Doing the Windows 2000 Samba

Setting up Windows 2000 as a Client Machine

As with previous versions of Windows, you will need to enable TCP/IP in the networking configuration. These days, with the Internet a vital part of networking, TCP/IP is enabled by default. The default setup for Windows 2000 is dynamic IP addressing, so you either need to go with that and set up dhcpd on the Linux side, or set your IP address manually in Windows 2000. We're going to use the dynamic setup here.

Joining the Workgroup

During the Windows install, you are asked whether you want to join a domain or workgroup, but these options can also be changed after the install:

Start | Settings | Network and Dial-up Connections

Then click on:

Advanced | Network Identification | Properties

Enter your computer name (in my case, LARRY--the case doesn't seem to matter). Click on the Workgroup radio button and enter the workgroup name (in my case, AYSWNET). Click on OK, and you'll be welcomed to the workgroup and prompted to reboot the computer.

As an aside, I used to use AYSNET, but there is a bug in the 2.2.0 Samba PDC code that prevents you from using domain names with an even number of letters. Hopefully, the bug will have been resolved by the time you read this.

Users

Your life will be much easier if you use the same user names on Linux and Windows. Samba can remap the names from Windows to Unix by uncommenting the following line and building the file /etc/smbusers:

	username map = /etc/smbusers

The format of the file is as follows:

	# Unix_name = SMB_name1 SMB_name2 ...
	root = administrator admin

In my case, I'm setting up myself, as user "stew." If you just want to use shares on the Samba server, this does not necessarily even need to be a Windows 2000 user, because you will be prompted for a user name when you connect to the share. If you do want to try the Domain Controller mode, you will want to set up the user in Windows 2000:

Start | Settings | Control Panel | Users and Password

Accessing Shares

Once you are set up as part of the workgroup, accessing shares is the same as accessing them from other Windows machines. This can be done from My Network Places, or from Windows Explorer. Printers are the same; you set up the appropriate printer driver from the Windows 2000 machine and then queue it to the shared network printer.

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This article was originally published on December 21, 2000