[Samba] Anonymous access to Samba share with Windows XP Home

[Scott Serr]

I think XP is confused on sets of credentials.  If you have any 
connection to a server as a named user with a password, then subsequent 
connections "want" to be that user/password.  Once (long ago, 1999?) I 
got around something like this by declaring a "NETBIOS alias" in 
smb.conf and connecting to the same server with the alias name for the 
second share.

Might work.

Other thing to look at: Do anonymous shares work with security=user?  
Maybe just security=share?

-Scott

Charles Collicutt wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I've searched the HOWTO and searched with Google for an answer to my  
> problem but to no avail. I hope it's not too obvious.
>
> I have a Linux box running Samba 3.0.4 and a Windows XP Home box on 
> my  local network. I would like to share the home directories on the 
> linux  box and I would also like a share that is accessible 
> anonymously with  no password.
>
> My smb.conf contains the following:
>
> #======================= Global Settings
>
> [global]
>   workgroup = MYWKGRP
>   server string = Charles' Desktop
>   netbios name = Encre
>   security = user
>   hosts allow = 192.168.0.0/24 127.0.0.1
>   hosts deny = 0.0.0.0/0
>   log file = /var/log/samba/%m
>   max log size = 50
>   socket options = TCP_NODELAY
>   passdb backend = tdbsam
>
> #============================ Share Definitions
>
> [homes]
>   comment = Home Directories
>   browseable = no
>   writable = yes
>
> [audio]
>   comment = Charles' Audio Files
>   path = /home/charles/audio
>   force user = charles
>   force group = users
>   read only = No
>   guest ok = Yes
>
> #============================
>
> I can connect to the audio share using
> smbclient -U guest //encre/audio
> on my linux box without providing a password, which is exactly what I  
> want.
>
> However, net use \\encre\audio "" /u:guest fails on the WinXP box,  
> claiming that it is an invalid username or password. Browsing in  
> Explorer fails similarly.
>
> I can solve this by adding an account to my Samba password file whose  
> username matches the username on the WinXP box. However, the whole  
> point of this share is to allow anyone connected to my local network  
> access to my audio share - I don't want to have to add users for 
> every  laptop that comes into wireless range, for example.
>
> Why can't the WinXP box connect anonymously when smbclient on the 
> Linux  box can?
>
> Thank you very much for any help you can provide.
>