Developers see also the build and configuration tricks

Para bailar la bamba / Se necesita una poca de gracia
Ordinary people get a lot more out of the ...

Samba

You need Samba to use the lab PCs (lab PC users may only need to read the Introduction and How to use sections); or you may use it also from your office PC or laptop.

The Samba software implements Microsoft Windows networking protocols for UNIX machines. Windows has features to access other Windows machines and servers; a UNIX server running Samba would appear as a Windows server to client PCs, and (some of) its services would be accessible to the client PC.

We have a Samba server running on rome. From your (office or lab) PC, use Samba to access files on the Linux machines (your home and nobackup directories, web pages, files in /usr/sms) and to access printers. No more messing with FTP or WinLprSpooler. (You will still need the POP server for mail: PC Netscape or Thunderbird do not know any better.) (NOTE: Support for WinLprSpooler will be withdrawn in the medium term: printing will only be permitted via Samba.)

Introduction
Operating system specifics:
- Windows XP
- Windows 2000
- (No info for Windows NT)
- Windows ME
- Windows 98
- Windows 95
- Macintosh
How to use

Introduction

Ask Paul to create a Samba account for you. You must do this in person (in room 622) as you will need to set a password. The Samba password must be different from any other passwords you may use: different from the password you use to log in to pisa or rome.

To change your Samba password on a Windows 2000 machine in ROMEGROUP, press Alt-Ctrl-Delete and choose Change password; otherwise try Start Menu > Settings > Control Panel > Users and Passwords. You can also change your password from a UNIX machine with command
/usr/sms/share/samba/n/bin/smbpasswd -c /usr/sms/share/samba/n/lib/smb.conf.rome -r rome
On rome only, that command can be shortened to "just"
/usr/sms/share/samba/n/bin/smbpasswd -r rome

(Go back to Contents, or direct to How to use)

Windows XP machines

Please read the Windows 2000 instructions below: I hope there are some similarities ... Please let me know if you have any difficulties with XP.

(Go back to Contents, or direct to How to use)

Windows 2000 machines

You need to set a sensible Computer name: it is requested that you set the TCP/IP name assigned to you, probably Pxxx (use alphanumerics only, no dash). You may choose any Workgroup: you may wish to keep the default WORKGROUP or use ROMEGROUP. You can set the computer name e.g. under Start Menu > Settings > Control Panel > System > Network Identification.

Connect to rome either by typing \\rome in the address bar of Windows Explorer or by going to Start Menu > Run > \\rome or by browsing to My Network Places > Entire Network (view the entire contents) > Microsoft Windows Network > Romegroup > Rome. If you get an error, e.g.

Unable to browse the network.
The network is not present or not started.

then proceed as follows.

Select Start Menu > Settings > Network and Dial-up Connections > Local Area Connection > Properties. You should already see the TCP/IP protocol.

Check that you can see Client for Microsoft Networks (Install, Client, Microsoft, Client for Microsoft Networks, OK, OK). You do not need the File and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks service: Uninstall it if you see it there.

Check that under Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) > Properties > Advanced > WINS, you have Enable NetBIOS over TCP/IP selected (Samba 2.2.8a does not yet implement "Direct Hosting of SMB Over TCP/IP" http://support.microsoft.com/kb/204279).

The Samba server acts as a PDC (Primary Domain Controller), and Windows 2000 machines can join the ROMEGROUP domain to authenticate against the Samba server at login time. (Then you need to login just once to use any Samba services.)

Please ask Paul to join your Windows 2000 PC to the ROMEGROUP domain if you want to use this feature.

Your "roaming profiles" will be kept in directory ~/.profiles.

(Go back to Contents, or direct to How to use)

Windows ME machines

Please read the Windows 98 instructions below: ME and 98 are rather similar. Please let me know of any differences...

(Go back to Contents, or direct to How to use)

Windows 98 machines

Connect to rome either by typing \\rome in the address bar of Windows Explorer or by going to Start Menu > Run > \\rome or by browsing to Network Neighborhood > Entire Network > Romegroup > Rome. If you get an error, e.g.

Cannot find the file or item '\\rome'.
Make sure the path and file name are correct.
Type 'go <SearchText>' to use AutoSearch.

then proceed as follows.

Select Start Menu > Settings > Control Panel > Network > Configuration. You should already see your network card and the TCP/IP protocol.

