This book teaches the essentials of Samba from the ground up. The reader of this book will learn how to configure Samba, troubleshoot day-to-day problems with Samba, implement Samba in a wide-area network, use GUI tools to administer Samba to users, set up Samba as a login server, integrate Windows and Linux/Unix, replace a Windows NT file and printer server with Samba, and get the most out of Samba with a variety of tricks and tips.

Samba is a free software re-implementation of SMB/CIFS networking protocol, originally developed by Australian Andrew Tridgell. Samba is released under the GNU General Public License. The name Samba comes from SMB (Server Message Block), the name of the standard protocol used by the Microsoft Windows network file system.

The CD-ROM packaged with the book includes Samba 2.0.3, NT Domain support FAQ, and additional GUI editors.

Samba provides file and print services for various Microsoft Windows clients and can integrate with a Windows Server domain, either as a Primary Domain Controller (PDC) or as a domain member. It can also be part of an Active Directory domain. Samba runs on most Unix and Unix-like systems, such as Linux, Solaris, AIX and the BSD variants, including Apple's Mac OS X Server. Samba is standard on nearly all distributions of Linux and is commonly included as a basic system service on other Unix-based operating systems as well.

Samba is an implementation of dozens of services and a dozen protocols, including NetBIOS over TCP/IP. Samba can see and share printers.

Samba sets up network shares for chosen Linux/Unix directories (including all contained subdirectories). These appear to Microsoft Windows users as normal Windows folders accessible via the network.

Configuration is achieved by editing a single file (typically installed as /etc/smb.conf or /etc/samba/smb.conf). ( )