Windows Networking Concepts
Windows is different from Unix in
many ways, including how it supports networking. Before we get into
the hands-on task of clicking our way through the dialog boxes to
configure each version of Windows, we need to provide you with a
common foundation of networking technologies and concepts that apply
to the entire family of Windows operating systems.
For each Windows version, these are the main issues we will be
dealing with:
-
Making sure required networking components are installed and bound to
the network adapter
-
Configuring networking with a valid IP address, netmask and gateway,
and WINS and DNS name servers
-
Assigning workgroup and computer names
-
Setting the username(s) and password(s)
In addition, some minor issues involving communication and
coordination between Windows and Unix are different among Windows
versions.
One can go crazy thinking about the ways in which Unix is different
from Windows, or the ways in which members of the Windows family are
different from each other in underlying technology, behavior, or
appearance. For now let's just focus on their
similarities and see if we can find some common ground.
Components
Unix
systems historically have been monolithic in nature, requiring
recompilation or relinking to create a kernel with a customized
feature set. However, modern versions have the ability to load or
unload device drivers or various other operating-system features as
modules while the system is running, without even needing to reboot.
Windows allows for configuration by installing or uninstalling
components. As far as networking goes,
components can be one of three things:[1]
-
Protocols
-
Clients
-
Services
Since Samba works using the TCP/IP protocol, of course
we'll want to have that installed. In some cases, we
also will want to find protocols to uninstall.
For example, if Netware protocol (IPX/SPX) is not required on the
network, it might as well be removed.
NetBEUI protocol should be removed if
possible. Having NetBEUI running at the same time as NetBIOS over
TCP/IP causes the system to look for services under two different
protocols, only one of which is likely to be in use. When Windows is
configured with one or more unused protocols, 30-second delays will
result when Windows tries to communicate with the unused protocol.
Eventually, it times out and tries another one, until it finds one
that works. This fruitless searching results in terrible performance.
The other two items in the list, client and service components, are
pretty much what you'd expect. Client components
perform tasks related to connecting with network servers, and service
components are for making the local system into a server of resources
on the network. In Chapter 1 we told you that SMB
systems can act as both clients and servers, offering resources on
the network at the same time they request resources. In accordance
with that, it is possible to install a component for SMB client
services and, separately, a service component that allows file and
printer shares on the local system to be accessible from other
systems on the network.
Bindings
Once
a networking component is installed, it must be
bound to a hardware interface, or
adapter, to be used on the network. At first
this might seem like an odd complication; however, it is a conceptual
model that allows the associations between hardware and software to
be clearly displayed and easily modified through a graphical
interface.
We will want to make sure that your Windows client has both TCP/IP
and the client component for SMB networking installed and also that
it is bound to the network adapter that connects to our Samba
network, which in most cases will be an Ethernet adapter.
IP Address
Just like any Unix system (or any other system that is using TCP/IP),
your Windows systems will need an IP address. If you are using
DHCP
on your network, you can configure Windows to obtain its IP address
automatically by using a DHCP server. Otherwise, you will need to
assign a static IP address manually along with a netmask.[2]
If you are on a private network where you have the authority to
assign your own IP addresses, you can select from addresses in one of
three ranges:[3]
-
10.0.0.1 through 10.255.255.254
-
172.16.0.1 through 172.31.255.254
-
192.168.0.1 through 192.168.255.254
These address ranges are reserved for private networks not directly
connected to the Internet. For more information on using these
private network addresses, see RFC 1918.
If you're not maintaining your own separate network,
see your system administrator for some available addresses on your
network, as well as for the proper netmask to use.
You should also be prepared to enter the IP address of the default
gateway for the network. In some networks, the default gateway is the
system or router that connects the LAN to the Internet. In other
cases, the default gateway connects a subnet into a larger
departmental or enterprise network.
Name Resolution
Name resolution is the function of
translating human-friendly hostnames, such as
hopi, or fully qualified domain names (FQDNs),
such as mixtec.metran.cx, into IP addresses, such
as 172.16.1.11 or 172.16.1.7.
Unix systems can perform name resolution using an
/etc/hosts file at the minimum, and more commonly can
also incorporate services such as
DNS (Domain Name System)
and NIS (Network Information Service).
Thus, name resolution is not necessarily performed by one isolated
part of the operating system or one daemon, but is a system that can
have a number of dispersed parts (although the
name
service switch, with its
/etc/nsswitch.conf configuration file, helps to tie them
together).
Although the specific implementation is different, name resolution in
Windows is also performed by querying a number of resources, some of
which are similar (or even identical) to their Unix counterparts.
Broadcast name resolution
On the other hand, there is one way in which Windows is not at all
similar to Unix. If a Windows workstation is set up with no WINS name
server, it will use the broadcast method of
name resolution, as described in Chapter 1,[4] probably resulting in a
very busy network. And even if you provide name servers for your
Windows system to use, it might still resort to broadcast name
resolution if it is unsuccessful at querying the name servers. For
this reason, we recommend that you provide multiple reliable name
servers for your Windows computers on the network.
If that weren't enough to get you interested in
setting up WINS and DNS servers, broadcast name resolution is usually
limited to working on the local subnet because routers are usually
configured not to forward broadcast packets to other networks.
WINS
We've already told you about WINS in Chapter 1, and we don't have much more
to say about it here. WINS can translate simple NetBIOS computer
names such as huastec or
navajo into IP addresses, as required on an SMB
network. Of course, the interesting thing here is that Samba can act
as a WINS server if you include the line:
wins support = yes
in your Samba server's
smb.conf file.
This can be a good thing, to be sure, and we highly recommend it. Not
only will you have a reliable WINS server to reduce the number of
broadcast packets, but you won't need to run Windows
NT/2000/XP to get it.
WARNING
One caveat about using Samba as a WINS server is that Samba (up to Version
2.2, at least) cannot synchronize with other WINS servers. So if you
specify a Samba server as your Windows system's WINS
server, you must be careful not to specify any additional (i.e.,
secondary) WINS servers. If you do, you are likely to run into
problems because the servers will not be able to synchronize their
databases with each other. In Samba's defense, if
you are using a Samba WINS server (running on a typically reliable
Unix host), you will probably have little need for a secondary WINS
server anyway.
LMHOSTS
All Windows versions support a backup method of name resolution, in
the form of a file called
LMHOSTS [5]
that contains a lookup table of computer names and IP addresses. This
exists for "historical purposes,"
and is a rather awkward method of name resolution because it requires
the administrator (i.e., you!) to keep copies of
LMHOSTS up to date on every single Windows
system on the network. To be fully effective,
LMHOSTS would have to be updated every time a
new system were added to (or removed from) the network. Of course,
there might be ways to automate that process, but a better option
would be simply to run a WINS name server that is intentionally
designed to solve that specific problem.
