what is SAMBA and its uses.?

Question

SAMBA will be used only in windows or in unix also.

Answer 1

Samba is a linux based server program that allows you to share files on a linux PC in the same way as you share them on a windows PC...IE over a SMB Connection (SMB=Server Message Block)

Answer 2

Samba is a free software re-implementation of SMB/CIFS networking protocol, released under the GNU General Public License. The name Samba comes from inserting two vowels into the name of the standard protocol used by the Microsoft Windows network file system, "SMB" (Server Message Block).

As of version 3, Samba not only provides file and print services for various Microsoft Windows clients but can also integrate with a Windows Server domain, either as a Primary Domain Controller (PDC) or as a Domain Member. It can also be part of an Active Directory domain. Samba runs on most Unix and Unix-like systems, such as Linux, Solaris, and the BSD variants, including Apple's Mac OS X Server (which was added to the Mac OS X client in version 10.2). Samba is standard on nearly all distributions of Linux and is commonly included as a basic system service on other Unix-based operating systems as well.

Answer 3

You probably want a short and concise description on what SAMBA is....

Samba is a software that runs on UNIX servers and turn it into a file/printer server that can talk to Windows machines. With Samba, you do not need a dedicated Windows file/print server. You can just install it into an existing UNIX environment and let it act as if it were a Windows server.

Answer 4

Samba is software that is designed to emulate a Windows server. SMB is the protocol that Microsoft uses for sharing. SaMBa is only a play on those letters. Samba is only used on Unix systems and you can use it to be an entire domain controller. Cool stuff. Please support the project!

You can share files and folders, controll windows authentication, and make all this appear as though it is a Windows server doing the deed.

Answer 5

samba is used to enable a linux system to share files and browse files on a windows network. Other linux / unix systems that have samba installed also will be able to see these file shares. It's also capable of sharing printers with windows.

Answer 6

Samba is a free software re-implementation of SMB/CIFS networking protocol, released under the GNU General Public License. The name Samba comes from inserting two vowels into the name of the standard protocol used by the Microsoft Windows network file system, "SMB" (Server Message Block).

As of version 3, Samba not only provides file and print services for various Microsoft Windows clients but can also integrate with a Windows Server domain, either as a Primary Domain Controller (PDC) or as a Domain Member. It can also be part of an Active Directory domain. Samba runs on most Unix and Unix-like systems, such as Linux, Solaris, and the BSD variants, including Apple's Mac OS X Server (which was added to the Mac OS X client in version 10.2). Samba is standard on nearly all distributions of Linux and is commonly included as a basic system service on other Unix-based operating systems as well.


Samba is an implementation of dozens of services and a dozen protocols, including NetBIOS over TCP/IP (NBT), SMB, CIFS (an enhanced version of SMB), DCE/RPC or more specifically, MSRPC, the Network Neighborhood suite of protocols, a WINS server also known as a NetBIOS Name Server (NBNS), the NT Domain suite of protocols which includes NT Domain Logons, Secure Accounts Manager (SAM) database, Local Security Authority (LSA) service, NT-style printing service (SPOOLSS), NTLM and more recently Active Directory Logon which involves a modified version of Kerberos and a modified version of LDAP. All these services and protocols are frequently incorrectly referred to as just NetBIOS and/or SMB. Samba can also see and share printers.

Samba sets up network shares for chosen Unix directories (including all contained subdirectories). These appear to Microsoft Windows users as normal Windows folders accessible via the network. Unix users can either mount the shares directly as part of their file structure or, alternatively, can use a utility, smbclient (libsmb) installed with Samba to read the shares with a similar interface to a standard command line FTP program. Each directory can have different access privileges overlayed on top of the normal Unix file protections. For example: home directories would have read/write access for all known users, allowing each to access their own files. However they would still not have access to the files of others unless that permission would normally exist. Note that the netlogon share, typically distributed as a read only share from /etc/samba/netlogon, is the logon directory for user logon scripts.

Configuration is achieved by editing a single file (typically installed as /etc/smb.conf or /etc/samba/smb.conf). Samba can also provide user logon scripts and group policy implementation through poledit.