2 Dan Shearer & Paul Blackman, ictinus@lake.canberra.edu.au
5 This is the meta-Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) document for Samba,
6 the free and very popular SMB and CIFS server product. It contains
7 overview information for the Samba suite of programs, a quick-start
8 guide, and pointers to all other Samba documentation. Other FAQs exist
9 for specific client and server issues, and HOWTO documents for more
10 extended topics to do with Samba software. Current to version Samba
11 1.9.17. Please send any corrections to the author.
12 ______________________________________________________________________
16 1. Quick Reference Guides to Samba Documentation
18 1.1. Samba for the Impatient
20 1.2. All Samba Documentation
22 2. General Information
26 2.2. What is the current version of Samba?
28 2.3. Where can I get it?
30 2.4. What do the version numbers mean?
32 2.5. Where can I go for further information?
34 2.6. How do I subscribe to the Samba Mailing Lists?
36 2.7. Something's gone wrong - what should I do?
38 2.8. How do I submit patches or bug reports?
40 2.9. What if I have an URGENT message for the developers?
42 2.10. What if I need paid-for support?
44 2.11. Pizza supply details
48 3.1. What is the Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol?
50 3.2. What is the Common Internet Filesystem (CIFS)?
52 3.3. What is Browsing?
54 4. Designing A SMB and CIFS Network
56 4.1. Workgroups, Browsing Domains and Authentication Domains
58 4.1.1. Defining the Terms
60 4.1.2. Sharelevel (Workgroup) Security Services
62 4.1.3. Authentication Domain Mode Services
64 4.2. Authentication Schemes
66 4.2.1. Workgroup Mode Services
68 4.2.2. Windows NT-Style Domain
76 4.2.6. Default Server Method
78 4.2.7. Client-side Database Only
80 4.3. Post-Authentication: Netlogon, Logon Scripts, Profiles
82 5. Cross-Protocol File Sharing
86 6.1. Is Samba Year 2000 compliant?
87 ______________________________________________________________________
89 1
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91 We are endeavouring to provide links here to every major class of
92 information about Samba or things related to Samba. We cannot list
93 every document, but we are aiming for all documents to be at most two
94 referrals from those listed here. This needs constant maintaining, so
95 please send the author your feedback.
97 1
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99 You know you should read the documentation but can't wait to start?
100 What you need to do then is follow the instructions in the following
101 documents, in order. This should be enough to get a _
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102 quickly. If you have any problems at all, refer back to this section
103 and do some more reading.
105 1. Getting Samba: ``Download Instructions''
107 2. Installing Samba: making sure the binaries are in place and work.
108 At the moment there are two kinds of Samba server installs: Unix or
109 close relative <INSTALL.txt> and Others <Samba-Server-
110 FAQ.html#PortInfo>. Do not forget to
112 3. Debug sequence: If you think you have completed the previous step
113 and things aren't working properly work through the diagnosis
114 recipe. <DIAGNOSIS.txt>
116 4. Exporting files to SMB clients: You should read the manual pages
117 for smb.conf, but here is a quick answer guide. <Samba-Server-
120 5. Controlling user access: the quickest and dirtiest way of sharing
121 resources is to use ``share level security.'' If you want to spend
122 more time and have a proper username and password database you must
123 read the paragraph on ``domain mode security.'' If you want
124 encryption (eg you are using Windows NT clients) follow the SMB
125 encryption instructions. <Samba-Server-FAQ.html#SMBEncryptionSteps>
126 6. Browsing: if you are happy to type in "\samba-serverrename" at the
127 client end then do not read any further. Otherwise you need to
128 understand the ``browsing terminoligy'' and read <BROWSING.txt>.
130 7. Printing: See the printing quick answer guide. <Samba-Server-
133 If you have got everything working to this point, you can expect Samba
134 to be stable and secure: these are its greatest strengths. However
135 Samba has a great deal to offer and to go further you must do some
136 more reading. Speed and security optimisations, printer accounting,
137 network logons, roving profiles, browsing across multiple subnets and
138 so on are all covered either in this document or in those it refers
141 1
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143 +
\bo Meta-FAQ. This is the mother of all documents, and is the one you
144 are reading now. The latest version is always at
145 <http://samba.anu.edu.au/[.....]> but there is probably a much
146 nearer mirror site <../MIRRORS> which you should use instead.
