Linux File Sharing in Windows as normal File Sharing

Yes that’s true you can share files of Linux and windows machines like normal windows file sharing.
By Running SAMBA on a Linux machine you can achieve this.
Following are the simple steps to set this.

Install Samba using ‘apt-get’ or ‘yum’, like running following command in Linux box or servers.

apt-get install samba
or
yum install samba

So installation is done. Okay now you need to set up a folder to sharing, user name and password by editing ‘/etc/samba/smb.conf‘ file.
[ad#add-top-in]

  • Setting network

interfaces = 192.168.0.1/24 127.0.0.1/24
bind interfaces only = Yes

By setting this SAMBA will run only on the internal interface.

  • Setting Password

File access permissions for the shares to work, you have to set up the SAMBA username/password by running smbpasswd on the linux box.

smbpasswd <your linux username>

You should use username/password created above in Windows machine to file sharing.

  • Setting up shared folders

[myfile]
comment = My shared files and folders
path = /home/jithonline
read only = no

Then, on the windows machine access it as \\10.0.3.10\ where 10.0.3.10 is the IP address of the linux machine use the password you set using smbpasswd to login.

If you want to share CD/DVD drive

[dvd]
comment = dvd drive on Linux Box
writable = No
locking = No
path = /mnt/cdrom2

Now restart the samba using

/etc/init.d/samba stop
/etc/init.d/samba start

That’s it, all about Linux file sharing in Windows with SAMBA.