samba - Jun 2004 - Anonymous access to Samba share with Windows XP Home

Hi,

I've searched the HOWTO and searched with Google for an answer to my  
problem but to no avail. I hope it's not too obvious.

I have a Linux box running Samba 3.0.4 and a Windows XP Home box on my  
local network. I would like to share the home directories on the linux  
box and I would also like a share that is accessible anonymously with  
no password.

My smb.conf contains the following:

#======================= Global Settings

[global]
   workgroup = MYWKGRP
   server string = Charles' Desktop
   netbios name = Encre
   security = user
   hosts allow = 192.168.0.0/24 127.0.0.1
   hosts deny = 0.0.0.0/0
   log file = /var/log/samba/%m
   max log size = 50
   socket options = TCP_NODELAY
   passdb backend = tdbsam

#============================ Share Definitions

[homes]
   comment = Home Directories
   browseable = no
   writable = yes

[audio]
   comment = Charles' Audio Files
   path = /home/charles/audio
   force user = charles
   force group = users
   read only = No
   guest ok = Yes

#===========================
I can connect to the audio share using
smbclient -U guest //encre/audio
on my linux box without providing a password, which is exactly what I  
want.

However, net use \\encre\audio "" /u:guest fails on the WinXP box,  
claiming that it is an invalid username or password. Browsing in  
Explorer fails similarly.

I can solve this by adding an account to my Samba password file whose  
username matches the username on the WinXP box. However, the whole  
point of this share is to allow anyone connected to my local network  
access to my audio share - I don't want to have to add users for every  
laptop that comes into wireless range, for example.

Why can't the WinXP box connect anonymously when smbclient on the Linux  
box can?

Thank you very much for any help you can provide.

-- 
Charles

I think XP is confused on sets of credentials.  If you have any 
connection to a server as a named user with a password, then subsequent 
connections "want" to be that user/password.  Once (long ago, 1999?) I
got around something like this by declaring a "NETBIOS alias" in 
smb.conf and connecting to the same server with the alias name for the 
second share.

Might work.

Other thing to look at: Do anonymous shares work with security=user?  
Maybe just security=share?

-Scott

Charles Collicutt wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I've searched the HOWTO and searched with Google for an answer to my  
> problem but to no avail. I hope it's not too obvious.
>
> I have a Linux box running Samba 3.0.4 and a Windows XP Home box on 
> my  local network. I would like to share the home directories on the 
> linux  box and I would also like a share that is accessible 
> anonymously with  no password.
>
> My smb.conf contains the following:
>
> #======================= Global Settings
>
> [global]
>   workgroup = MYWKGRP
>   server string = Charles' Desktop
>   netbios name = Encre
>   security = user
>   hosts allow = 192.168.0.0/24 127.0.0.1
>   hosts deny = 0.0.0.0/0
>   log file = /var/log/samba/%m
>   max log size = 50
>   socket options = TCP_NODELAY
>   passdb backend = tdbsam
>
> #============================ Share Definitions
>
> [homes]
>   comment = Home Directories
>   browseable = no
>   writable = yes
>
> [audio]
>   comment = Charles' Audio Files
>   path = /home/charles/audio
>   force user = charles
>   force group = users
>   read only = No
>   guest ok = Yes
>
> #===========================>
> I can connect to the audio share using
> smbclient -U guest //encre/audio
> on my linux box without providing a password, which is exactly what I  
> want.
>
> However, net use \\encre\audio "" /u:guest fails on the WinXP
box,
> claiming that it is an invalid username or password. Browsing in  
> Explorer fails similarly.
>
> I can solve this by adding an account to my Samba password file whose  
> username matches the username on the WinXP box. However, the whole  
> point of this share is to allow anyone connected to my local network  
> access to my audio share - I don't want to have to add users for 
> every  laptop that comes into wireless range, for example.
>
> Why can't the WinXP box connect anonymously when smbclient on the 
> Linux  box can?
>
> Thank you very much for any help you can provide.
>