“Samba is a very popular open source server package with which
Linux system can provide file and print services (also known as
shares) for Windows clients of all types. Current versions of Samba
(2.0.7) have rudimentary Primary Domain Controller (PDC) support,
while Samba TNG can perform most PDC functions, even for Windows
2000 clients. Samba implements the Server Message Block (SMB)
protocol, a complex protocol that was developed by IBM in
1984.”
“If your Samba server is correctly configured, you will see
one or two copies of nmbd running, along with one copy of smbd plus
one copy of smbd for each connected user. You can check
whether these services are running with the following command:
ps ax | grep mbd
In addition, the smbstatus command can be very useful.”
“Without doubt, the problem we see most often on the LinuxSA
mailing list has to do with encrypted passwords. The messages
usually go something like this: “I just installed Red Hat 6.2 and
saw that Samba was running, so I tried to browse the network from
my Windows system and got a message about needing a password for
IPC$. What did I do wrong? And what is this IPC$ anyway?”