public directory : help required

[Simon Hyde]

On Wed, 22 Oct 1997 00:55:16 +1000, you wrote:
>
>	Hello,
>	
>	We are working with samba 1.9.16p11 on Solaris. Connections are made
>	from Windows NT or Windows 3.11 PC's.
>	
>	In the smb.conf man pages, the public parameter definition explains that 
>	a public directory is accessed with the privileges of the guest account.
>	
>	In that case, I have a problem in understanding one of the example given 	
>	in the  default configuration file  ( example/simple/smb.conf ):
>	
>; A publicly accessible directory, but read only, except for people in
>; the staff group
>;[public]
>;   comment = Public Stuff
>;   path = /usr/somewhere/public
>;   public = yes
>;   writable = no
>;   printable = no
>;   write list = @staff
>	
>	How is it possible to define a write list when all the users accessing
>	the directory are seen as "guest" ( no password required ) ?
>	
Because you can actually connect with a username, samba falls back on guest
if all 5 other possible password validation methods fail (or none is
supplied) (see the bottom of man smb.conf for info on how it chooses how to
log people in).
Try doing:
smbclient //server/public_share -U username
and you will be suprised to find that you are prompted for a password and
can login with a true username/password and land up using the username you
supplied. If you put 'guest only = yes' in your smb.conf for a guest share
then samba will skip all other 5 methods of password validation and force
someone in as a guest user.