Arch Linux

x2b

Member

Registered: 2012-05-13

Posts: 22

Connect to a secured workgroup using samba

Hello everyone,

I have been spending a little (a lot actually ^^) time trying to access Windows 7 shares from my machine using samba. My problem is that I can't quite figure out how samba and the Windows 7 authentication fit together. Reading the smbclient and other manpages I have come to the conclusion that a successful login on a windows machine depends on the correct pair of username and password. However, in Windows 7 file shares seem to be working in a differnt way:

First you have to convince Windows that the network you are connecting to is trustworthy at all by designating it a "Home network", as shown here: http://youtu.be/LgVPqKo9Tsg?t=37s . I guess that if Windows doesn't trust the network, then any smb-like sevice is disabled in the first place.

However, to actually access shares from another windows machine you have to join a particular workgroup. The credential for the workgroup is a pre-shared key, see here: http://youtu.be/LgVPqKo9Tsg?t=1m4s . However, the key enables access to the shares of all machines in the workgroup rather than only a single machine, which would be the case for a username/password combination.

My question is:  How does samba fit into all of this? I tried to access the workgroup using

 smbclient -U guest //some.other.ip./SharedFolder 

I get prompted for a password, I tried entering the workgroup password, but I always keep getting authentication errors.
Does this "secured workgroup" concept correspond to a username/password combination? Is it even possible to join a workgroup using samba?

Buddlespit

Member

From: Chesapeake, Va.

Registered: 2014-02-07

Posts: 501

Re: Connect to a secured workgroup using samba

Do you think that you might be able to find real help if you went to a windows forum to ask about windows issues?

edit: I should point out that this isn't a samba issue, but a windows certificate issue.

Last edited by Buddlespit (2015-01-30 19:41:12)

---

Hw-Probe

alphaniner

Member

From: Ancapistan

Registered: 2010-07-12

Posts: 2,810

Re: Connect to a secured workgroup using samba

@Buddlespit

As soon as he mentioned samba, they would tell him to go to a Linux forum...

---

But whether the Constitution really be one thing, or another, this much is certain - that it has either authorized such a government as we have had, or has been powerless to prevent it. In either case, it is unfit to exist.
-Lysander Spooner

Buddlespit

Member

From: Chesapeake, Va.

Registered: 2014-02-07

Posts: 501

Re: Connect to a secured workgroup using samba

Ya, but it's not a samba issue. It's a windows certificate issue.

---

Hw-Probe

gdon

Member

Registered: 2015-01-26

Posts: 15

Re: Connect to a secured workgroup using samba

Hi,

I may be wrong (or outdated), but he is actually not talking about traditional SMB shares (à la WinXP) but about Homegroup shares, which, AFAIK are not supported yet by samba (I insist, Homegroup and not Workgroup).

If you want to access your Windows computer from Linux using SMB for the time being, use the old fashionned SMB shares (right click on the folder you want to share and click click click [<- I've not used Windows for years but it is somewhere there]).

You may need to edit the registry though and change a couple of values to be allowed to do that depending on your specific Windows version but the details should not be hard to find in your favorite search engine.