There are perhaps a couple of reasons why you might want to bother
with LMHOSTS files. In rare situations, there
might be no WINS server on the network. Or maybe a WINS server
exists, but it's unreliable. In both cases, if the
Windows system has a valid LMHOSTS file, it can
help to avoid your network bogging down from those dreaded broadcast
name queries.
The format of the LMHOSTS file is simple and
similar to the /etc/hosts file with which you
might be familiar from running Unix systems. Here are the contents of
a sample LMHOSTS file:
172.16.1.1 toltec
172.16.1.2 aztec
172.16.1.3 mixtec
172.16.1.4 zapotec
172.16.1.5 huastec
172.16.1.6 maya
172.16.1.7 olmec
172.16.1.8 chichimec
172.16.1.11 hopi
172.16.1.12 zuni
172.16.1.13 dine
172.16.1.14 pima
172.16.1.15 apache
172.16.1.21 inca
172.16.1.22 qero
As you can see, the format is like that of
/etc/hosts, except that instead of an FQDN
(e.g., toltec.metran.cx), only a NetBIOS computer
name (toltec) is given. One way to create an
LMHOSTS file for your Windows systems is to copy
a /etc/hosts file and edit out the parts you
don't need. This will work great if your network
doesn't have a DNS (or NIS) name server and the Unix
system is dependent on /etc/hosts for its own
name service. But if your Unix system is querying a DNS server (which
is the most frequent case on anything larger than the very smallest
networks), you would be better advised to look in the DNS
server's configuration files for your source of
computer names and IP addresses.
If you do not have administrative access to your
network's DNS server, you might be able to use tools
such as nslookup,
nmap, and
dig to query the server and obtain the
information you need.
DNS
The DNS
is responsible for translating human-readable, Internet-style
hostnames such as pima.metran.cx or
sales.oreilly.com into IP addresses.
On your first reading of this section, you might be wondering what a
section on DNS is doing in a book about NetBIOS and SMB networking.
Remember, we told you that Windows can use more than WINS (NetBIOS
Name Service) in its strategy for performing name resolution. Because
DNS is also able to supply IP addresses for simple hostnames (which
are usually the same as NetBIOS computer names), it can be helpful to
configure Windows to know about a DNS server on your network. This is
slightly more important for newer Windows versions than older ones,
and more so for Windows NT/2000/XP than for Windows 95/98/Me, because
nowadays Microsoft is focusing more on TCP/IP as the standard
protocol and DNS as the primary name service.
To find the address of your DNS server, look at the file
/etc/resolv.conf on your Samba server or any other Unix
system on the local network that is using DNS. It looks like the
following:
#resolv.conf
domain metran.cx
nameserver 127.0.0.1
nameserver 172.16.1.53
In this example, the first name server in the list is 127.0.0.1,
which indicates that the Samba server is also a DNS server for this
LAN.[6] In that case, you would use its network IP
address (not 127.0.0.1, its localhost address)
for your DNS server when configuring Windows. Otherwise, use the
other addresses you find in the lines beginning with
nameserver. Try to select ones on your own
network. Any name servers listed in
/etc/resolv.conf should work, but
you'll get better performance by using a server
nearby.
All versions of Windows can be configured to know of multiple domain
name servers, and you might wish to take advantage of this for
increased reliability. If the first domain name server does not
respond, Windows can try others in its list.
HOSTS
Similar to how the LMHOSTS file can be added to
supplement WINS, the
HOSTS file on a Windows system can be optionally
added to supplement DNS name resolution. Most of our comments
regarding LMHOSTS also apply here.
This time the format of the file is not just similar to that of
/etc/hosts found on Unix—the format is
exactly the same. You can simply copy
/etc/hosts from your Samba server or other Unix
system to the proper directory on your Windows system.
On Windows 95/98/Me, the HOSTS file goes in the
Windows installation directory, which is usually
C:\Windows. Note that a file called
hosts.sam is already there, which is a sample
HOSTS file provided by Microsoft.
On Windows NT/2000/XP, the HOSTS file goes in
the \system32\drivers\etc directory under the
Windows installation directory, which is usually
C:\WINNT.
Passwords
Unix systems use
username and password pairs to authenticate users either on a local
system or in an NIS domain. Windows NT/2000/XP are very similar; a
user supplies his username and password to log on to the local system
or to a Windows domain.
When the SMB network is set up as a workgroup, things are different.
There is no domain to log on to, although shares on the network can
be password-protected. In this case, one password is associated with
each password-protected share, rather than with individual users.
Samba's default user-level
authentication in a workgroup is
different from that of Windows. To access shares on the Samba host,
users are required to supply a valid username and password for an
account on the Samba host. This will be discussed in more detail in
Chapter 9.
An unfortunate
complication arises with passwords. In the first release of Windows
95 and in Windows NT 4.0 with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or less, as well
as in all previous versions of Windows, passwords are allowed to be
sent over the network in plain text. But in Windows 95 with the
network redirector update,[7]
Windows NT 4.0 SP3 or later, and all subsequent releases of Windows,
a registry setting must be modified to enable plain-text
passwords. These more modern versions of Windows prefer to send
encrypted passwords, and if you are working with one of them (and
don't want to have to modify the registry), you must
have the line:
encrypt passwords = yes
in the [global] section of your
smb.conf file. In addition, you must run the
command:
# smbpasswd -a username
for each user on the Samba host to add their passwords to
Samba's collection of encrypted passwords. We showed
you how to do this in Chapter 2.
If your first attempt to access a Samba share results in a dialog box
asking for a password for
IPC$, as shown in Figure 3-1, it is probably because you neglected either
or both of these two steps, and the Samba server did not recognize
the encrypted password that the Windows system sent to it. Another
possible dialog box that might come up is the one shown in Figure 3-2, which was presented by a Windows 2000 client.
Figure 3-1. Windows 98 asking for IPC$ password
Figure 3-2. Windows 2000 logon error dialog
The rest of this chapter is divided into four sections. The first
section covers setting up Windows 95/98/Me computers, and the rest of
the sections cover Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, and Windows XP
individually. Each section roughly parallels the order in which
we've introduced networking concepts in this
section. You need to read only the section that applies to the
Windows version with which you are working, and once you have
finished reading it, you can continue at the beginning of the next
chapter where we will start covering more advanced Samba features and
networking issues.
TIP
Keep in mind that we are continuing our example from Chapter 2, in which we are setting up a very simple
prototype network using a workgroup that has very lax security. After
you have the basics working, we recommend you continue with later
chapters to learn how to implement both better security and a Samba
domain.
Setting Up Windows 95/98/Me Computers
The Windows 95/98/Me operating systems are very
similar to each other, and as far as this chapter is concerned, it is
possible to treat them with a common set of directions.
