[Samba] Samba on top of Windows?

[Kevin Keane]

There are numerous issues with the original poster's request.

For one, he doesn't want to deal with the "complexities" of a Windows domain or home group - but considers ripping out the heart of Windows networking and replacing it with Samba. That's akin to taking your brand new Hybrid car to the shop and telling the mechanic "the hybrid engine is too complex and something I don't want to deal with. Can't you just replace the engine with one from a 2010 Volkswagen, configure it to run in 1965 VW Beetle mode, and then simply install a computer to tune it for the Mercedes?"

For another, Windows 98 !? I hate to say it, but without a lot of fiddling, you won't get it to talk to Windows 7. Windows 98 is five major releases and a complete architecture change away. Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 98 almost five years ago. In computer terms, this is stone age.

Microsoft has made major upgrades to the networking protocols in the meantime. In fact, the old versions of the networking protocols supported by Windows 98 are so insecure that they are disabled by default on Windows. Heck, Windows 7 uses IPv6 as the default protocol. That wasn't even INVENTED when Windows 98 came out. You are lucky if the two machines can ping each other! The network neighborhood works differently. File sharing uses encryption and authentication protocols that weren't even dreamt up when Windows 98 came out.

For that matter, you would probably even have problems getting spare parts for the old Windows 98 machine. Have you tried buying floppy disk drives lately? Or a replacement hard disk for that machine?

You can probably get the two machines to talk somehow, but it will take some major research to even find out how to do it. 


My recommendation: retire the Windows 98 machine and donate it to a museum. If you keep the Windows 98 floppies and CDs and manage to get them into your Windows 7 machine, you can even install Windows 98 into a virtual machine.


All that said: yes, it's possible to run Samba on top of Windows. Simply buy and install VMWare workstation. Install Linux into a virtual machine. Install Samba into that Linux machine. Then spend a couple weeks tracking down how to configure Samba to talk to both Windows 7 and Windows 98 at the same time. Done.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: samba-bounces at lists.samba.org [mailto:samba-
> bounces at lists.samba.org] On Behalf Of Damien Dye
> Sent: Friday, May 07, 2010 2:24 AM
> To: Public Mailing Lists
> Cc: samba at lists.samba.org
> Subject: Re: [Samba] Samba on top of Windows?
> 
> you turned off simple file sharing on the windows 7 host and enabled
> windows file sharing on the windows firewall ?
> 
> 
> --
> Damien Dye BSC(hon)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 5 May 2010 16:28, Public Mailing Lists <lists at lists.cichon.com>
> wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I just bought a brand new PC for my living room (Asus eee Box) that
> > happens to come with Windows 7. I can nicely plug in large USB hard
> > drives, any my intention was to share these harddrives on the
> network,
> > for example with my old Windows 98 PC on which I still run some
> favorite
> > computer games. And of course, I would also like to access the large
> > harddrive occasionally from my linux box (e.g. to put backups on
> them).
> >
> > However, I had to learn that Windows 7 does not want to share my
> > harddrive with the other computer on the network that are not Windows
> 7.
> > All tried all different kinds of things: I switched off the "home
> > group", I switched off various encryption/security settings in the
> > control panel. I even changed some registry settings that I googled
> from
> > the web. All without success. I spare you the technical details on
> this...
> >
> > I can't understand why it has to be so hard to just export a simple
> > harddisk on the network. With every single version upgrade of
> Windows,
> > it breaks. From Windows 95 to Windows 98. From Windows 98 to Windows
> XP.
> > And now with Windows 7, again. IMHO, the purpose of networking is to
> > COMMUNICATE with whichever protocol is out there.
> >
> > I don't want to deal with neither Windows domain controllers, nor
> home
> > groups, nor roaming profiles, nor encryption requirements, nor
> anything
> > that Windows will come up with in the next release that breaks
> > everything else. I would like just export a hard disk with a user-
> name
> > and a password and use it with everything from Windows 3.1 to my
> Linux
> > box without getting a headache.
> >
> > So, my question is:
> > Is it possible to run Samba on top of Windows?
> >
> > Thanks for your help in advance.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > G.
> >
> >
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