Chapter 34. File and Print Sharing with Microsoft Windows


IN THIS CHAPTER

  • SMB/CIFS and Samba

  • Installing and Configuring Samba

  • Other Samba Components

  • Accessing Shared Files on a Windows System (the smbfs Filesystem)

NFS is an excellent solution for file sharing between FreeBSD, Linux, and similar systems, where UNIX permissions and file metadata (such as modification times) must be preserved from machine to machine. However, NFS isn't widely supported on many consumer operating systems. Windows and classic Mac OS support it only through third-party applications, andmore importantly in an enterprise environmentthere isn't any "discovery" mechanism built into NFS to allow clients to browse lists of available servers.

When you put a FreeBSD machine into an existing network, chances are that most of the computers already there will be running Windows. True interoperation with these clients and with existing Windows file servers requires that FreeBSD share files the same way Windows does. This method involves SMB, the Server Message Block protocol, and the Common Internet File System (CIFS), which replaced it and is itself now slated to be phased out in upcoming versions of Windows.

File sharing over SMB/CIFS is not a built-in part of FreeBSD. However, an add-on package called Samba gives a FreeBSD machine the capability to act as a Windows file server and participate in all the same file-sharing activities as true Windows clients.

Samba is an open-source, volunteer project originally begun by Andrew Tridgell and now developed collaboratively by the general UNIX community. It provides a UNIX system (such as FreeBSD) with the capability to do everything that Windows file sharing can do, including appearing in network browsing lists, securing connections based on NT domain and username logons, and providing network print services. Samba also includes tools that provide many of the administrative functions of a Windows server. With the addition of the smbfs kernel module to allow FreeBSD to operate as a Windows file-sharing client (you learn more about smbfs later in this chapter), you can use a FreeBSD machine in a Windows network environment with just as much functionality as a native Windows machine would have.

This chapter will guide you through configuring Samba. Here, you'll learn how to add Windows-like file-sharing and printer-management capabilities to your FreeBSD system, including integration into Windows workgroups and domains so that your system is indistinguishable on the network from native Windows PCs.

Note

The official website for Samba is www.samba.org, from which you can select any of a number of different geographical mirror sites.





FreeBSD 6 Unleashed
FreeBSD 6 Unleashed
ISBN: 0672328755
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 355
Authors: Brian Tiemann

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