Setting Up the Network
Samba uses TCP/IP to communicate with clients on the network, so you
will need to make sure there is support for TCP/IP on each Windows
client. Unlike Unix operating systems, Windows does not necessarily
have support for TCP/IP installed. However, when Windows is installed
on a computer with a network card or a network card is added to a
system already running Windows, TCP/IP support is installed by
default, along with the Client for Microsoft Networks, which supports
SMB file and printer sharing.
To make sure both services are installed on your Windows system,
double-click the Network icon in the Control Panel to open the
Network dialog box, as shown in Figure 3-3.
Figure 3-3. The Windows 95/98/Me Network dialog
You should see at least the Client for Microsoft Networks component
installed on the system, and hopefully a networking device
(preferably an Ethernet card) bound to the TCP/IP protocol. If there
is only one networking hardware device, you'll see
the TCP/IP protocol listed below the device to which it is bound, as
shown in Figure 3-1.
You might also see "File and printer sharing for
Microsoft Networks," which is used to make the
system into a server. In addition, you might see NetBEUI or Novell
Networking. Definitely remove NetBEUI unless you are sure you need
it, and if you don't have any Novell servers on your
network, you can remove Novell (IPX/SPX) as well. To remove a
service, simply click its name and then click the Remove button.
Adding TCP/IP
If
you don't see TCP/IP listed, you'll
need to install the protocol.
You can add the protocol by inserting the Windows distribution CD-ROM
in your CD-ROM drive and clicking the Add button below the component
window. Indicate that you wish to add a protocol by selecting
Protocol and clicking "Add..." on
the following dialog box, which should look similar to Figure 3-4.
Figure 3-4. Selecting a component type
After that, select manufacturer Microsoft, then protocol TCP/IP, as
shown in Figure 3-3, then click OK. After doing so,
you will be returned to the network dialog. Click OK to close the
dialog box, and Windows will install the necessary components from
the CD-ROM and request that the system be rebooted. Go ahead and
reboot the system, and you're set.
If Client for Microsoft Networks is not in the list, you can add it
similarly. The only significant difference is that you are adding a
client instead of a protocol, so make sure to select
"Client" rather than
"Protocol" when asked.
Configuring TCP/IP
If you have more than one networking
device (for example, both an Ethernet card and a modem for dial-up
networking), the protocol to hardware bindings will be indicated by
arrows, as shown in Figure 3-5.
Figure 3-5. Selecting a protocol to install
Select the TCP/IP protocol linked to the networking device that will
be accessing the Samba network. If you have only one networking
device, simply click the TCP/IP item. Now click the Properties button
to open the TCP/IP Properties dialog. You should see something
similar to Figure 3-6.
Figure 3-6. Selecting the correct TCP/IP protocol
IP Address tab
The
IP Address tab is shown in Figure 3-7.
Figure 3-7. The IP Address tab
If you use DHCP on your network to provide IP addresses automatically
to Windows systems, select the "Obtain an IP address
automatically" radio button. Otherwise, click the
"Specify an IP address" radio
button and enter the client's address and subnet
mask in the space provided. You or your network manager should have
selected an address for the client on the same subnet (LAN) as the
Samba server.
WINS Configuration tab
If you've
enabled WINS on Samba or are choosing to make use of another WINS
server on your network, you must tell Windows the
server's address. After selecting the WINS
Configuration tab, you will see the dialog box shown in Figure 3-8.
Figure 3-8. The WINS Configuration tab
This is for Windows 98/Me; Windows 95 is just a little different,
having separate spaces for the primary and backup WINS server IP
addresses.
Select the "Enable WINS Resolution"
radio button, and enter the WINS server's address in
the space provided, then click the Add button. Do not enter anything
in the Scope ID field.
WARNING
A bug in Windows 95/98 sometimes causes the IP address of the WINS
server to disappear after the OK button is clicked. This happens only
when only a primary WINS server has been specified. The workaround is
to fill in the fields for both primary and secondary WINS servers,
using the same IP address for each.
DNS Configuration tab
Unless you are using DHCP, you
will need to provide the IP address of one or more DNS servers. Click
the DNS tab, then click the "Enable
DNS" radio button, and type the IP address of one or
more DNS servers into the appropriate field, shown in Figure 3-9, to add the server's address
to the top DNS Server Search Order field.
Figure 3-9. The DNS Configuration tab
Also, provide the hostname (which is the same as the NetBIOS computer
name) of the Windows 95/98/Me computer and your Internet domain. (You
will need to enter the computer name again later, along with the
workgroup. Make sure to enter the same name each time.) You can
safely ignore the Domain Suffix Search Order field for anything
related to Samba.
LMHOSTS file
If
you want to install an LMHOSTS file, it must be
placed in your Windows installation directory (usually
C:\Windows). In the same directory, Microsoft
has provided a sample LMHOSTS file named
lmhosts.sam, which you might want to look at for
further information on the file's format.
NetBIOS tab
This tab
appears in Windows 98/Me, but not in Windows 95. All you need to do
here is make sure the checkbox is checked, enabling NetBIOS over
TCP/IP. If TCP/IP is your only protocol installed (as we recommended
earlier), the selection will be grayed out, with the box checked so
that you couldn't uncheck it even if you wanted to.
Bindings tab
The
final tab to look at is Bindings, as shown in Figure 3-10.
Figure 3-10. The Bindings tab
You should have a check beside Client for Microsoft Networks,
indicating that it's using TCP/IP. If you have
"File and printer sharing for Microsoft
Networks" in the dialog, it should also be checked,
as shown in Figure 3-10.
Setting the Computer Name and Workgroup
Finally, click the OK button in the
TCP/IP configuration dialog, and you'll be taken
back to the Network Configuration dialog. Then select the
Identification tab, which will take you to the dialog box shown in
Figure 3-11.
Figure 3-11. The Identification tab
This is where you set your system's NetBIOS name
(which Microsoft likes to call "computer
name"). Usually, it is best to make this the same as
your DNS hostname, if you are going to have one for this system. For
example, if the system's DNS name is
huastec.metran.cx, give the computer a NetBIOS
name of huastec on this tab.
You also set your workgroup name here. In our case,
it's METRAN, but if you used a different one in
Chapter 2, when creating the Samba configuration
file, use that instead. Just don't call it WORKGROUP
(the default workgroup name) or you'll be in the
same workgroup as every misconfigured Windows computer on the planet!
You can also enter a comment string for this computer. See if you can
come up with some way of describing it that will remind you of what
and where it is when you see the comment in a list displayed on
another computer. Everyone on the network will be able to see your
comment, so be careful not to include any information that might be
useful to crackers.
Finally, click the OK button and follow whatever instructions Windows
provides. (You might have to insert your Windows distribution CD-ROM
and/or reboot.)
