[GLLUG] Samba + Linux, FreeBSD, and (sigh) Windows

[Melson, Paul]

First, I apologize if this gets all HTML-ized.  I'm using OWA and can't do anything about it.
 
The short answer is yes, as long as you're not worried about passwords being stored in plain text.  NT/2K/XP/2K3 all operate under the assumption of cached credentials.  Whatever you logged in to the local machine with is what it will want to use to authenticate to anything on the network (and sometimes the Internet if you let it - ewww!).
Anyway, the syntax is pretty simple:
 
NET USE F: \\[host-or-ip]\[share] /user:[username] [password]
 
If you don't specify a drive letter, it will automatically pick the next available.  You can also add '/persistent:yes' to make Windows remember this share.  However, it won't remember the credentials, and Windows will prompt the user the next time they try and open the drive (after the locally cached credentials fail, I believe).
Hope that helps!
 
PaulM
 

	-----Original Message----- 
	From: C. Ulrich [mailto:dincht at securenym.net] 
	Sent: Mon 11/3/2003 1:59 AM 
	To: GLLUG 
	Cc: 
	Subject: [GLLUG] Samba + Linux, FreeBSD, and (sigh) Windows
	
	To mount an SMB share onto the local filesystem in Linux and FreeBSD,
	all one has to do is create an appropriate /etc/fstab entry such as
	this: (the Linux version)
	
	//servername/sharename /mountpoint smbfs \
	credentials=/root/.smbsecrets,uid=smbuser,gid=smbgroup 0 0
	
	and a "secrets" file containing the smb username and password. The
	FreeBSD method is similar.
	
	The question is this: can something like this be done in Windows XP? My
	initial experiments say no. At least, not in the way that I want to set
	things up. I want to be able to give users, regardless of their username
	and password, full unrestricted access to the SMB share as long as they
	can provide the correct username (in this case, "smbuser") and password
	to the server hosting the share. The main hinderance is that Windows
	does not appear to be able to "store" passwords for SMB shares in the
	way that one would need to make this work.
	
	For example, using the Map Network Drive utility in Explorer, one can
	configure a share to be automatically reconnected on each login if, and
	only if, their Windows password is the same as the one used in the smb
	share. The username can be entered manually and Windows will remember it
	between logins. The password for the share can be entered manually as
	well, and the "drive" will be connected for that session, but the
	password is "lost" between logins. When the user tries to log in again,
	an error will appear in the system tray (is that what they still call
	it?) saying that the network drive could not be reconnected because
	authentication failed: Windows will try to use the Windows logon
	password rather than the one entered manually in the Map Network Drive
	dialog.
	
	This is vexing. Seems like a common enough scenerio, but I can't seem to
	type the right thing in the search engines to find a solution that
	works. I briefly flirted with the idea of creating accounts on the
	server (running Samba) that mirrored the Windows accounts and then tying
	them together with a common smb group, but gave up early because group
	privileges are more restrictive than owner privileges. Only a file's
	owner can delete that particular file, for example.
	
	I also tried the "username map" smb.conf command in Samba, but that
	presents the same original problem: I still need to somehow provide the
	password for the original smb user in order to authenticate.
	
	I'd appreciate any help that doesn't begin with, "You dunderhead."
	(Unless it is indeed helpful. :)
	
	Charles Ulrich
	--
	http://bityard.net
	
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