Topic: possible to browse / access shares without password?

[SoftDux]

Hi all

How do I configure SME to allow users on the LAN to browse & access the shares without a username & password? Our environment is secure, and the users are complaining about having to type in a username & password before being able to access their shares.

I'd also like for users to share their own shares on the server, how do I do that? Let's say I have users, Tom, Anne & Pete, how does Pete share his folder //sme/pete with Anne & Tom?

[thomasch]

Hi all

How do I configure SME to allow users on the LAN to browse & access the shares without a username & password? Our environment is secure, and the users are complaining about having to type in a username & password before being able to access their shares.

SME is configured tobe a smb server which is "single authenticate" from Windows Logon

To share an ibay folder without authenticating again (only once :that's everytime you logon to Windows) :
-you have to create users in SME exactly the same as username on your Windows account (Tom, Anne, & Pete)
-Modify the passwords exactly the same as the password set on your Windows account
-set apropriate group membership and apropriate user access to the ibays (Information Bays->user access via file sharing of ftp)

then you can access the shares without entering password again and again.

Other option is to use SME as PDC to do a "single sign on" to access all permitted shares.

[SoftDux]

That's not quite going to work.

We have a mixture of Windows XP Home (no Domain logon) & XP Pro, and they all logon without asking for passwords. Sme requires a password, and even after creating a new user "test" in SME & Windows it still asks the test user for a password then accessging the sme server via My Network Places / Windows Explorer.

I'm looking to share some ibays on the LAN, where I don't necessarily want to create users as well.

[idp_qbn]

You say you have a secure environment - BUT you also say your users logon without a password. The two statements are mutually exclusive.

However, leaving that issue aside, I think what you want is to have your users share access to an Ibay (or Ibays). Thomasch's advice is correct,
BUT
You also need to do something about password strength for your users on the SME server.

Here is an excerpt from the forums somewhere about password strength:
====================
Password Strength

Users are complaining the password strength checking is too strong. How do I change it?
First a warning - Far too many systems out there have weak passwords and they will be broken into. Educating your users on the necessity of strong passwords is the best option. If that fails, here is how you change the password strength checking from 'strong' to 'normal', which was the setting in previous versions of SME. Be careful to use the exact capitalization.

config setprop passwordstrength Users normal
config setprop passwordstrength Ibays normal

It is also possible, but strongly discouraged, to disable password strength checking:

config setprop passwordstrength Users none
config setprop passwordstrength Ibays none

====================

If you set the passswordstrength to none, your SME users can have any password they like -- or none at all.
Then, put the users in a group and give that group read/write (or perhaps read only) access to the Ibay

If you read the manual (http://wiki.contribs.org/Main_Page) it tells you how to do this.

Cheers
Ian

[SoftDux]

What I mean with secure, is that no one other the users themselves access their own PC's, and there's no access to the LAN from the internet. I trust the users, and they need to share stuff like accounting info for Quickbooks, and other LAN based apps.

Everytime they want to access it, they need to enter a password. On Windows XP pro, you could choose to save the password, but it still prompts you, and you need to enter. The problem with this, is that before they can open Quickbooks for example, they need to open My Network Places, and browse the shares so that the passwords get saved for that session (expires on PC shutdown ), which is getting annoying.

I also can't use any automated backup programs on the Windows PC's to backup their data to the server on regular intervals, unless someone has actually "logged on" to the shares.

Thus, I'm looking for an option where no passwords are used. Even setting the passwords to "none" the the commands
config setprop passwordstrength Users none
config setprop passwordstrength Ibays none
require a password for the users.

There's got to be a way todo this with SME. I know it can be done with Samba itself, but I'd prefer it with SME

[shell]

Hi,

The password strength of none is a bit of a misnomer - all passwords need to be >6 in length - even where password strength none is set.

SME is also password / username reliant - I haven't seen a solution that completely removes this necessity but I have used the following as a workaround:

Map an ibay and put a shortcut to this into the startup folder - that way when users log in they are prompted immediately (and only once) for the username and password.  These credentials should then be used for all other ibays.

I am sure there are other ideas but this one worked for me and stopped the XP home grumbles!

Cheers,
shell

[SoftDux]

Thanx. It doesn't solve my problem though, but thanx for the sugesstion

[raem]

SoftDux

Try looking at the templates/config files for smb
I think you can specify
guest
access to ibays if that's what you want.
I don't have time to comment further now, but search forums on guest access or similar as I'm sure it has been answered before, try a long time ago.

[thomasch]

[CUT]
Everytime they want to access it, they need to enter a password. On Windows XP pro, you could choose to save the password, but it still prompts you, and you need to enter. The problem with this, is that before they can open Quickbooks for example, they need to open My Network Places, and browse the shares so that the passwords get saved for that session (expires on PC shutdown ), which is getting annoying.

[CUT]
Thus, I'm looking for an option where no passwords are used. Even setting the passwords to "none" the the commands

There's got to be a way todo this with SME. I know it can be done with Samba itself, but I'd prefer it with SME

In this case, nothing you have to do with sme but what you need is an Ibays and a script that runs everytime window starts

Create a batch file like below that runs every windows startup:

net use //smeservername/ibayname -u username -p password -p

hope this helps

[Thorne45]

The net command runs well. I've setup a network like that. The only fault is if the script runs before network addresses have resolved. If this happens then the script will fail because it cannot see the network (yet). Happens quite often if wireless connections are involved.

You can either run the script again or stick a delay in the script for a few seconds.

Thorne

[jonic]

How do I configure SME to allow users on the LAN to browse & access the shares without a username & password? Our environment is secure, and the users are complaining about having to type in a username & password before being able to access their shares.

First set up your windows boxes with the same users&passwords as SME, as was previously suggested.
This way when you access shares on SME you won't be asked for a password.

Then if you don't want your users to manually enter their passwords when they log in to windows, you have to set up autologon:
- Start/Run: control userpasswords2
- unclick users must enter a user name and password to use this computer
- Apply
- you will be asked for the user/password for the autologon (be sure to enter them correctly)

On restart windows will login automatically, and Sme shares can be accessed without any prompts for passwords.

Hope this helps.

[SoftDux]

This doesn't work for what I need, but thank you for the suggestions.

I don't / can't create users for every PC that needs to access the shares. There's 3 ibays that I want to share on the whole LAN, but the Windows XP home machines won't have users on the SME server. Even if I did create the users on sme EXACTLY the same as on the Win XP Home machines, I'm still prompted for a password. I know this can be done, the same way you share a folder in Windows & samba without needing the end user to supply a username & password to access it, regardless of if he's got an account on the Windows / Linux machine, or not.

Maybe this will help, we have LAN gaming event on a regular basis, where kids bring in their laptops / PC's and connect to the LAN. The sme server will share some game patches, LAN event photos & videos & other useful software, so we can't possibly create accounts on the sme box for every possible users that could ever connect to the LAN

[CharlieBrady]

Maybe this will help, we have LAN gaming event on a regular basis, where kids bring in their laptops / PC's and connect to the LAN. The sme server will share some game patches, LAN event photos & videos & other useful software, so we can't possibly create accounts on the sme box for every possible users that could ever connect to the LAN

Use http, and an intranet URL.