Chapter 29: Making Samba Work for You

Overview

Chapter 25, Samba includes its own web-based configuration utility, SWAT.

You can use Samba packages to configure your Linux computer as a server or a client, and then connect to or share directories and printers. As a Samba client, you can also connect to a shared Microsoft directory in a terminal mode that looks like a text-based FTP connection.

The main Samba configuration file is /etc/samba/smb.conf. Many Linux administrators configure it directly in a text editor, and you can learn how to do the same to share directories and printers from your Linux computer. It’s easy to test and troubleshoot the changes you make to smb.conf.

Samba features two GUI configuration tools. SWAT (Samba Web Administration Tool) is a full-featured, browser-based tool available through TCP/IP port 901. Although simpler, the redhat-config-samba tool can help you configure basic settings for your Samba server and shared directories. This chapter covers the following topics:

Bridging the gap between Linux and Microsoft Windows

Configuring Samba as a client

Understanding the Samba configuration file

Managing Samba users

Using SWAT

Exploring the redhat-config-samba alternative