Dancing The Samba (part 1) (
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Tired of paying hundreds of dollars for commercial file server
software? Looking for an application that lets you share *NIX and
Windows files seamlessly across a network? Say hello to Samba, software
that's so cool, it'll make you want to kick up your heels and dance,
dance, dance!It's one of the most basic things a small- or medium-sized office needs, in
order for its employees to work productively together: a centrally-accessible
file server to store and share documents. Most of the time, this functionality
is obtained through commercial file server software; Windows is the de facto
standard, though other commercial options also exist.
However, if you're
on a budget, spending a few hundred dollars for commercial software might seem
like a needless expense - especially since there already exists a full-featured
alternative: Samba, an open-source software project that allows you to replicate
the full functionality of a Windows file server on a Linux box...at zero
cost.
Sounds interesting? Keep reading, because over the course of this
two-part article, I'm going to take you on a quick tour of Samba's file sharing
features, demonstrating how you can use it within a home or small office
environment as an effective replacement for your Windows file server. I'll be
explaining what makes Samba tick, guiding you through the process of installing
and configuring it, and then showing you how to tweak it to get it working just
the way you want. So stop lounging about, and let's get started!
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