Accessing Linux Shares from Windows

Browsing Shares

To access a share on a Samba server from Windows, open My Computer or Explorer on the Windows system and, in the Address text box, enter \\ followed by the NetBIOS name (or just the hostname if you have not assigned a different NetBIOS name) of the Samba server. Windows then displays the directories that the Linux system is sharing. To view the shares on the Linux system named bravo, for example, you would enter \\bravo. From this window, you can view and browse the shares available on the Linux system. If you set a share so that it is not browseable, you need to enter the path of the share using the format \\servername\sharename.

Mapping a Share

Another way to access a share on a Samba server is by mapping a share. Open My Computer or Explorer on the Windows system and click Map Network Drive from one of the drop-down menus on the menubar (found on the Tools menu on Windows XP). Windows displays the Map Network Drive window. Select an unused Windows drive letter from the Drive combo box and enter the Windows path to the share you just created. (When you use system-config-samba to create a share, the share has the same name as the name of the directory you are sharing.) The format of the windows path is \\hostname\sharename. For example, to map /tmp on bravo to Windows drive J, assuming the share is named tmp on the Linux system, select J in the Drive combo box, enter \\bravo\tmp in the Folder text box, and click Finish. You should be able to access the /tmp directory from bravo as J (tmp) on the Windows machine. If you cannot map the drive, refer to "Troubleshooting" on page 714.