hello. i call myself the_agent and i am new to your forums. my friend helped me set up a redhat 9 server under my router. it functions as a webserver, ftp server, and possibly mail server, but i dont use that so i dont know for sure. i use GAIM for all of my instant messaging needs since i use a windows computer and AIM and Trillian arent amongst my favorite programs. the redhat server is too old for me to use that as a desktop.

anyways, apparently GAIM doesnt have a 'direct connect' feature, which is not really a loss, under my router direct connect often fails anyways. so, generally i use my webserver to send images [a simple junk folder and connecting by ftp, and it works out]. however, connecting via ftp requires that i type things in, and, considering i do it often, i knew there must be an easier way. i asked one of my friends, and he said i could map a network drive. therein lies my dilemma. samba is running; however, i dont know how to work it. smb.conf

i tried to understand it, i honestly did, but i couldn't grasp it.

i removed the semicolon where necessary to allow all local hosts and "enable" [i suppose] the security=share option. i tried to create a new rule[?] to map the network drive, but i'm too much of a to really understand

i tried creating a simple batch file in windows, but i dont know how one would tell it to use the login information. i suppose i dont really need to map a network drive if i can just make a ftp login shortcut

any help is greatly appreciated

-the_agent

one of my friends tried to help me a bit and we made this, but it didnt work out

i can see the server on the network, and when i open it i see the 'junk' folder, but when i try and open that a standard login screen appears, and the username is fixed to Rhserver/Guest and we dont know what to do. i tried looking in the manual, but i wouldnt get it anyways

Did you add the "webftp" user to the Samba database?

well, i didnt add anything. webftp is the user i login with to change things on the webserver. it has the rights over those folders. for samba, no i have not. may i ask how this is done?

do i just run that code from wherever? i logged in as root and typed it as you posted, but it said smbuser: command not found

smbpasswd -a webftp

but since your hosts allow is set to local network just enable guest

path = /var/www/html/junk/
writeable = yes
guest ok = yes
read only = no

i didnt see your message but my friend told me to do what you said [maybe he read it? i dont know] but it worked for creating a user. i'll try and set it all up when i get home thursday

thanks

btw i think you want hosts allow under [global]

Yes, I screwed that up, sorry.

Were you referring to mounting the drive or to the ftp login?

map drive in windows from command line / batch

rem : deletes any share that may be using the drive letter
net use F: /delete

rem : maps drive
net use F: \\host\share password /user:username

connect to FTP from windows from shortcut:
REM : include this in a shortcut string - "using your credentials and the host you want to connect to."
FTP://username:password@host.domain


Using samba will be the easiest solution in the long run, but just since you mentioned it I thought I would throw it in here.

the_agent-
I was dinking around with samba on Wednesday, and here is what I came up with, tailored for your specific problem (this works with linux and win95 :-p machines as clients)

smb.conf
-----------
[global]
workgroup = network
server string = redhatserver
encrypt passwords = yes
security = share

[junk]
path = /var/www/html/junk/
valid users = webftp
writeable = yes
public = no

Then issue the following commands as root:
-----------------------------------------------------
smbpasswd -a webftp // type in your password...
smbpasswd -e webftp // this may be redundant

My configuration is slightly different because I have a public upload directory, but this should work.

Good Luck!

-----------------------------
Peace, Love, and Linux
-----------------------------

i shall try all of these things when i return thursday

fyi this swith /user:username only works on NT kernel not availabe for 9X

you need to do:

useradd guest

passwd guest (make it blank)

then:

smbpasswd guest (make it blank)