I've been asking along this week , how to set a authentication prompt on windows 2000 professional , because i'm trying to create a secure file sharing cpu. Well... i remembered that linux is very great in stability and secure. I've downloaded and installed Mandriva 10.1 because he already brings Samba package, but i cant get him inside my workgroup, because he creates a defautl work group "mdkworkgroup" something like that. I'm not very expert in linux systems but i know that he can be configurated to Serv Files Sharing ( Only ). I know there are alots of diffrent linux distributions but i dont know witch is better to set up a server. I'm asking to you know witch distribution you recommend to this particular job. Its important to say that all my network computers are windows.

thks.

I'd written a detailed article on creating a SAMBA based WorkGroup on Linux and make it act as a Windows Domain, allowing Windows machines to log onto that domain and share files...

In effect you create users on the Linux server - and Windows users can remotely connect to your server by directly logging in onto their desktop using the username/password you used to create their Linux server accounts...

If this approach is followed, their /home/username folder on the Linux server becomes directly accessible as an extra drive on their windows desktop and can be written/read only by the account-holder.

Similarly, you can set a specific folder as open share - which becomes available to everyone...

Read the article here: Howto: Setup Windows NT/2K Domain Using SAMBA

If you've got any questions post back here or in the original thread and I'll try to reply to my best knowledge..

Firstly create the Directory you want to share.
1. #mkdir /share

give the directory the permission of the others users too.

2. #chmod 777 /share

3. add the users who are able to access the directory

#useradd -s /bin/false xyz

4. for giving password use command

#smbpasswd -a xyz

5. Now go to the file smb.conf as

#vi /etc/samba/smb.conf


6. go to the bottom of the file, there will be entries as

[share]

comment = the comment can be anything
path = where the folder is
valid users = whom to give the permission
public = no
writable = yes
printable = no
browsable = yes

If you want everyone to access the share then put 'yes' in the public field.

8.Start the SAMBA service by using the command

#service smb restart

9. now check the SAMBA share by using the command

#smbclient -L IP Address -N

there is one more command to check the configuration error as

#testparm