No SMB/Samba support on Windows Home Editions

[Andrea Venturoli]

L Goodwin wrote:

> I just had a long talk with the ISP's tech support,
> and was told a number of things that I would like to
> confirm or deny:

I don't think you are that clear, but I'll try and answer anyway...


> 1) Windows "Home" editions (including XP and Vista)
> have support for SMB protocol disabled in Active
> Directory Domain Connections functionality! 
> Is this true?

Depends on what you mean.
You can access Samba share from Win XP Home, but you cannot join a domain.
I guess Vista Home should work the same, but I don't really know: there 
might still compatibility issues in Samba, but we are a bit OT here; you 
should ask on a Samba list.



> 2) The only way to make Samba work for Windows Home
> editions is to change the Samba server's domain
> configuration to "peer-to-peer". 
> Is this true? If YES, how do I do that?
> Could not find reference it in the Official Samba-3
> HOW TO and Reference Guide.

AFAIK there is no such switch in Samba.
A Samba server can be a PDC, a BDC, a domain member or a stand-alone 
server, but the concept of peer-to-peer is quite out of scope.
Besides I've succesfully connectectd many WinXP Home to a PDC/BDC, so I 
guess that setting is irrelevant.



> 3) Other options discussed:
> 
> 1) Replace Vista Home with Windows XP Pro (or Vista
> Pro) or exchange computer for one with a "Pro"
> edition.

Quite expensive. Might be worth or might be not.
Either way it's not the solution for you; I fear your problems lies 
somewhere else and you would still get them, unless what you are trying 
to achieve is a central account/password management.
If that is in fact the case, this is *the only* solution.



> 2) Repartition the RAID 1 Mirror/Duplex as NTFS (or
> DOS) partitions (and don't use Samba)?

What has this to do with the rest?



> 3) Change FreeBSD server to a Windows server (ugh).

I dub your (ugh).
Besides this is not gonna help, if what you want is a domain. Win Home 
will still be unable to join it; it's just crippled like that.



  bye
	av.