Home Networking With HALNet ADSL

Samba gives UNIX like operating systems the ability to talk NetBIOS (the Windows network protocol), therefore allowing them to share files and printers as if they were Windows computers. The main purpose for most people to set up a Samba box is to allow Windows machines to store files in a safe and secure location and to have a central place from which to backup their files. What better way than somehing that's free.
You can make a Client with only a few lines in the Samba config file (usually /usr/local/etc/smb.conf) as with "Shelac" (pII 333 running FreeBSD 4.7), my laptop:


[global]



   server string = Shelac Laptop

   log file = /var/log/log.%m

   max log size = 50

   security = share

   socket options = TCP_NODELAY



     Or a Server like "Beastie" (p133 running FreeBSD 4.7), my backup server:



The first section defines the workgroup/domain that the machine belongs to, what it is pretending to be (NT, 95, etc), what hosts (in this case, network) to allow, and other general information about the purpose of the machine.



[global]



        workgroup = mydomain	     # Your workgroup name here

        server string = Samba on Beastie

        annouce as = NT Server	     # See the smb.conf.default file for other options.

        hostsallow = 192.168.1. 127.0.0.1	     # Make sure your local network (entire 192.168.1.0-255 subnet) is all that can see your machine.

        log file = /usr/local/samba/var/log.%m

        max log size = 50

        security = USER		     # Set this to "SHARE" if you don't have a PDC on your network.

        socket options = TCP_NODELAY

        netbios name = beastie	     # Your computer name here

        domain admin group = @wheel

        domain guest group = ipc$ nobody @guest

        domain logons = no	     # Only yes for a PDC

        domain master = no	     # Only yes for a PDC

        preferred master = no	     # Only yes for a PDC

        local master = no	     # Only yes for a PDC

        os level = 64

        dns proxy = no



This is still a part of the [global] section, but it's important enough to separate.  This shows that there is a PDC and it's called "Sparky".  If you don't have a PDC then you can set this to your own machine name.



## Passwords & Authentication



        password server = sparky

        encrypt passwords = yes



These are all of my filesystems that are shared to the Windows computers on my network.  This is where you would define the users that have access to what shares and what they are used for.  There is a download directory for..   you guessed it.  The backup directory is a safe place to put files. They will automatically by copied to the jaz directory (external SCSI 1gb jaz disk) at 4am using cron(8).  You can specify any path in your filesystem here to share, however beware of what you make available to others.



## Share Definitions

[download]

        comment = Download on Beastie

        browseable = yes

        writeable = yes

        valid users = root bishop steph	     # Various users you want to allow access to your share.

        path = /download



[backup]

        comment = Backup on Beastie

        browseable = yes

        writeable = yes

        valid users = root bishop steph

        path = /backup



[jaz]

        comment = Jaz on Beastie

        browseable = yes

        writeable = yes

        valid users = root bishop steph

        path = /jaz



     For more information on Samba, please visit www.samba.org and see my "PDC with Samba on UN*X" page.