Username and Password
You have probably already given
Windows a username and password by now. However, to authenticate with
the Samba server, your Windows username and password must match with
a valid account on the Samba server.
It is simple to add a new user and password to a Windows 95/98/Me
system. Just reboot or log out, and when you are prompted for a
username and password, enter your Unix username and password. (If you
are using encrypted passwords, you must run
smbpasswd on the Unix host to enter them into
Samba's password database, if you have not already
done so.) You can use this method to add as many users as you want,
so as to allow more than one user to use the Windows system to gain
access to the Samba shares.
If you mistakenly entered the wrong password or your Unix password
changes, you can change your password on the Windows system by going
to the Control Panel and double-clicking the Passwords icon. This
will bring up the Passwords Properties dialog. Click the Change
Passwords tab, and you will see the dialog shown in Figure 3-12. Now click the "Change
Windows Password..." button, which will bring up the
Change Windows Password dialog box, shown in Figure 3-13. As indicated by the text entry fields in the
dialog, enter your old password, and then the new password, and again
to confirm it. Click the OK button and then the Close button on the
Password Properties dialog box. Reboot or log out, and use your new
password when you log in again.
Figure 3-12. The Password Properties dialog
Figure 3-13. The Change Windows Password dialog
Logging in for the first time
If you don't have a Change Passwords tab in the
Passwords Properties window, it is because networking is not fully
set up yet. Assuming you've followed all the
directions given so far, you just need to reboot; when the system
comes up, it will ask you to log in with a username and a password.
Now for the big moment. Your Samba server is running, and you have
set up your Windows 95/98/Me client to communicate with it.
Accessing the Samba Server from Windows 95/98
Double-click the Network Neighborhood
icon on the desktop. You should see your Samba server listed as a
member of the workgroup, as shown in Figure 3-14.
Figure 3-14. Windows 95/98 Network Neighborhood
Double-clicking the server name will show the resources that the
server is offering to the network, as shown in Figure 3-15 (in this case, the test
directory).
Figure 3-15. The test shared folder on the Toltec server
Accessing the Samba Server from Windows Me
Double-click the My Network Places icon on the desktop. You should
see the test shared directory as shown in Figure 3-16.
Figure 3-16. My Network Places on Windows Me
Double-click the Entire Network icon, and you should see an icon for
your workgroup, as shown in Figure 3-17.
Figure 3-17. Entire Network window, showing the Metran workgroup
Double-clicking the workgroup icon will bring up a window showing
every computer in the workgroup, which should include your Samba
server, as shown in Figure 3-18.
Figure 3-18. Computers in Metran workgroup
Double-click the Samba server's icon, and you will
get a window showing its shared resources (in this case, the test
directory) as shown in Figure 3-19.
Figure 3-19. View of shares on the Toltec server
If you don't see the server listed, it might be that
browsing is not working correctly or maybe the server is just taking
a few minutes to show up in the browse list. In either case, you can
click the Start button, then select
"Run...". This will give you a
dialog box into which you can type the name of your server and the
share name test in the Windows UNC format
\\server\test,
as we did in Chapter 1. This should open a window
on the desktop showing the contents of the folder. If this does not
work, there is likely a problem with name resolution, and you can try
using the server's IP address instead of its
computer name, like this:
\\172.16.1.1\test
If things still aren't right, go directly to Section 12.2 to troubleshoot what is wrong
with the network.
If it works, congratulations! Try copying files to and from the
server using the Windows drag-and-drop functionality. You might be
pleasantly surprised how seamlessly everything works.
Setting Up Windows NT 4.0 Computers
Configuring Windows NT
is a little different than configuring Windows 95/98/Me. To use Samba
with Windows NT, you will need both the Workstation service and the
TCP/IP protocol. Both come standard with NT, but
we'll work through installing and configuring them
to make sure they are configured correctly.
Basic Configuration
This section presents the steps
to follow for TCP/IP-related configuration on Windows NT to get it to
cooperate with Samba. If you need more details on Windows NT network
administration, refer to Craig Hunt and Robert Bruce
Thompson's
Windows NT TCP/IP Network Administration
(O'Reilly), an excellent guide.
You should perform the following steps as the
Administrator or another user in the
Administrators group.
Installing the TCP/IP protocol
From
the Control Panel, double-click the Network icon, click the Protocols
tab in the Network dialog box, and look to see if you have the TCP/IP
protocol installed, as shown in Figure 3-20.
Figure 3-20. The Protocols tab
If the protocol is not installed, you need to add it. Click the Add
button, which will display the Select Network Protocol dialog box
shown in Figure 3-21. You should immediately see the
TCP/IP protocol as one of the last protocols listed.
Figure 3-21. Select Network Protocol dialog box
Select TCP/IP as the protocol and confirm it. If
possible, install only the TCP/IP protocol. If you see anything other
than TCP/IP listed in the Protocols tab and it is not a protocol that
you need, you can remove it. If you try to remove a protocol and get
an error message saying that the protocol is being used by another
service, you need to click the Services tab and remove that service
before you can remove the protocol. For example, to remove the NWLink
IPX/SPX Compatible Transport protocol, you would need to remove the
Client Service for Netware first.
Installing the Workstation service
After installing TCP/IP, click the
Services tab in the Network dialog, and check that you have a
Workstation service, as shown at the end of the list in Figure 3-22.[8]
Figure 3-22. Network Services tab
This service is actually the Microsoft Networking Client, which
allows the computer to access SMB services. The Workstation service
is mandatory. The service is installed by default on both Windows NT
Workstation 4.0 and NT Server 4.0. If it's not
there, you can install it much like TCP/IP. In this case you need to
click the Add button and then select Workstation Service, as shown in
Figure 3-23.
Figure 3-23. Select Network Service dialog box
Configuring TCP/IP
After you've installed
the Workstation service, return to the Protocols tab and select the
TCP/IP Protocol entry in the window. Then click the Properties button
below the window. The Microsoft TCP/IP Protocol dialog will be
displayed. There are five tabs in the dialog, and you will need to
work with four of them:
-
IP Address
-
WINS Address
-
DNS
-
Bindings
IP Address tab
The IP
Address tab is shown in Figure 3-24.
Figure 3-24. Microsoft TCP/IP Properties dialog for Windows NT
Select the "Specify an IP address"
radio button, and enter the computer's IP address
and netmask in the space provided for the proper adapter (Ethernet
card). You or your network manager should have selected an address
for the client on the same subnet (LAN) as the Samba server. For
example, if the server's address is 172.16.1.1 and
its network mask is 255.255.255.0, you might use the address
172.16.1.13 (if it is available) for the NT workstation, along with
the same netmask. If you use DHCP on your network, select the
"Obtain an IP Address from a DHCP
server" button instead.
The gateway field refers to a system typically known as a
router. If you have routers connecting multiple
networks, you should enter the IP address of the one on your subnet.
