Samba is software written for Unix to support the SMB Personal Computer networking protocol. With SMB, a remote directory may be mapped to a local disk identifier, and the remote files accessed in an identical fashion as regular files on the local computer. The SMB protocol is available for many PC Operating Systems, including Windows 95.
Small groups working together on a project find it advantageous to have a shared network disk on a central server. For some folks, a departmental fileserver may not be available. A departmental account on Homer can be setup by C&C Information to provide such a network drive.
Once an account on Homer has been setup, its home directory may be mounted as a network drive. An example UNC would be \\simba01\jqhusky.
Your home directory for your UA computer accounts are available to be accessed with the SMB protocol. For each account you have, you can individually mount the home directory for that account. Typically, any symbolic links to other directories are not available, only your files residing within your home directory can be accessed. An example UNC would be \\jqhusky-dante\jqhusky.
Some applications, especially Word will attempt frequent rewriting of open files. This can be a problem for performance when using a disk mounted over a dialup connection. Also, if the dialup connection should be disconnected while a rewrite is occuring, the file will be corrupted and not salvageable. This is very bad, avoid using the dialup mounted files directly by office applications. Instead work on local copies of your files and then expressly copy the files from your local disk to the dialup mounted disk. Because of this problem, the use of dialup mounting of the UA home directories will become prohibited prior to any public announcement of this service.
Some Personal Computer Operating systems will require additional software for you to access your files.
| Operating System | Additional Software |
|---|---|
| Macintosh | DAVE |
| Linux | smbfs and samba |
| Any others | Let me know |
The Samba software on the UA fileservers and DNS software for the deskfile.washington.edu domain have been customized. The changes were made to allow you to easily specify the home directory you want mounted and to provide the SMB service as directly as possible from the physical disk to your computer. It is possible that some SMB clients cannot be made to work with this implementation. Please contact Steve Jones with any problems and solutions you encounter.
