System information

Chapter 2. Samba

Samba is an implementation of a Server Message Block (SMB) protocol server that can be

run on almost every variant of UNIX® in existence. Samba is an open source project, just like

Linux. Since the code is written in C, it is easily portable to all flavors of UNIX. Samba is a tool

which allows UNIX systems to peacefully coexist with Windows systems by performing file

and print sharing using the NetBIOS protocol. It allows UNIX systems to move into a

Windows “Network Neighborhood” without causing problems. With Samba, UNIX servers act

like any other Windows server, offering their resources to the SMB clients. SMB was renamed

by Microsoft to Common Internet File System (CIFS) when the protocol was updated for

Windows NT®.