In our example, the gateway happens to be the same system as the
Samba server, but they do not by any means have to be the same.
WINS Address tab
Click the
WINS Address tab, shown in Figure 3-25, and you can
begin to enter information about name servers. Enter the address of
your WINS server in the space labeled Primary WINS Server. If your
Samba server is providing WINS service (in other words, you have the
line wins support
= yes in the
smb.conf file of your Samba server), provide the
Samba server's IP address here. Otherwise, provide
the address of another WINS server on your network.
Figure 3-25. The WINS Address tab
You probably noticed that there is a field here for the network
adapter. This field must specify the Ethernet adapter on which
you're running TCP/IP so that WINS will provide name
service on the correct network. For example, if you have both a LAN
and a dial-up adapter, make sure you have the LAN's
network card specified here.
The checkboxes in the lower half of the dialog are for enabling two
other methods of name resolution that Windows can incorporate into
its name service. Samba doesn't require either of
them, but you might want to enable them to increase the reliability
or functionality of name service for your client. See Chapter 7 for further information on name resolution
issues.
If you'd like to use a DNS server, select the Enable
DNS for Windows Resolution checkbox. In addition, you will need to do
some configuration to allow the Windows system to find the DNS
server, unless you're using DHCP.
DNS tab
Click
the tab for DNS, as shown in Figure 3-26. Enter the
IP addresses for one or more DNS servers in the space provided. Also,
enter the hostname (which should be the same as the NetBIOS computer
name). You will enter this again later in another control panel, so
make sure they match. Finally, enter the DNS domain on which this
system resides. For example, if your workstation has a domain name
such as metran.cx, enter it here. You can safely
ignore the other options.
Figure 3-26. The DNS tab
The LMHOSTS file
If you want to install an
LMHOSTS file, it
must be placed in the directory
\system32\drivers\etc under your Windows
installation directory (usually C:\WINNT). The
easy way to make sure it gets to the proper location is to use the
Import LMHOSTS button on the WINS Address tab. (But if you want to do
it over the network, you will have to do that after file sharing is
configured!) Remember to click the Enable LMHOSTS Lookup checkbox on
the WINS Address tab to enable this functionality.
When you are satisfied with your settings for IP Address, WINS
Address, and DNS, click OK to return to the Network dialog box.
Bindings
Now click the
Bindings tab, and check the bindings of network hardware, services,
and protocols. Set the "Show Bindings
for" field to "all
services," and click all the + buttons in the tree.
You should see a display similar to Figure 3-27,
which shows that the NetBIOS, Server, and Workstation interface
services are connected to the WINS client running TCP/IP protocol,
and that the WINS client is bound to the Ethernet adapter of the
local area network.
Figure 3-27. The Bindings tab
You can safely leave the default values for the remainder of the tabs
in the Network dialog box. Click the OK button to complete the
configuration. Once the proper files are loaded (if any), you might
need to reboot for your changes to take effect.
Computer Name and Workgroup
The next
thing you need to do is to give the system a NetBIOS computer name.
From the Control Panel, double-click the Network icon to open the
Network dialog box. The first tab in this dialog box should be the
Identification tab, as illustrated in Figure 3-28.
Figure 3-28. The Identification tab
Here, you need to identify your computer with a name and change the
default workgroup to the one you specified in the
smb.conf file of your Samba server. Click the
Change button below the two text fields. This will open an
Identification Changes dialog box, where you can set the workgroup
and the computer name, as shown in Figure 3-29.
Figure 3-29. The Identification Changes dialog
WARNING
You entered the computer name earlier as a DNS hostname while
configuring TCP/IP, so be sure that the two names match. The name you
set here is the NetBIOS name. You're allowed to make
it different from the TCP/IP hostname, but doing so is usually not a
good idea. Don't worry that Windows NT forces the
computer name and the workgroup to be all capital letters;
it's smart enough to figure out what you mean when
it connects to the network.
Adding a User
In all
the previous steps, you were logged into your Windows NT system as
Administrator or another user in the
Administrators group. To access resources on the
Samba server, you will need to have a username and password that the
Samba server recognizes as valid. Generally, the best way to do this
is to add a user to your NT system, with the same username and
password as a user on the Samba host system.
TIP
The directions in this section assume that your network is set up as
a workgroup. If you have already set up your network as a domain, as
we describe in Chapter 4, you do not need to
follow the instructions here for adding a local user on the Windows
NT client system. Simply log on to the domain from the client using a
username and password in Samba's
smbpasswd account database, and continue with
the next section, Section 3.3.4.
To add a new user, open the Start menu, navigate through the Programs
submenu to Administrative Tools (Common), and select User Manager for
Domains. Click the User menu and select the first item, Add User...,
shown in Figure 3-30.
Figure 3-30. User Manager for Domains window
This brings up the New User dialog box shown in Figure 3-31.
Figure 3-31. The New User dialog
Fill it out as shown, using the username and password that were added
in the previous chapter, and make sure that only the checkbox labeled
Password Never Expires is checked. (This is not the default!) Click
the Add button to add the user, and then click the Close button. You
should now see your new account added to the list in the User Manager
dialog box.
Now open the Start menu, select Shut Down, and select the
"Close all programs and log on as a different
user?" radio button. Click the Yes button, then log
in as the user you just added.
Connecting to the Samba Server
Now for the big moment. Your Samba
server is running, and you have set up your NT client to communicate
with it. Double-click the Network Neighborhood icon on the desktop,
and you should see your Samba server listed as a member of the
workgroup, as shown in Figure 3-32.
Figure 3-32. The Windows NT Network Neighborhood
Double-clicking the server name will show the resources that the
server is offering to the network, as shown in Figure 3-33. In this case, the test
directory and the default printer are offered to the Windows NT
workstation.
Figure 3-33. Shares offered by the Toltec server
If you don't see the server listed,
don't panic. Select Run... from the Start menu. A
dialog box appears that allows you to type the name of your server
and its share directory in Windows format. For example, you would
enter
\\toltec\test,
as shown in Figure 3-34, and use your
server's hostname instead of
"toltec".
Figure 3-34. Opening a shared directory, using the server's NetBIOS name in the UNC
This will work even if browsing services are not set up right, which
is a common problem. You can also work around a name-service problem
by entering the server's IP Address (such as
172.16.1.1 in our example) instead of the Samba
server's hostname, as shown in Figure 3-35. Go back and check your configuration, and if
things still aren't right, go to Section 12.2 to troubleshoot what is wrong with the
network.
Figure 3-35. Opening a shared directory, using the server's IP address in the UNC
If it works, congratulations! Try copying files to and from the
server by dragging their icons to and from the folder on the Samba
share. You might be pleasantly surprised how seamlessly everything
works.