Check that you can see Client for Microsoft Networks (Add, Client, Microsoft, Client for Microsoft Networks, OK, OK). You do not need File and printer sharing for Microsoft Networks service: Remove it if you see it there.
Check that Primary Network Logon is set to Client for Microsoft Networks.
Under Identification select a sensible Computer name: it is requested that you set the TCP/IP name assigned to you, probably Pxxx (use alphanumerics only, no dash). You may choose any Workgroup: you may wish to keep the default WORKGROUP or use ROMEGROUP. Set any sensible Computer Description, e.g. John Smith's toy.
In Client for Microsoft Networks > Properties, you may want to set Logon Validation to Log on to Windows NT domain (choose domain ROMEGROUP). Then at each login the \\rome\netlogon\login.bat file will run for you automatically, but this is not essential (or may not be wanted).
Make sure you log in with a valid Samba username/password when booting your machine.

You may also want to see the Microsoft Knowledge Base article http://support.microsoft.com/kb/192534 (thanks to Bob Howlett for pointing me to this).

Notes:

You must remember to "log off" or shut your machine down to break the connection to rome; otherwise anyone can access your files.
If you start Windows 98 without a valid Samba login then it will not be able to connect to rome during that session: it will not prompt you to log in. Ensure you log in with a valid Samba username/password when booting your machine.
You will not see the Printers folder, so I cannot up-load the printer drivers to the Samba server. This should not be a problem as your PC should have the right drivers. For the odd ones that your PC may not have, look in \\rome\sms\win\sfwinst\drivers.
You may want to run WinPopup to receive print confirmation messages.

(Go back to Contents, or direct to How to use)

Windows 95 machines

See above for Windows 98. Bob Howlett had this to say:

config.sys

Tools

Find

Computer

(Go back to Contents, or direct to How to use)

Macintosh machines

Up to MacOS9, there is no "native" SMB support; from OSX 10.1 there is some, but is not complete.

It all seems to work fine at OSX 10.1.4 (and above: tested also on 10.2.1): in the Finder(?) menu, Go ConnectToServer to something like

  smb://rome.maths.usyd.edu.au/home

(or just smb://rome.maths.usyd.edu.au/ and choose the share you want). (I do not know if printing would work.)

References for Mac SMB/CIFS support:

DAVE 3.1 for MacOS 8.6-9.2 or for MacOS X
http://www.thursby.com/
US$149 or $599 for 4 users (or less for educations institutions)
(Can get an evaluation copy)

Right out of the box Mac OS X includes support for ... SMB/CIFS ... support for these protocols is not always as well implemented as it could be.
CIFS support comes standard with Mac OS X 10.1 and above. Unfortunately ... need to connect manually with ... smb://workgroup;server/share ...
OS X's print center can connect to standard LPD based shared network printers. ... The standard protocol for Windows print servers is CIFS, and the only option to connect to these printers is Dave.

Alternatives - There are two free implementations of AppleTalk for several kinds of UNIX machines ... Netatalk http://www.umich.edu/~rsug/netatalk/ and CAP http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/appletalk/atalk.html . What Samba offers MS Windows users, these packages offer to Macs. For more info on these packages, Samba, and Linux (and other UNIX-based systems) see http://www.eats.com/linux_mac_win.html (also http://www.eats.com/linux_mac_win/file_services.html ).

For printing only, it seems that LPR is natively supported in MacOS:

(Go back to Contents, or below to How to use)

How to use

On your PC, connect to rome as described above (e.g. by going to Start Menu > Run > \\rome); you may be prompted for your username and password if you have not been validated yet. (Users not in ROMEGROUP will need to connect after each reboot, e.g. to allow printing.) Select the services/shares you may wish to use.

The directory shares have descriptive names; be sure to check out \\rome\sms\win\sfwinst\.

There are numerous printer shares: they must all be visible so you can use them. To use printers, you must (once) set them up locally; choose from those in \\rome: double-click then say yes (then close the queue-list window that comes up), or copy them to your local (Start Menu > Settings > Printers) folder, or use Add printer and select something like \\rome\aolw.

For more info on Samba, see the documentation: on Linux use file:/usr/sms/share/samba/n/htmldocs/ while on PCs you would want file:////rome/sms/share/samba/n/htmldocs/.

Paul Szabo psz@maths.usyd.edu.au 5 Jul 05