samba - Nov 2007 - can samba authenticate against non domain/server?

We've installed/enabled IIS to get us an FTP server site on a windows
XP pro. This machine has local accounts for remote users to connect
to. Thus they can remotely "window" in, be prompted to change
their password the first time and use their local accounts to ftp
files to/from us.

What if the remote end was not using windows? If they had some
type of unix host, they could still ftp in but as we set up their local
accounts to force changing their initial password, they'd need to
first connect in some other manner and change their password.

Can samba do this? ie if the remote end was a unix box with
samba, could it connect to this XP (workgroup, not domain)
and authenticate against it. Aside from authentication, the
basic question is can samba allow unix users (or their sysadmin)
to change their remote windows password using smbpasswd
or some other utility?  If not, how do others set up IIS on non-
domain servers.

Thanks

What do you mean by "window in" the only way I can think of having a 
non-domain member windows system change a password on another system is 
Remote Desktop. If that is the case, the unix system needs a remote 
desktop client, something like rdesktop.

-- Michael


mashtin.bakir@gmail.com wrote:
> We've installed/enabled IIS to get us an FTP server site on a windows
> XP pro. This machine has local accounts for remote users to connect
> to. Thus they can remotely "window" in, be prompted to change
> their password the first time and use their local accounts to ftp
> files to/from us.
>
> What if the remote end was not using windows? If they had some
> type of unix host, they could still ftp in but as we set up their local
> accounts to force changing their initial password, they'd need to
> first connect in some other manner and change their password.
>
> Can samba do this? ie if the remote end was a unix box with
> samba, could it connect to this XP (workgroup, not domain)
> and authenticate against it. Aside from authentication, the
> basic question is can samba allow unix users (or their sysadmin)
> to change their remote windows password using smbpasswd
> or some other utility?  If not, how do others set up IIS on non-
> domain servers.
>
> Thanks
>