Win95/Samba Configuration

The purpose of this page is to document our use of Samba to provide file and print services for our PCs. It will document how the Samba server is configured and defines the proper configuration of each Win95 PC client.

What is Samba?

Samba is server software for computers running under Unix or another Unix-like operating systems with standard TCP/IP available. It provides file and printer services for clients using some variants of SMB (Server Message Block) protocol. SMB is a "native" networking protocol used by MS-DOS based (in a very broad sense, including derivatives) clients. They include those from IBM, ICL, Microsoft and even one particular Novell product. In particular clients are distributed with `Windows for Workgroups', `Windows 95', 'Windows NT' (Microsoft), 'OS/2 Warp' (IBM) and others.

I don't know if I've got all the Microsoft networking lingo down yet so pardon me Bill if I misrepresent your networking scheme. In a "real" Microsoft network where you have Win95 clients and WinNT servers, the NT server defines a network domain and server as the "Primary Domain Controller" (PDC) also known as the Domain Master. PC clients (users) of the defined NT domain are authenticated by the PDC. Logon is authenticated by the PDC's Security Account Manager (SAC) which checks the user's username, password, and domain against its user account database.

Another WinNT network concept is "browsing". An NT server can be configured as a domain master browser allowing networked clients to browse for available network resources such a disk (mount points) and printer shares. In the Win95 client, browsing is facilitated with either the Explorer shell or by browsing in the Network Neighborhood.

We use Samba as a replacment for an NT server. The Samba server, as we've configured it, serves as the PDC and the domain's Master Browser. Instead of authenticating users using an NT based SAC database, Samba authenticates the user using the standard Unix password map. The PC clients (Win95) are fooled into thinking that they are talking to an NT box. All they know is that something out there is replying to SMB session requests..

Resources

Samba Web Pages

comp.protocols.smb Usenet News

Local Installation

Current version of Samba installed is Samba 1.9.16p10. The package is installed in /pkg3/samba_1.9.16p10 and depot'd in as /usr/local/depot/Samba. The binaries were compiled from the source distribution located at ftp://samba.anu.edu.au/pub/samba/samba-latest.tar.gz

The Samba services is provided by two server daemons; smbd and nmbd. smbd is the server that provides file and print services via the SMB protocol. The nmbd server provides netbios nameserver support to the clients. These daemons are started using the /etc/init.d/samba.server startup script. Which is actualy a link to /usr/local/lib/samba/lib/samba.server. The samba.server script takes the standard stop/start arguments.

Currently, marlin & azalea are the only servers providing Samba services.

Local Configuration

The primary configuration file for Samba is /usr/local/lib/samba/lib/smb.conf. The smb.conf file defines what filesystems and printers are shared to the client PCs and how they are shared.

The smb.conf on azalea serving the Biostat PC clients currently looks like this:

; Configuration file for smbd.
; ============================================================================
; For the format of this file and comprehensive descriptions of all the
; configuration option, please refer to the man page for smb.conf(5).
;
[global]
   security = user
   workgroup = BIOSTAT
   os level = 34
   preferred master = yes
   domain master = yes
   domain logons = yes
   logon script = %U.bat
   guest account = nobody
 
;  Global Printer settings
   printing = bsd
   printcap name = /usr/local/lib/samba/lib/printcap
   load printers = yes
 
;  This next option sets a separate log file for each client. Remove
;  it if you want a combined log file.
   log file = /spool/samba/log.%m
 
[netlogon]
   path = /spool/samba/netlogon
   public = yes
   writeable = no
   guest ok = yes
 
;  You will need a world readable lock directory and "share modes=yes"
;  if you want to support the file sharing modes for multiple users
;  of the same files
;  lock directory = /usr/local/samba/var/locks
;  share modes = yes
 
[homes]
   comment = Home Directories
   browseable = no
   read only = no
   create mode = 002 
 
[printers]
   comment = All Printers
   path=/spool/samba/lp/
   print command=/usr/bin/dos2unix -ascii %s | /bin/lp -d %p -s | rm %s
   browseable = no
   printable = yes
   public = yes
   writable = no
   create mode = 0700 
; 
; Define the share for where we keep our PC apps
;
[pcapps]
   comment = PC Applications for Easy Installation
   path = /pcapps
   read only = no
   valid users = pdp dmarlin

Win95 Client Configuration

Microsoft Windows 95 has network support built into the operating system that allows it to serve as a client to multiple networked environments. Samba only uses NetBIOS over TCP/IP. Thus the Win95 client has to be configured accordingly.

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Last modified: Mon Jun 5 09:18:07 EDT 2000