[Samba] Openning samba server to the Internet

[Adam Nielsen]

> I want to login to that samba share from another computer not located
> in that specific network.
> 
> What's the right way to do it without using VPN? My problem is that I
> need to access it from a Windows server. And using NFS / FTP /
> RSYNC / SSHFS is not an option due to that.

All you need to do is open the ports that SMB/CIFS uses - from memory,
137, 138, 139 and 445.  You'll also probably need to enable broadcasts,
so that any broadcast messages are also sent to the remote Samba
server.  That can be tricky (if not impossible under Windows) but I
believe you can get around this by enabling the WINS server on the Samba
machine, and then entering its IP address in the "WINS server" field
under the Windows TCP settings box.

Note however that more than a couple of ISPs block these ports for
security reasons, so you may not even be able to accept incoming
connections without using a VPN.

> Using a VPN is not an option due to the specific application usage
> method in the Windows side.

All a VPN is supposed to do is make the IP address of your Samba server
available on a separate network interface.  It should be transparent to
any applications, so if you do it right it shouldn't cause a problem.
It can be tricky to set up, but I think it may end up being less
troublesome/more reliable than allowing direct connections.

Cheers,
Adam.