HP CIFS Server 3.0d Administrator's Guide version A.02.02 (Edition 5)

Introduction to the HP CIFS Server
The Open Source Software (OSS) Samba Suite
Chapter 1 5
The Open Source Software (OSS) Samba Suite
The HP CIFS server source is based on Samba, an Open Source Software
(OSS) project developed in 1991 by Andrew Tridgell in Australia. This
section includes a very brief introduction to the Samba product. As there
are many publications about Samba available online and in most
bookstores, HP recommends that you use these source materials, some of
which were written by Samba team members, for more detailed
information about this product.
Open Source Software
Samba has been made available to HP and other users under the terms
of the GNU Public License (GPL). This means that Samba is “free
software”; free, that is, of any copyright restrictions. The goal of this type
of software is to encourage the cooperative development of new software.
To learn about the GNU Public License, go to the following web site:
http://www.fsf.org.
Samba Server Description and Features
With the Samba suite of programs, systems running UNIX and
UNIX-like OSs are able to provide services using the Microsoft
networking protocol. This capability makes it possible for DOS and
Windows machines using native networking clients supplied by
Microsoft to access a UNIX file system and/or printers.
As a user, you will see the UNIX file system as a drive-letter or an icon in
the “Network Neighborhood” and you will be able to open files from
inside your Windows program as if they are stored on your local system.
To accomplish this, Samba implements the Server Message Block (SMB)
networking protocol on top of NetBios over TCP/IP.
For a complete discussion of Samba and its protocols, refer to chapters 1
and 2, in Using Samba by Robert Eckstein, David Collier-Brown and
Peter Kelly.
To access the Samba web site, go to http://www.samba.org.