Setting Up Windows 2000 Computers
Although
Windows 2000 is based on NT technology and is similar to Windows NT
in many respects, configuring it for use with Samba is quite
different.
You should perform the following steps as the
Administrator or another user in the
Administrators group.
Networking Components
Go to the Control Panel and
double-click the Network and Dial-up Connections icon. You should see
at least one Local Area Connection icon. If there is more than one,
identify the one that corresponds to the network adapter that is
connected to your Samba network. Right-click the Local Area
Connection icon, and click the Properties button. (Or double-click
the Local Area Connection icon, and then click the Properties button
in the dialog box that comes up.) You should now be looking at the
Local Area Connection Properties dialog box, as shown in Figure 3-36.
Figure 3-36. Windows 2000 Local Area Connection Properties dialog
First of all, you might want to click the Configure button under the
field for the network adapter, to make sure you see the message
"This device is working properly"
in the Device status window. If there is a problem, make sure to
correct it before continuing. You should also see the message
"Use this device (enable)" in the
Device usage field of the dialog box. Make sure to set it this way if
it is not already. Click OK or Cancel to get back to the Local Area
Connection Properties dialog box.
You should see at least the following two components:
If you do not see either Client for Microsoft Networks or Internet
Protocol (TCP/IP) in your list, you will need to add them. For
either, the method is to click the Install... button, click the type
of component (Client or Protocol), and then click the Add... button.
Next, click the component you want to add, and click the OK button.
You should see the component added to the list with the others.
Some components should be removed if you see them in the list:
If you see anything other than TCP/IP listed as a protocol, and it is
not a protocol that you need, you can remove it. Uninstall NetBEUI,
unless you are sure you need it, and the other three if you do not
need to support Netware. If you try to remove a protocol and get an
error message saying that the protocol is being used by another
service, you need to remove that service before you can remove the
protocol. For example, to remove the NWLink IPX/SPX Compatible
Transport Protocol, you would need to remove the Client Service for
Netware first.
To remove a component, click the component in the list, click the
Uninstall button, and then click Yes in the dialog box that pops up.
In some cases, Windows might need to reboot to put the change into
effect.
Bindings
Next to each
client, service, or protocol listed in the window in the Local Area
Connections Properties dialog box, you will see a checkbox. Make sure
the checkbox is checked for both Client for Microsoft Networks and
Internet Protocol (TCP/IP). The check marks indicate the networking
components are bound to the network adapter shown at the top of the
dialog box.
Configuring TCP/IP
Now click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP),
and then click Properties to open the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)
Properties dialog box, shown in Figure 3-37.
Figure 3-37. Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties dialog
IP address
If
you are using DHCP on your network to assign IP addresses
dynamically, select the "Obtain IP address
automatically" radio button. Otherwise, select the
"Use the following address:" radio
button, and fill in the computer's IP address and
netmask in the spaces provided. You or your network manager should
have selected an address for the client on the same subnet (LAN) as
the Samba server. For example, if the server's
address is 172.16.1.1 and its network mask is 255.255.255.0, you
might use the address 172.16.1.14, if it is available, along with the
same netmask. You can also fill in the IP address of the default
gateway.
DNS server
In
the lower part of the dialog box, click the "Use the
following DNS server addresses:" radio button, and
fill in the IP address of your DNS server.
Now click the Advanced... button to bring up the Advanced TCP/IP
Settings dialog box, and then click the WINS tab.
WINS server
Enter the
address of your WINS server in the space labeled
"WINS addresses, in order of use:".
If your Samba server is providing WINS service (in other words, you
have the line wins service
= yes in the
smb.conf file of your Samba server), provide the
Samba server's IP address here. Otherwise, provide
the address of another WINS server on your network.
Near the bottom of the dialog box, select the radio button labeled
"Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP". Figure 3-38 shows what your Advanced TCP/IP Settings
dialog box should look like at this point.
Figure 3-38. Advanced TCP/IP Settings dialog, showing WINS tab
The LMHOSTS file
If you want to install an
LMHOSTS file,
it must be placed in the \system32\drivers\etc
directory under your Windows installation directory (usually
C:\WINNT ). The easy way to make sure it gets to
the proper location is to use the Import LMHOSTS... button on the
WINS Address tab. (But if you want to do it over the network, you
will have to do that after file sharing is configured!) Remember to
click the Enable LMHOSTS Lookup checkbox on the WINS Address tab to
enable this functionality.
When you are satisfied with your settings for IP Address, WINS
Address, and DNS, click the OK buttons in each open dialog box to
complete the configuration. Windows might need to load some files
from the Windows 2000 distribution CD-ROM, and you might need to
reboot for your changes to take effect.
Computer and Workgroup Names
From
the Control Panel, double-click the System icon to open the System
Properties dialog box. Click the Network Identification tab, and your
System Properties dialog box will look similar to Figure 3-39.
Figure 3-39. System Properties dialog, showing Network Identification tab
To give your system computer a name and a workgroup, click the
Properties button, which will bring up the Identification Changes
dialog box, as in Figure 3-40.
Figure 3-40. Identification Changes dialog
You need to identify your computer with a name and change the
workgroup to the one you specified in the
smb.conf file of your Samba server.
Don't worry that Windows forces the computer name
and the workgroup to be all capital letters; it's
smart enough to figure out what you mean when it connects to the
network.
Click the More... button to bring up the DNS Suffix and NetBIOS
Computer Name dialog box, shown in Figure 3-41.
Figure 3-41. DNS Suffix and NetBIOS Computer Name dialog
Enter the DNS domain name of this computer in the text field labeled
Primary DNS Suffix for this computer:, and then click OK. You should
now see the FQDN of this system underneath the label
"Full computer name:". Click the OK
button and then reboot when requested to put your configuration
changes into effect. Once again, log in using your administrative
account.
WARNING
There have been reports of authentication problems with Samba when a
username on a Windows 2000 system is the same as its computer name.
Adding a Samba-Enabled User
So far,
you have been logged into your Windows 2000 system as a user in the
Administrators group. To access resources on the
Samba server, you will need a username and password that the Samba
server recognizes as valid. If your administrative account has such a
username and password, you can use it, but you might want to access
your system and the network from a nonadministrative user account
instead.
WARNING
The directions in this section assume that your network is set up as
a workgroup. If you have already set up your network as a domain, as
we describe in Chapter 4, you do not need to
follow the instructions here for adding a local user on the Windows
2000 client system. Simply log on to the domain from the client using
a username and password in Samba's
smbpasswd account database, and continue with
the next section, Section 3.4.6.
To add a new user, open the Control Panel, and double-click the Users
and Passwords icon to open the Users and Passwords dialog box, shown
in Figure 3-42.
Figure 3-42. Users and Passwords dialog
The first thing to do is make sure the checkbox labeled
"Users must enter a user name and password to use
this computer." is checked. Next, click the Add...
button to bring up the first dialog box of the User Wizard, shown in
Figure 3-43.
