[Samba] Newby questions about using samba

[Rowland penny]

On 15/11/2019 21:09, William Lugg via samba wrote:
> I'm a relatively new user to Samba.  I'm running Linux Mint Silvia 
> XFCE in a home environment on several machines and also have a Win10 
> machine that's my media server.  I'd like to be able to share files 
> among all of the machines.  The office machine is my primary machine 
> where I do most of my work.  I'd like to be able to put files I want 
> to share in a shared location on the office machine and then access 
> those files on the other machines.
>
> In the somewhat distant past (two or three years ago), I got Samba to 
> work under Ubuntu and KDE doing what I described above, but I've not 
> been able to reproduce it since moving to Mint and XFCE. I've been 
> able to find some guides on the web that I think I've followed 
> carefully, but they haven't yielded success for me.  Part of my 
> problem is a lack of understanding in regard to applying the right 
> configuration to my situation.  I'm a fairly savvy computer guy, but 
> not so much in the networking arena - I know enough to get myself into 
> trouble, I suppose.  Reading the samba.org documentation, I'm just not 
> sure where to start or which path to take to establish the correct 
> configuration for my needs.
>
> So, If someone could help me understand the correct way to set up 
> Samba to achieve my goals, I would be most appreciative.  Links to 
> guides and/or tutorials would be great as would a beginner's 
> explanation of how it works for the home user.
>
> Thanks in advance for the help.
> Bill Lugg
>
This all sort of depends on how you want to run Samba and partially on 
what the Win10 OS is, is it pro or home ?

If you are setting up a new network, then, if it is Win 10 pro, you 
could set up an AD domain, see here:

https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Setting_up_Samba_as_an_Active_Directory_Domain_Controller

If it is Win10 Home, then you are stuck with a workgroup, so see here:

https://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Setting_up_Samba_as_a_Standalone_Server

I suggest you read those and then ask again ;-)

Rowland