148 +
\bo <Samba-Server-FAQ.html> is the best starting point for information
149 about server-side issues. Includes configuration tips and pointers
150 for Samba on particular operating systems (with 40 to choose
153 +
\bo <Samba-Client-FAQ.html> is the best starting point for information
154 about client-side issues, includes a list of all clients that work
157 +
\bo <samba-man-index.html> contains descriptions of and links to all
158 the Samba manual pages, in Unix man and postscript format.
160 +
\bo <samba-txt-index.html> has descriptions of and links to a large
161 number of text files have been contributed to samba covering many
162 topics. These are gradually being absorbed into the FAQs and HOWTOS
163 but in the meantime you might find helpful answers here.
167 2
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169 All about Samba - what it is, how to get it, related sources of
170 information, how to understand the version numbering scheme, pizza
173 2
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175 Samba is a suite of programs which work together to allow clients to
176 access to a server's filespace and printers via the SMB (Server
177 Message Block) and CIFS (Common Internet Filesystem) protocols.
178 Initially written for Unix, Samba now also runs on Netware, OS/2, VMS,
179 StratOS and Amigas. Ports to BeOS and other operating systems are
180 underway. Samba gives the capability for these operating systems to
181 behave much like a LAN Server, Windows NT Server or Pathworks machine,
182 only with added functionality and flexibility designed to make life
183 easier for administrators.
184 This means that using Samba you can share a server's disks and
185 printers to many sorts of network clients, including Lan Manager,
186 Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT, Linux, OS/2, and AIX. There is
187 also a generic client program supplied as part of the Samba suite
188 which gives a user on the server an ftp-like interface to access
189 filespace and printers on any other SMB/CIFS servers.
191 Many users report that compared to other SMB implementations Samba is
192 more stable, faster, and compatible with more clients. Administrators
193 of some large installations say that Samba is the only SMB server
194 available which will scale to many tens of thousands of users without
195 crashing. The easy way to test these claims is to download it and try
198 The suite is supplied with full source code under the GNU Public
199 License <../COPYING>. The GPL means that you can use Samba for
200 whatever purpose you wish (including changing the source or selling it
201 for money) but under all circumstances the source code must be made
202 freely available. A copy of the GPL must always be included in any
205 The primary creator of the Samba suite is Andrew Tridgell. Later
206 versions incorporate much effort by many net.helpers. The man pages
207 and this FAQ were originally written by Karl Auer.
209 2
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211 At time of writing, the current version was 1.9.17. If you want to be
212 sure check the bottom of the change-log file.
213 <ftp://samba.anu.edu.au/pub/samba/alpha/change-log>
215 For more information see ``What do the version numbers mean?''
217 2
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219 The Samba suite is available via anonymous ftp from samba.anu.edu.au
220 and many mirror <../MIRRORS> sites. You will get much faster
221 performance if you use a mirror site. The latest and greatest versions
222 of the suite are in the directory:
226 Development (read "alpha") versions, which are NOT necessarily stable
227 and which do NOT necessarily have accurate documentation, are
228 available in the directory:
232 Note that binaries are NOT included in any of the above. Samba is
233 distributed ONLY in source form, though binaries may be available from
234 other sites. Most Linux distributions, for example, do contain Samba
235 binaries for that platform. The VMS, OS/2, Netware and Amiga and other
236 ports typically have binaries made available.
238 2
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240 It is not recommended that you run a version of Samba with the word
241 "alpha" in its name unless you know what you are doing and are willing
242 to do some debugging. Many, many people just get the latest
243 recommended stable release version and are happy. If you are brave, by
244 all means take the plunge and help with the testing and development -
245 but don't install it on your departmental server. Samba is typically
246 very stable and safe, and this is mostly due to the policy of many
249 How the scheme works:
251 1. When major changes are made the version number is increased. For
252 example, the transition from 1.9.16 to 1.9.17. However, this
253 version number will not appear immediately and people should
254 continue to use 1.9.15 for production systems (see next point.)