Figure 3-43. Adding a new user
Fill out the fields, using the username of a valid user account on
the Samba host, and then click the Next > button to enter and
confirm the user's password. This password must be
the same as the user's password on the Samba host.
If you are using encrypted passwords, make sure this username and
password are the same as what you used when you ran the
smbpasswd program. Click the Next > button,
which brings up the final dialog box, shown in Figure 3-44.
Figure 3-44. Specifying a group for the new user
Pick a group for the user (the default Standard User should do), and
click the Finish button. You should now see your new account added to
the list in the Users and Passwords dialog box. Click the OK button
to complete the process.
Now return to the Users and Passwords control panel window, click the
Advanced tab, then click on the Advanced button. Click the Users
folder in the left side of the Local Users and Groups window that
appears, and then double-click the account you just added in the
right side of the window. In the Properties window that opens, click
the checkbox labeled Password never expires. You are done! Click the
OK buttons in all the dialog boxes, and close all open windows.
Open the Start menu, select Shut Down, and select Log off
username from the drop-down menu. Click the OK
button, then log on with the username and password you just added.
Connecting to the Samba Server
Now for the big moment. Your Samba server is running, and you have
set up your Windows 2000 client to communicate with
it. Double-click the My Network Places icon on the desktop, and then
double-click the Computers Near Me icon to browse the workgroup. You
should see your Samba server listed as a member of the workgroup, as
shown in Figure 3-45.
Figure 3-45. The Computers Near Me window, showing computers in the workgroup
Double-clicking the server name will show the resources that the
server is offering to the network, as shown in Figure 3-46.
Figure 3-46. Shares offered by the Toltec server
In this case, the test directory and the default
printer are offered to the Windows 2000 workstation. If you
don't see the server listed, don't
panic. Select Run from the Start menu. A dialog box appears that
allows you to type the name of your server and its share directory in
Windows format. For example, you would enter
\\toltec\test, as shown in
Figure 3-47, and use your server's
hostname instead of "toltec".
Figure 3-47. Opening a shared directory, using the server's NetBIOS name in the UNC
This will work even if browsing services are not set up right, which
is a common problem. You can also work around a name-service problem
by entering the server's IP address (such as
172.16.1.1 in our example) instead of the Samba
server's hostname, as shown in Figure 3-48.
Figure 3-48. Opening a shared directory, using the server's IP address in the UNC
If things still aren't right, go directly to Section 12.2 to troubleshoot what is wrong
with the network.
If it works, congratulations! Try copying files to and from the
server. You will be pleasantly surprised how seamlessly everything
works. Now that you've finished setting up the Samba
server and its clients, you can proceed to the next chapter.
Setting Up Windows XP Computers
Although Windows XP
is very similar to Windows 2000, it has a very different user
interface, and there are a number of subtle differences. For example,
getting to the Control Panel is different than in any previous
version of Windows—one must click the Control Panel item from
the Start menu (there is no Settings item in the Start menu in XP).
By default, XP will display the Control Panel in Category View mode.
If you see this, click the Switch to Classic View item in the
upper-left corner of the window. All of our directions are for using
the Control Panel in Classic View mode.
You should perform the following steps as the
Administrator or another user in the
Administrators group.
Networking Components
Go to the Control Panel and
double-click the Network and Dial-up Connections icon. You should see
at least one Local Area Connection icon. If there is more than one,
identify the one that corresponds to the network adapter that is
connected to your Samba network. Right-click the Local Area
Connection icon and click the Properties button. (Or double-click the
Local Area Connection icon and then click the Properties button in
the dialog box that comes up.) You should now be looking at the Local
Area Connection Properties dialog box, as shown in Figure 3-49.
Figure 3-49. The Local Area Connection Properties dialog
First of all, you might want to click the Configure button under the
field for the network adapter to make sure you see the message
"This device is working properly"
in the Device status window. If there is a problem, make sure to
correct it before continuing. You should also see the message
"Use this device (enable)" in the
Device usage field of the dialog box. Make sure to set it this way if
it is not already. Click OK or Cancel to close this dialog box, then
reopen the Local Area Connection Properties dialog box.
You should see at least the following two components:
If you do not see either Client for Microsoft Networks or Internet
Protocol (TCP/IP) in your list, you will need to add them. For
either, the method is to click the Install... button, click the type
of component (Client or Protocol), and then click the Add... button.
Next, click the component you want to add, and click the OK button.
You should see the component added to the list with the others.
If you see anything other than TCP/IP listed as a protocol, and it is
not a protocol that you need, you can remove it. If NetBEUI appears
in the list, uninstall it if you possibly can. Also uninstall any
Netware-related components if you do not need to support Netware. If
you try to remove a protocol and get an error message saying that the
protocol is being used by another service, you need to remove that
service before you can remove the protocol. For example, to remove
the NWLink IPX/SPX Compatible Transport Protocol, you would need to
remove the Client Service for Netware first.
To remove a component, click the component in the list, click the
Uninstall button, and then click Yes in the dialog box that pops up.
In some cases, Windows might need to reboot to put the change into
effect.
Bindings
Next to each client, service, or protocol
listed in the window in the Local Area Connections Properties dialog
box, you will see a checkbox. Make sure the checkbox is checked for
both Client for Microsoft Networks and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).
The check marks indicate that the networking components are bound to
the network adapter shown at the top of the dialog box.
Configuring TCP/IP
Now click Internet Protocol
(TCP/IP) and then click Properties to open the Internet Protocol
(TCP/IP) Properties dialog box, shown in Figure 3-50.
Figure 3-50. The Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties dialog
IP address
If
you are using DHCP on your network to assign IP addresses
dynamically, select the "Obtain IP address
automatically" radio button. Otherwise, select the
"Use the following address:" radio
button, and fill in the computer's IP address and
netmask in the spaces provided. You or your network manager should
have selected an address for the client on the same subnet (LAN) as
the Samba server. For example, if the server's
address is 172.16.1.1 and its network mask is 255.255.255.0, you
might use the address 172.16.1.12 (if it is available) along with the
same netmask. You can also fill in the IP address of the default
gateway.
DNS server
In the lower part of the dialog box, click
the "Use the following DNS server
addresses:" radio button, and fill in the IP address
of your DNS server.
Now click the Advanced... button to bring up the Advanced TCP/IP
Settings dialog box, and then click the WINS tab.
WINS server
Enter
the address of your WINS server in the space labeled
"WINS addresses, in order of use:".
If your Samba server is providing WINS service (in other words, you
have the line wins support
= yes in the
smb.conf file of your Samba server), provide the
Samba server's IP address here. Otherwise, provide
the address of another WINS server on your network.
