NT4 and Samba (ref: newbie question)

[David Bullock]

Ariel,

This area is a bit of a mystery to me too.  I think the story is as
follows and if it isn't please will someone who sees this correct me!

Win95/98 and WinNT do not login to the server is the same way.
Win95/98 works fine with a network login with Samba 1.9.18P10
and many previous versions, but WinNT requires a true NT 
Domain Controller to login.

So with WinNT you cannot use server based profiles or login
scripts, as you can with Win95/98.

However it is possible to get shares from your Samba Server.
When the first share is established, you are asked for a userid
and password.

If you are using encrypted passwords and you establish further
shares you will not be required to re-enter the userid/password
combination - NT4 will silently try to use the same userid/password
you specified for the first share.

If you are NOT using encrypted passwords and you establish
further shares, then for every additional share NT4 will ask the
user to respecify the userid/password.

So for reasonable NT4 client support, you will probably choose 
to set Samba up for encrypted passwords and not put the 
plaintext password option in the NT4 registry.

Samba V2, I understand, is going to allow NT Workstation
logins.  But it is still in development/testing at the moment.

I hope this helps or prompts someone to clarify these points.

Regards,

David Bullock
Loftus Computing Services
Adelaide, South Australia