256 2. Just after major changes are made the software is considered
257 unstable, and a series of alpha releases are distributed, for
258 example 1.9.16alpha1. These are for testing by those who know what
259 they are doing. The "alpha" in the filename will hopefully scare
260 off those who are just looking for the latest version to install.
262 3. When Andrew thinks that the alphas have stabilised to the point
263 where he would recommend new users install it, he renames it to the
264 same version number without the alpha, for example 1.9.17.
266 4. Inevitably bugs are found in the "stable" releases and minor patch
267 levels are released which give us the pXX series, for example
270 So the progression goes:
272 1.9.16p10 (production)
273 1.9.16p11 (production)
274 1.9.17alpha1 (test sites only)
276 1.9.17alpha20 (test sites only)
278 1.9.17p1 (production)
280 The above system means that whenever someone looks at the samba ftp
281 site they will be able to grab the highest numbered release without an
282 alpha in the name and be sure of getting the current recommended
285 2
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287 There are a number of places to look for more information on Samba,
290 +
\bo Two mailing lists devoted to discussion of Samba-related matters.
291 See below for subscription information.
293 +
\bo The newsgroup comp.protocols.smb, which has a great deal of
294 discussion about Samba.
296 +
\bo The WWW site 'SAMBA Web Pages' at
297 <http://samba.canberra.edu.au/pub/samba/samba.html> includes:
299 +
\bo Links to man pages and documentation, including this FAQ
301 +
\bo A comprehensive survey of Samba users
303 +
\bo A searchable hypertext archive of the Samba mailing list
305 +
\bo Links to Samba source code, binaries, and mirrors of both
307 +
\bo This FAQ and the rest in its family
309 2
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311 Send email to listproc@samba.anu.edu.au. Make sure the subject line is
312 blank, and include the following two lines in the body of the message:
314 subscribe samba Firstname Lastname
315 subscribe samba-announce Firstname Lastname
317 Obviously you should substitute YOUR first name for "Firstname" and
318 YOUR last name for "Lastname"! Try not to send any signature, it
319 sometimes confuses the list processor.
321 The samba list is a digest list - every eight hours or so it sends a
322 single message containing all the messages that have been received by
323 the list since the last time and sends a copy of this message to all
324 subscribers. There are thousands of people on this list.
326 If you stop being interested in Samba, please send another email to
327 listproc@samba.anu.edu.au. Make sure the subject line is blank, and
328 include the following two lines in the body of the message:
331 unsubscribe samba-announce
333 The F
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336 2
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338 #
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340 DO NOT post messages on mailing lists or in newsgroups until you have
341 carried out the first three steps given here!
343 1. See if there are any likely looking entries in this FAQ! If you
344 have just installed Samba, have you run through the checklist in
345 DIAGNOSIS.txt <ftp://samba.anu.edu.au/pub/samba/DIAGNOSIS.txt>? It
346 can save you a lot of time and effort. DIAGNOSIS.txt can also be
347 found in the docs directory of the Samba distribution.
349 2. Read the man pages for smbd, nmbd and smb.conf, looking for topics
350 that relate to what you are trying to do.
352 3. If there is no obvious solution to hand, try to get a look at the
353 log files for smbd and/or nmbd for the period during which you were
354 having problems. You may need to reconfigure the servers to provide
355 more extensive debugging information - usually level 2 or level 3
356 provide ample debugging info. Inspect these logs closely, looking
357 particularly for the string "Error:".
359 4. If you need urgent help and are willing to pay for it see ``Paid
362 If you still haven't got anywhere, ask the mailing list or newsgroup.
363 In general nobody minds answering questions provided you have followed
364 the preceding steps. It might be a good idea to scan the archives of
365 the mailing list, which are available through the Samba web site
366 described in the previous section. When you post be sure to include a
367 good description of your environment and your problem.
369 If you successfully solve a problem, please mail the FAQ maintainer a
370 succinct description of the symptom, the problem and the solution, so
371 that an explanation can be incorporated into the next version.
