Announcing Samba version 2.2 ============================ What is Samba? -------------- Samba is a SMB file server that runs on Unix and other operating systems. It allows these operating systems (currently Unix, Netware, OS/2 and AmigaDOS) to act as a file and print server for SMB and CIFS clients. There are many Lan-Manager compatible clients such as LanManager for DOS, Windows for Workgroups, Windows NT, Windows 95, Linux smbfs, OS/2, Pathworks and more. The package also includes a SMB client for accessing other SMB servers, and an advanced netbios/WINS nameserver for browsing support. What can it do for me? ---------------------- If you have any PCs running SMB clients, such as a PC running Windows for Workgroups, then you can mount file space or printers on a Samba host, so that directories, files and printers on the host are available on the PC. If you have any SMB servers such as Windows NT Server, Warp Server or Pathworks you may be able to replace them by or supplement them with Samba. One of Samba's big strengths is integration, so you can use it to tie together your Unix (or VMS etc) hosts and PC clients. If you are tired of the insecurity, expense and instability of PCNFS then Samba may be for you. The client part of the package will also allow you to attach to other SMB-based servers (such as windows NT and windows for workgroups) so that you can copy files to and from your unix host. The client also allows you to access a SMB printer (such as one attached to an OS/2 or WfWg server) from Unix, using an entry in /etc/printcap, or by explicitly specifying the command used to print files. What are its features? ------------------------ Samba supports many features that are not supported in other SMB implementations (all of which are commercial). These include host as well as username/password security, a client, automatic home directory exporting, automatic printer exporting, dead connection timeouts, umask support, guest connections, name mangling and hidden and system attribute mapping. Look at the FAQs included with the package for a full list of features. What's new since 2.0? --------------------- Lots of stuff. See the change log and man pages for details. In particular, please check the WHATSNEW.txt file in the root directory of each release. This file has current change/update information. Where can I get a client for my PC? ----------------------------------- There is a free client for MS-DOS based PCs available from ftp.microsoft.com in the directory bussys/Clients/MSCLIENT/. Please read the licencing information before downloading. The add-on 32-bit TCP/IP Windows for Workgroups client is also very good. Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT/2000 and OS/2 come with suitable clients by default. What network protocols are supported? ------------------------------------- Currently only TCP/IP is supported. There has been some discussion about ports to other protocols but nothing is yet available. There is a free TCP/IP implementation for Windows for Workgroups available from ftp.microsoft.com (it's small, fast and quite reliable). How much does it cost? ---------------------- Samba software is free software. It is available under the GNU Public licence in source code form at no cost. Please read the file COPYING that comes with the package for more information. What operating systems does it support? --------------------------------------- The code has been written to be as portable as possible. It has been "ported" to many unixes, which mostly required changing only a few lines of code. It has been run (to my knowledge) on at least these unixes: Linux, SunOS, Solaris, SVR4, Ultrix, OSF1, AIX, BSDI, NetBSD, Sequent, HP-UX, SGI, FreeBSD, NeXT, ISC, A/UX, SCO, Intergraph, Silicon Graphics Inc., Domain/OS and DGUX. Some of these have received more testing than others. If it doesn't work with your unix then it should be easy to fix. It has also been ported to Netware, OS/2 and the Amiga. A VMS port is available too. See the web site for more details. Who wrote it? ------------- Many people on the internet have contributed to the development of Samba. The maintainer and original author is Andrew Tridgell, but large parts of the package were contributed by several people from all over the world. Please look at the file `change-log' for information on who did what bits. Where can I get it? ------------------- The package is available via anonymous ftp from samba.org in the directory pub/samba/. What about SMBServer? --------------------- Samba used to be known as SMBServer, until it was pointed out that Syntax, who make a commercial Unix SMB based server, have trademarked that name. The name was then changed to Samba. Also, in 1992 a very early incarnation of Samba was distributed as nbserver. If you see any copies of nbserver or smbserver on ftp sites please let me or the ftp archive maintainer know, as I want to get them deleted. Where can I get more info? --------------------------- Please join the mailing list if you want to discuss the development or use of Samba. To join the mailing list, please read the instructions at http://lists.samba.org/ There is also often quite a bit of discussion about Samba on the newsgroup comp.protocols.smb. A WWW site with lots of Samba info can be found at http://samba.org/samba/ The Samba Team (Contact: samba@samba.org) March 2001