[ Thanks to Kevin
Reichard for this link. ]
“Server Message Block (SMB), also known as Common Internet
File System (CIFS), is one of the most common protocols for sharing
files on a network. It is used with Microsoft Windows and, through
Samba, a variety of other operating systems include Linux. Samba
provides a way to share the contents of Linux directories with
other computers and to access shared directories on a remote
computer. The type of remote computer does not matter. It could be
a computer running Sun Solaris or Windows NT.“
“This article assumes that the Linux computer has a network
adapter installed as described in the previous section and that the
network adapter is assigned a unique IP address. Likewise, the
Samba software is installed. With Red Hat and many other Linux
distributions, this is done via an rpm package. This can be done
when Linux is installed or afterwards. Installing Samba only loads
the software and enables the Samba daemon. No sharing will occur
until Samba is configured. This article addresses the configuration
of Samba as well as issues related to the use of Samba, such as
security.”
“Samba also supports printer sharing. This uses the same SMB
protocol as the file sharing support. Samba can be used to provide
either or both services.” Samba is an open source project like
Apache. Most users will find Samba on their Linux distribution
CD-ROM. The latest version of Samba can also be downloaded from the
Samba Web site.”