“Part of the reason why Linux is so popular in small
intranets today is because Linux is able to share files with
windows clients in a windows network. For those who simply want a
fast file server without having to pay hefty Windows licensing
fees, Linux is a great solution. Linux masquerades as an NT
File server, and as far your clients are concerned, they think that
they are connecting to a windows server. Linux achieves its windows
file sharing ability with a great piece of GNU software called
Samba. Along with SWAT (Samba Web Administration Tool), Linux can
scale well to even heavily used workgroups. A dual PIII-500, with
plenty of RAM and a RAID subsystem can easily handle up to 20 full
time users. SWAT, the integrated administration tool for Samba was
included in the distribution of Samba after version 2.0. SWAT
provides a web interface (http port 901) to configuring Samba
shares. You can add printers, add shares, add users, and likewise
remove printers, shares, and users from the system all through the
Web. Another great feature is the ability to view the connected
users through the SWAT administration kit and disconnect users
through the web interface. SWAT allows many configuration options
to be set. A good case can be given to show that Samba is even more
configurable than NT’s file sharing. Samba comes with smbd, which
is the actual file-sharing daemon, while nmbd is the netbios name
resolution daemon. All you need to know about nmbd is that it
allows you to use the windows protocol across subnets.”