373 2
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375 If you make changes to the source code, _
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376 that everyone else gets the benefit of your work. This is one of the
377 most important aspects to the maintainence of Samba. Send all patches
378 to samba-bugs@samba.anu.edu.au. Do not send patches to Andrew Tridgell
379 or any other individual, they may be lost if you do.
381 Patch format ------------
383 If you are sending a patch to fix a problem then please don't just use
384 standard diff format. As an example, samba-bugs received this patch
387 382a #endif 381a #if !defined(NEWS61)
389 How are we supposed to work out what this does and where it goes?
390 These sort of patches only work if we both have identical files in the
391 first place. The Samba sources are constantly changing at the hands of
392 multiple developers, so it doesn't work.
394 Please use either context diffs or (even better) unified diffs. You
395 get these using "diff -c4" or "diff -u". If you don't have a diff that
396 can generate these then please send manualy commented patches to I
397 know what is being changed and where. Most patches are applied by hand
398 so the info must be clear.
400 This is a basic guideline that will assist us with assessing your
401 problem more efficiently :
403 Machine Arch: Machine OS: OS Version: Kernel:
405 Compiler: Libc Version:
409 Network Layout (description):
411 What else is on machine (services, etc):
415 +
\bo what you did and what happened
417 +
\bo relevant parts of a debugging output file with debuglevel higher.
418 If you can't find the relevant parts, please ask before mailing
421 +
\bo anything else you think is useful to trace down the bug
423 2
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425 If you have spotted something very serious and believe that it is
426 important to contact the developers quickly send a message to samba-
427 urgent@samba.anu.edu.au. This will be processed more quickly than mail
428 to samba-bugs. Please think carefully before using this address. An
429 example of its use might be to report a security hole.
431 Examples of things _
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432 getting Samba to work at all and bugs that cannot potentially cause
435 2
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437 Samba has a large network of consultants who provide Samba support on
438 a commercial basis. The list is included in the package in
439 Support.txt, and the latest version will always be on the main samba
440 ftp site. Any company in the world can request that the samba team
441 include their details in Support.txt so we can give no guarantee of
444 2
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446 Those who have registered in the Samba survey as "Pizza Factory" will
447 already know this, but the rest may need some help. Andrew doesn't ask
448 for payment, but he does appreciate it when people give him pizza.
449 This calls for a little organisation when the pizza donor is twenty
450 thousand kilometres away, but it has been done.
452 1. Ring up your local branch of an international pizza chain and see
453 if they honour their vouchers internationally. Pizza Hut do, which
454 is how the entire Canberra Linux Users Group got to eat pizza one
455 night, courtesy of someone in the US.
457 2. Ring up a local pizza shop in Canberra and quote a credit card
458 number for a certain amount, and tell them that Andrew will be
459 collecting it (don't forget to tell him.) One kind soul from
462 3. Purchase a pizza voucher from your local pizza shop that has no
463 international affiliations and send it to Andrew. It is completely
464 useless but he can hang it on the wall next to the one he already
467 4. Air freight him a pizza with your favourite regional flavours. It
468 will probably get stuck in customs or torn apart by hungry sniffer
469 dogs but it will have been a noble gesture.
471 3
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473 3
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475 SMB is a filesharing protocol that has had several maintainers and
476 contributors over the years including Xerox, 3Com and most recently
477 Microsoft. Names for this protocol include LAN Manager and Microsoft
478 Networking. Parts of the specification has been made public at several
479 versions including in an X/Open document, as listed at
480 <ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/developr/drg/CIFS/>. No specification
481 releases were made between 1992 and 1996, and during that period
482 Microsoft became the SMB implementor with the largest market share.
483 Microsoft developed the specification further for its products but for
484 various reasons connected with developer's workload rather than market
485 strategy did not make the changes public. This culminated with the
486 "Windows NT 0.12" version released with NT 3.5 in 1995 which had
487 significant improvements and bugs. Because Microsoft client systems
488 are so popular, it is fair to say that what Microsoft with Windows
489 affects all suppliers of SMB server products.
