking have a unique NetBIOS name. Windows networking allows this potentially unmanageable list to be broken down into groups of related computers called workgroups or domains. Windows computer names are not case sensitive and must be less than 14 characters (NOTE: While spaces are allowed in names, some versions of Windows 9x and SAMBA will not be able to use these properly. Try to avoid them.)

Continues...