[Samba] Guest Account - don't enter a password

[Kurt Pfeifle]

> [Samba] Guest Account - don't enter a password
> 
>     * To: samba at listsdotsambadotorg
>     * Subject: [Samba] Guest Account - don't enter a password
>     * From: "Gabby James" <lizard0000092 at hotmaildotcom>
>     * Date: Tue, 11 Nov 2003 14:39:03 -0700
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I am using samba 2.07-36 on a RedHat 7.1 linux system. I want to share a directory on my Linux system to various Windows operating systems (Windows 95, 98, 2000 etc).
> 
> In the shares definition section I have:
> [MyShareDir]
>   comment=My Shared Directoy on my Linux system
>   path= /home/john
>   public = yes
>   writable = yes
>   printable = no
>   create mode = 0664
>   directory mask = 0775
>   browseable = yes
>   guest ok = yes
>   guest account = ftp
>   guest only = yes
> 
> 
> At a DOS prompt on a Windows 2000 machine, I type:
> net use v:  \\10.2.2.2\MyShareDir
> 
> 
> I get a message: "The password or username is invalid for 10.2.2.2" then it prompts me for a username.

Your Win2000 client doesn't know anything about the settings of
your Samba server's smb.conf. (Unless you're logged into your
Win2000 as user "ftp":) Your client will by default attempt to
the login to Samba with the current Win user name ("john", "james",
whatever). And of course, Samba rejects this user and prompts you
for another login....

There are 2 possible solutions:

* You could add to your smb.conf's [global] section

      map to guest = bad user

   which will cause Samba silently to map to user "ftp" if Win2000
   supplies a bad user name like "john" or "james". (NOTE that this
   will happen with all users and shares). Please read the explanations
   for the "map to guest" parameter in "man smb.conf".


* simply change your DOS window command to read

      net use v:  \\10.2.2.2\MyShareDir /USER:ftp

   You can get more MS help hints by typing "net help" and "net help use"


Cheers,
Kurt


> 
>     From reading about samba, I thought the guest account would login in user 
> ftp and not prompt for a password since I have guest ok set to "yes". Am I
> wrong in that idea or is something just wrong with my setup?
> 
> Thanks