491 From 1994 Andrew Tridgell began doing some serious work on his
492 Smbserver (now Samba) product and with some helpers started to
493 implement more and more of these protocols. Samba began to take a
494 significant share of the SMB server market.
496 3
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498 The initial pressure for Microsoft to document their current SMB
499 implementation came from the Samba team, who kept coming across things
500 on the wire that Microsoft either didn't know about or hadn't
501 documented anywhere (even in the sourcecode to Windows NT.) Then Sun
502 Microsystems came out with their WebNFS initiative, designed to
503 replace FTP for file transfers on the Internet. There are many
504 drawbacks to WebNFS (including its scope - it aims to replace HTTP as
505 well!) but the concept was attractive. FTP is not very clever, and why
506 should it be harder to get files from across the world than across the
509 Some hasty revisions were made and an Internet Draft for the Common
510 Internet Filesystem (CIFS) was released. Note that CIFS is not an
511 Internet standard and is a very long way from becoming one, BUT the
512 protocol specification is in the public domain and ongoing discussions
513 concerning the spec take place on a public mailing list according to
514 the rules of the Internet Engineering Task Force. For more information
515 and pointers see <http://samba.anu.edu.au/cifs/>
517 The following is taken from <http://www.microsoft.com/intdev/cifs/>
519 CIFS defines a standard remote file system access protocol for use
520 over the Internet, enabling groups of users to work together and
521 share documents across the Internet or within their corporate
522 intranets. CIFS is an open, cross-platform technology based on the
523 native file-sharing protocols built into Microsoft Windows and
524 other popular PC operating systems, and supported on dozens of
525 other platforms, including UNIX. With CIFS, millions of computer
526 users can open and share remote files on the Internet without having
527 to install new software or change the way they work."
529 If you consider CIFS as a backwardsly-compatible refinement of SMB
530 that will work reasonably efficiently over the Internet you won't be
533 The net effect is that Microsoft is now documenting large parts of
534 their Windows NT fileserver protocols. The security concepts embodied
535 in Windows NT are part of the specification, which is why Samba
536 documentation often talks in terms of Windows NT. However there is no
537 reason why a site shouldn't conduct all its file and printer sharing
538 with CIFS and yet have no Microsoft products at all.
540 3
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542 The term "Browsing" causes a lot of confusion. It is the part of the
543 SMB/CIFS protocol which allows for resource discovery. For example, in
544 the Windows NT Explorer it is possible to see a "Network
545 Neighbourhood" of computers in the same SMB workgroup. Clicking on the
546 name of one of these machines brings up a list of file and printer
547 resources for connecting to. In this way you can cruise the network,
548 seeing what things are available. How this scales to the Internet is a
549 subject for debate. Look at the CIFS list archives to see what the
552 4
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554 The big issues for installing any network of LAN or WAN file and print
557 +
\bo How and where usernames, passwords and other security information
560 +
\bo What method can be used for locating the resources that users have
563 +
\bo What protocols the clients can converse with
565 If you buy Netware, Windows NT or just about any other LAN fileserver
566 product you are expected to lock yourself into the product's preferred
567 answers to these questions. This tendancy is restrictive and often
568 very expensive for a site where there is only one kind of client or
569 server, and for sites with a mixture of operating systems it often
570 makes it impossible to share resources between some sets of users.
572 The Samba philosophy is to make things as easy as possible for
573 administators, which means allowing as many combinations of clients,
574 servers, operating systems and protocols as possible.
576 4
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578 The concepts of a Workgroup and a Domain are fundamental to SMB
579 networking. Although Microsoft integrates Workgroups and Domains
580 tightly with their authentication procedures there is no reason why
581 this has to be so in an SMB network. Groups of SMB machines can work
582 together just as well with Unix or OS/2 Samba servers as they can with
583 Windows NT servers, even though the password storage and access
584 methods are totally different.
