[Samba] Samba on Windows?

[Gary Dale]

On 01/04/13 04:18 PM, fromsamba.bitbucketml at spamgourmet.com wrote:
> When trying to copy files to/from a Windows file server from/to 
> another Windows machine, at times the Windows Explorer application 
> will just hang.  This could be due the server being less than 
> responsive, or some other reason.  It ends up being really annoying as 
> Explorer just stops responding due to, presumably, being stuck waiting 
> for a response from the remote server.  There are times when just 
> clicking a file will then cause Explorer to hang, as though its 
> requesting info for the file and not getting a response.
>
> Every time I run into this, I think, why wouldn't this all be 
> threaded?  Why would a background thread do all the network 
> communications asynchronously so that the UI didn't freeze up like 
> this?  Then I think, why not just write a simple CIFS/SMB client which 
> is asynchronous and which doesn't hang due to the remote server not 
> responding.  Also, something that doesn't send any unnecessary 
> requests.  i.e., give me the list of files, let me pick which ones to 
> copy, and copy.  Don't request any additional info about  the files 
> (as I think happens when you right-click a file).
>
> But why write a CIFS/SMB client, when Samba has already done it?  I 
> know Samba is intended for Linux, allowing Linux users to interoperate 
> with Windows.  But has anyone ever attempted building/using the Samba 
> code on Windows?  Could Samba be used to do the protocol stuff in a 
> Windows application?
>
> Seems like there's no reason to re-invent the wheel and dig through 
> the MS protocol documentation, if Samba could be re-used for this 
> purpose.  Does this seem feasible?  Or is this ill-advised? :)

Why not just replace your Windows server and switch your client(s) to 
Linux? It's probably a lot less work. If you have a program that you 
must use that only runs on Windows, try wine or a virtual machine.