FreeBSD desktop to windows desktop LAN connection

I

itslikethat

I have been running Windows XP SP3 on several computers networked together with a D-Link Broadband VPN Router for years. I have now gotten into FreeBSD with a desktop running KDE and I am trying to use it for everything I used to use Windows for. I am looking for the simplest way to have Windows machines and FreeBSD machines recognize each other and share files over the LAN the way that the Windows Networking Wizard and the 'My Network Places' does between 2 windows machines. I have read many posts and see the Samba ports suggested among others, but am curious to see if there is a targeted solution for LAN connections only.
 
By targeted, I was referring to a port/package that would allow file transfers only betweeen a windows pc and a freebsd box connected by a LAN router. Samba seems to be designed to do a whole lot of things, but I am having a hard time just getting KDE to see my windows computer on in its network, KNetAttach Network Folder Wizard, smb4k, or any other port/package that I have tried. Additionally, all of the Samba 'How-To's on the net seem to be dominated by people running Ubuntu or Kubuntu, which complicates the information they provide.

I was wondering if I was overlooking something because it seems like at this point it would be easier just to run proftpd on my freebsd box and use the FTP client on my windows machine and transfer files that way.
 
itslikethat said:
Additionally, all of the Samba 'How-To's on the net seem to be dominated by people running Ubuntu or Kubuntu, which complicates the information they provide.
Click to expand...
Not really. The configuration of samba itself is the same. It doesn't matter if it runs on FreeBSD, Linux or Solaris.

What you want is just a simple stand-alone samba configuration.

http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/StandAloneServer.html

Also have a look at net/tsclient which is a GUI for net/rdesktop.
 
If you want the windows machine to be able to see shares on the BSD box then you will need samba installed and smbd running.
A simple/usr/local/etc/smb.conf is
Code: 
[global]
workgroup = HOME
netbios name = dell
server string = samba server
security = share

[share]
path = /usr/home/username/share
guest ok = yes
read only = no

If all you want is to access the windows machine shares from the BSD box then you can simply mount the share folder of the windows box. The windows box will have to be configured for file sharing and have a shared folder and allow guests to access files.
Something like
Code: 
#mount -t smbfs //dell/sharename /home/username/mounting_point
You can also mount it by IP address on the network.
Code: 
#mount -t smbfs //172.16.3.50/sharename /home/username/mounting_point
If you are using password-username authentication then use the correct flags in the mount() command.
 
That did it. After taking a look at teckk's 2 step solution and sirdice's reference to the samba website I realized where I was having the problems and was able to get it to work on 2 separate networks. I also went back to the original handbook instructions at http://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/network-samba.html. Hopefully this may be useful to anyone else who is having problems with Samba, but my main problems were

1)getting the path right to the windows machine in the mount instruction
Sometimes windows will give a shared drive or directory a share name that isn't compatible with the freebsd's mount command, usually because it contains parentheses like
Code: 
(C:)
. So in my case I unshared the windows folder and then re-allowed sharing, which is the only way you can change the share name of a drive/directory in windows. When I changed the share name, I just made sure it didn't have any non alpha-numeric characters and it mounted fine.

2)the example samba server configuration script at
/usr/local/share/examples/samba34/smb.conf.default
can be a little confusing if you're just trying to do a simple share, but the 2 examples provided in this thread make it a little easier to get started until you have more time to explore all the other samba options.

I also tried rdesktop and the KDE GUI for that called kde desktop but my windows machine is going to take some more configuring to get it to share its desktop.
 
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