tde-i18n/tde-i18n-en_GB/docs/tdebase/kcontrol/smb/index.docbook

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<authorgroup>
<author>&Mike.McBride; &Mike.McBride.mail;</author>
<author>&Jost.Schenck; &Jost.Schenck.mail;</author>
<othercredit role="translator"><firstname>Malcolm</firstname><surname>Hunter</surname><affiliation><address><email>malcolm.hunter@gmx.co.uk</email></address></affiliation><contrib>Conversion to British English</contrib></othercredit> 
</authorgroup>

<date>2002-02-12</date>
<releaseinfo>3.00.00</releaseinfo>

<keywordset>
<keyword>KDE</keyword>
<keyword>KControl</keyword>
<keyword>Windows shares</keyword>
</keywordset>
</articleinfo>
<sect1 id="windows-shares">
<title>Windows Shares</title>

<sect2 id="windows-shares-intro">
<title>Introduction</title>

<para>In many small local area networks, the <acronym>SMB</acronym> protocol is used to offer network services. Names like <quote>&Windows; Network</quote> or <quote>&Windows; for Workgroups Network</quote> or <quote>LanManager</quote> are often used as well. Using <acronym>SMB</acronym> you can access so-called <quote>shares</quote> (&ie; folders made available by the server) as well as printers. </para>

<para>&kde; comes with built-in support for the <acronym>SMB</acronym> protocol. As &kde; is network-transparent that means you can access <acronym>SMB</acronym> shares from everywhere you can access your local files, for example in the &konqueror; file manager and in the file dialogue. To make use of this you should provide &kde; with some information on your <acronym>SMB</acronym> network. But do not worry, this is normally pretty simple as, for example, all the Windows clients in your network need and have the same information.</para>

<!-- Don't know if the following info should go in the base
documentation --> 

<!-- this smb-ioslave doesn't support showing a list
of hosts (like e.g. smb:/), for this you need the lan or rlan-ioslave,
very cool thing (TM) btw. If you want to write some documentation for
this one too, have a look at tdenetwork/lanbrowsing/lisa/README and
contact me if you have questions. -->

<note><para>For the <acronym>SMB</acronym> protocol to work, it is required to have <application>Samba</application> correctly installed. If you have an NT domain controller, you will need at least <application>Samba</application> version 2.0 or higher. If you want to access &Windows; 2000 shares, you will need <application>Samba</application> version 2.0.7 or higher. Older versions may work too, but have not been tested.</para></note>

<!-- TODO: link to some place which explains USING SMB, i.e. konqueror
or file dialog manual -->

</sect2>

<sect2 id="windows-shares-use">
<title>Use</title>

<para>Although there are a lot of insecure <acronym>SMB</acronym> networks out there which allow access to anyone, in principle you have to authenticate yourself to access the services of an <acronym>SMB</acronym> server. By default, &kde; will use the data entered in the <guilabel>Default user name</guilabel> and <guilabel>Default password</guilabel> fields to authenticate itself on <acronym>SMB</acronym> hosts. If you leave the field <guilabel>Default user name</guilabel> empty, &kde; will try to access <acronym>SMB</acronym> hosts without a username. If you leave the default password empty, it will try without a password. If &kde; is unsuccessful accessing the host using these settings, you will be asked for a username and a password.</para>

<important><para>While it makes things more comfortable if &kde; stores your <acronym>SMB</acronym> password, this may be a security problem. If you are using <acronym>SMB</acronym> in a security conscious environment, you should not store your password here but rather enter it anew every time you need to access an <acronym>SMB</acronym> host.</para></important>

<para>In the <guilabel>Workgroup</guilabel> field, you can enter your workgroup name. If you don't know it, ask your system administrator or have a look at other already configured machines in your network. However, in most cases providing the workgroup name is not required, so you probably can also leave this empty.</para>

<para>If the option <guilabel>Show hidden shares</guilabel> is checked, shares ending with a <quote>$</quote> will be shown.</para>
</sect2>

</sect1>

</article>