3. Create a smb.conf file: SAMBA configuration almost always begins and ends with a file called smb.conf. The file is located in /etc/samba. Configuring the file can be done either manually in your favorite editor or using the SWAT web interface. Both ways will end up with the file having the right attributes for a SAMBA system.
The manual way is not too difficult. So let’s look at a very basic configuration that will have you up and running in no time. Remember that a smb.conf file already exists in /etc/samba which is made by default when SAMBA is installed. We will be making changes to that. See the box for my smb.conffile
Not much of rocket science here. The Global section specifies the global parameters such as name of the workgroup, the password database file and WINS support. The Share section specifies that a folder called /Home/Raunak/Share will be shared over the network. Change this to whatever you wish to share on the Linux machine. If you want to share everything,just replace the folder name with root (/). It has both read/write privileges and allows guest users to browse it.
The Printer section allows the network to share a printer connected to the Linux box so that I can print directly from my Windows box.
This is a bare minimum basic configuration file. This will just ensure sharing of the specified two resources: the Share folder and the printer over the network. I strongly advise that you read the smb.conf man page for other features and settings.
Now that we have the must-have stuff out of the way, let’s take a look at the configuration on both the Linux and Windows boxes.
First, the Linux system
1. Check your hosts file: You should have a /etc/hosts file that mapslP addresses to Host names. Mine looks like this:
# cat/etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 Localhost
Localhost.Localdomain
192.168.0.10 Darkstar
192.168.0.20 Moonshine
(The cat command displays the contents of a file)
2 Create a Imhosts file: The Imhosts file maps hostnames (or IP addresses) to NetBIOS (computer) names. Create one in /etc using an editor. It should look like this:
# cat letc/lmhosts
Darkstar Darkstar
Moonshine Moonshine
The left column is the hostname and the right column is the NetBIOS name. We ideally want them to be the same to avoid any confusion in name/IP address resolution.
Linux
You will not have to install SAMBA in all probabilities; it comes pre-packed with all standard distributions. All you need to do is tick mark the ‘Windows File Server’ package in the custom install package selection step. The SAMBA suite generally consists of the 5MB server, 5MB client and SWAT, which I will discuss later. If you have some exotic distribution and don’t find SAMBA bundled, download a copy of the binary RPM from the SAMBA download site at http://usl .samba.org/downloads. Use the standardRPM -ivh <filename> command to install it.
Windows
Nothing at all. Just a working version of Windows, Windows XP Professional in my case. And this is exactly what i like about windows. it is complete in itself… 