Near the bottom of the dialog box, select the radio button labeled
Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP. Figure 3-51 shows what
your Advanced TCP/IP Settings dialog box should look like at this
point.
Figure 3-51. The Advanced TCP/IP Settings dialog, showing the WINS tab
The LMHOSTS file
If you want to install an
LMHOSTS file, it
must be placed in the \system32\drivers\etc
directory under your Windows installation directory (usually
C:\WINNT ). The easy way to make sure it gets to
the proper location is to use the Import LMHOSTS... button on the
WINS Address tab. (But if you want to do it over the network, you
will have to do that after file sharing is configured!) Remember to
click the Enable LMHOSTS Lookup checkbox on the WINS Address tab to
enable this functionality.
When you are satisfied with your settings for IP Address, WINS
Address, and DNS, click the OK buttons in each open dialog box (and
the Close button in the Local Area Connection Properties dialog box)
to complete the configuration. Windows might need to load some files
from the Windows XP distribution CD-ROM, and you might need to reboot
for your changes to take effect.
Computer and Workgroup Names
From the
Control Panel, double-click the System icon to open the System
Properties dialog box. Click the Computer Name tab, and your System
Properties dialog box will look similar to Figure 3-52.
Figure 3-52. The System Properties dialog, showing the Computer Name tab
To give your system computer a name and a workgroup, click the
Change... button, which will bring up the Computer Name Changes
dialog box, as in Figure 3-53.
Figure 3-53. The Computer Name Changes dialog
You need to identify your computer with a name and change the
workgroup to the one you specified in the
smb.conf file of your Samba server.
Don't worry that Windows forces the workgroup to be
all capital letters; it's smart enough to figure out
what you mean when it connects to the network.
Click the More... button to bring up the DNS Suffix and NetBIOS
Computer Name dialog box, shown in Figure 3-54.
Figure 3-54. The DNS Suffix and NetBIOS Computer Name dialog
Enter the DNS domain name of this computer in the text field labeled
Primary DNS Suffix for this computer:, and then click OK. You should
now see the FQDN of this system underneath the label Full computer
name: in the Computer Name Changes dialog box. Click the OK button
and then reboot when requested to put your configuration changes into
effect. Once again, log in using your administrative account.
WARNING
There have been reports of authentication problems with Samba when a
username on a Windows XP system is the same as its computer name.
Adding a Samba-Enabled User
So far,
you have been logged into your Windows XP system as a user in the
Administrators group. To access resources on the Samba server, you
will need to have a username and password that the Samba server
recognizes as valid. If your administrative account has such a
username and password, you can use it, but you might want to access
your system and the network from a nonadministrative user account
instead.
TIP
The directions in this section assume that your network is set up as
a workgroup. If you have already set up your network as a domain, as
we describe in Chapter 4, you do not need to
follow the instructions here for adding a local user on the Windows
XP client system. Simply log on to the domain from the client using a
username and password in Samba's
smbpasswd account database, and continue with
the next section, Section 3.5.5.
To add a new user, open the Control Panel, and double-click the Users
Accounts icon to open the User Accounts window, shown in Figure 3-55.
Figure 3-55. The User Accounts window
Click the Create a new account task, which will bring up the window
shown in Figure 3-56. Enter the username, then click
the Next > button.
Figure 3-56. Entering the username
Click the radio button labeled
"Limited", as shown in Figure 3-57.
Click the Create Account button, and you will see the username you
added next to a picture at the bottom of the User Accounts window. We
still need to assign a password to the account. Click the account to
bring up the "What do you want to change about
username's
account?" window, and then click Create a password.
Enter the password, and enter it again to confirm it.
Figure 3-57. Setting the account type
This password must be the same as the user's
password on the Samba host. If you are using encrypted passwords,
make sure this username and password are the same as what you used
when you ran the smbpasswd program. Click the
Create Password button, and you're done adding the
account.
Now open the Start menu and click the Log Off button. In the Log Off
Windows dialog box that pops up, again click the Log Off button. When
Windows displays the login screen, click the user you just added, and
type in the password to log in.
Connecting to the Samba Server
Now for
the big moment. Your Samba server is running, and you have set up
your Windows XP client to communicate with it. In the Start menu,
select My Computer[9] to open the My Computer window. Click My
Network Places, in the Other Places box in the left part of the
window. You should see a folder icon for the
test directory, as shown in Figure 3-58.
Figure 3-58. The My Network Places window
Now click View workgroup computers in the Network Tasks box at the
left of the window. You should see your Samba server listed as a
member of the workgroup. Double-click its icon, and you will see a
window that looks like Figure 3-59.
Figure 3-59. Shares offered by the Toltec server
If you don't see the server listed in the workgroup,
don't panic. Select Run... from the Start menu. A
dialog box appears that allows you to type the name of your server
and its share directory in Windows format. For example, you would
enter \\toltec\test, as shown
in Figure 3-60, and use your
server's hostname instead of
"toltec".
Figure 3-60. Opening a shared directory, using the server's NetBIOS name in the UNC
This will work even if browsing services are not set up right, which
is a common problem. You can also work around a name-service problem
by entering the server's IP Address (such as
172.16.1.1 in our example) instead of the Samba
server's hostname, as shown in Figure 3-61.
Figure 3-61. Opening a shared directory, using the server's IP address in the UNC
If things still aren't right, go directly to Section 12.2 to troubleshoot what is wrong
with the network.
If it works, congratulations! Try copying files to and from the
server by dragging their icons to and from the Samba
server's test folder. You might
be pleasantly surprised how seamlessly everything works.
[1] We are
intentionally omitting device drivers because they are
hardware-specific, and we assume you are getting installation
directions from the manufacturer.
[2] Make sure to use the same netmask as all other systems on the
network. You can find the netmask in use by checking with Unix or
Windows systems that have already been configured.
[3] Keep in mind that IP addresses ending
in .0 are reserved for network addresses and that ones ending in .255
are for broadcast addresses. These should never be assigned to any
system on the network.
[4] To be more explicit about
this, the system will identify itself to the network as a b-node
rather than an h-node.
[5] We put the
names of the LMHOSTS and
HOSTS files in uppercase for additional
clarity—to remind you that we are referring to the files on
Windows rather than on Unix, and because that's the
way we see them in other books on Windows. The case of the letters in
the two names actually does not matter.
[6] The address 127.0.0.1 is known as the
localhost address and always refers to itself.
For example, if you type ping
127.0.0.1 on a Unix server, you should always get
a response, because you're pinging the host
itself.
[7] This update is supplied in
various update packages issued by Microsoft.
[8] Notice how in Windows NT,
some clients are called "services"!
In these directions, we will conform to Microsoft's
terminology.
[9] If there is a My Network Places
item in the Start menu at this point, you can save yourself a little
time and just click that. If you don't see it,
don't worry; it will appear automatically
later.