586 4
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588 A Workgroup (or Browsing Domain) is collection of machines that
589 maintain a common database contianing information about their shared
590 resources. They do not necessarily have any security information in
591 common. The database is dynamic, modified as servers come and go on
592 the network and as resources are added or deleted. The term "browsing"
593 refers to a user accessing the database via whatever interface the
594 client provides. SMB servers agree between themselves as to which ones
595 will maintain the browsing database. Workgroups can be anywhere on a
596 connected TCP/IP network, including on different subnets or anywhere
597 on the Interet. This is a very tricky part of SMB to implement.
599 Due to the convoluted history of SMB there is now conflicting
600 terminology describing Domains and Workgroups. "Domain" is used in the
601 browsing specifications to define that group of servers and clients
602 who share a common name and a common browsing database. The following
603 are used exclusively in the context of Workgroup browsing:
605 +
\bo Domain Master Browser
607 +
\bo Local Master Browser
609 Alternative terms include confusing variations such as "Browse
610 Master", and "Master Browser" which we are trying to eliminate from
611 the Samba documentation. We are moving to the use of "Browsing Domain"
612 wherever the word "Domain" occurs in a workgroup context. Ideally
613 "Workgroup" would also be replaced by Browsing Domain but it is very
614 widely used terminology.
616 Unfortunately the group of machines which use the the Microsoft method
617 of sharing authentication information (but not any of the many other
618 methods) is also called a Domain. As explained elsewhere Microsoft are
619 not making this protocol public and The following are used exclusively
620 in the context of Microsoft Authentication domains:
622 +
\bo Primary Domain Controller
624 +
\bo Backup Domain Controller
628 These terms can be very confusing, and so in the Samba documentation
629 we are moving to the term "Authentication Domain" wherever Domain is
630 used in this sense. As a final touch of irony, all Authentication
631 Domains are also Browsing Domains.
633 4
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635 With the Samba setting "security = SHARE", all shared resources
636 information about what password is associated with them but only hints
637 as to what usernames might be valid (the hint can be 'all users', in
638 which case any username will work. This is usually a bad idea, but
639 reflects both the initial implementations of SMB in the mid-80s and
640 its reincarnation with Windows for Workgroups in 1992. The idea behind
641 workgroup security was that small independant groups of people could
642 share information on an ad-hoc basis without there being an
643 authentication infrastructure present or requiring them to do more
644 than fill in a dialogue box.
646 4
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648 With the Samba settings "security = USER" or "security = SERVER"
649 accesses to all resources are checked for username/password pair
650 matches in a more rigorous manner. This has the effect of emulating a
651 Microsoft Authentication Domain. Whether or not an Authentication
652 Domain is involved depends on how the network has been designed.
654 4
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656 In the simple case authentication information is stored on a single
657 server and the user types a password on connecting for the first time.
658 However client operating systems often require a password before they
659 can be used at all, and in addition users usually want access to more
660 than one server. Asking users to remember many different passwords in
661 different contexts just does not work. Some kind of distributed
662 authentication database is needed. It must cope with password changes
663 and provide for assigning groups of users the same level of access
666 Authentication decisions are some of the biggest in designing a
667 network. Are you going to use a scheme native to the client operating
668 system, native to the server operating system, or newly installed on
669 both? A list of options relevant to Samba (ie that make sense in the
670 context of the SMB protocol) follows. Any experiences with other
671 setups would be appreciated. refer to server FAQ for "passwd chat"
672 passwd program password server etc etc...
674 4
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678 4
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680 Samba compiled with libdes - enabling encrypted passwords security =
683 4
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691 4
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693 4
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695 5
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697 Samba is an important tool for...
701 File protocol gateways...
703 "Setting up a Linux File Server"
704 http://vetrec.mit.edu/people/narf/linux.html
706 Two free implementations of Appletalk for Unix are Netatalk,
707 <http://www.umich.edu/~rsug/netatalk/>, and CAP,
708 <http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/appletalk/atalk.html>. What Samba offers MS
709 Windows users, these packages offer to Macs. For more info on these
710 packages, Samba, and Linux (and other UNIX-based systems) see
711 <http://www.eats.com/linux_mac_win.html> 3.5) Sniffing your nework
713 6
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715 6
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717 The CIFS protocol that Samba implements negotiates times in various
718 formats, all of which are able to cope with dates beyond 2000.