[Samba] Puzzle -- Logon/Login from Windows XP

[Tom Skeren]

Top post oh well...
Make Samba a PDC join the XP workstations and use roaming profiles.
AndyLiebman at aol.com wrote:

>I hope somebody can help me with this. I posed this question a week ago and 
>got several well-meaning answers that were not very helpful. 
>
>I have 10 Windows XP workstations and 100 users. Each of the 100 users has an 
>account on my Samba server (running Samba 3.03  on Mandrake Linux 10). 
>
>Each user has several shares on the Samba server which are unique to that 
>user. In other words, only THAT user can access his/her shares, and THAT user has 
>read/write priviledges for those shares. 
>
>BTW,  I define each user's shares by listings in "smb.username.conf" files 
>and the "include=smb.%U.conf" option (I may have that backwards it may be 
>"username.smb.conf" and "include=%U.smb.conf", I have it right on my server.) 
>
>The problem is, I need each of my 100 users to be able to logon to the Samba 
>server (with READ/WRITE access to their own shares) from any of the 10 Windows 
>XP workstations. It's not a problem if the user has an account on the XP 
>machine that matches the username and password on the Linux Samba server. 
>
>But users don't have their own machines and it's impractical to create 100 
>user accounts on EACH Windows XP workstation. Especially when the list of users 
>changes every few months. 
>
>So my question is, how can those 100 users logon to the Samba server from ANY 
>workstation without having an account on the Windows XP workstation that 
>matches their username/password on the Samba server? 
>
>I have a clumsy workaround right now, but I need something better. This is 
>what I can do now:  
>
>-- I have a Samba share that is accessible to everyone. 
>-- In Windows XP, if I "map network drive" on that share and select "connect 
>using different username", I get an opportunity to enter the username and 
>password for the specific user. 
>-- Once the Windows XP machine connects to the Samba server, the Samba server 
>"knows" who the user is and displays a list of the user's own unique shares 
>-- which can then be mapped as well. 
>
>The thing that's awkward about this technique, however, is that I'm having to 
>map a public share JUST to communicate to the Samba server the username and 
>password. 
>
>Isn't there a way to get the Samba server to ask for a username and password 
>when the user clicks on the name of the Samba server in Explorer? 
>
>That's what happens when I click on the name of a Windows XP machine (XP 
>Machine 1) from another Windows XP machine (XP Machine 2) when I'm logged on to 
>Machine 2 with a username and password that does not match an account on XP 
>Machine 1.  I get a dialog box asking for a username and password. If I enter a 
>username that has an account on the first machine -- and the matching password 
>-- I connect and get read/write access to all shared drives and folders. 
>
>I want to get the same dialog box when I click on the Linux Samba server. But 
>how? 
>
>Thanks in advance for the help. 
>
>Regards, 
>Andy Liebman
>  
>