# samba: one password for different win98 machines

## Pegasus

Hi, 

I want to give some win98 machines access to a directory on my linux server.  But because most win98-users don't know there username, i want to use one username.  Is it possible to force samba to use a special account so that the win98-users dont have to enter a username, only a password? (like the 'win98-way-of-sharing-a-directory')

I've read something about "user=" ?

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## taskara

you can make a share that doesn't even require a password.

there is an example in the smb.conf file (public or tmp or something)

u can also use:

guest ok = yes

and there's a security section 

security=user

change that to

security=share

give it a go.

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## Pegasus

thank you,

but i need some security: There are over 200 machines on this network, and i only want a couple of them to be able to access my computer.  i could select them using their ip's but we"re using DHCP (so i'd rather not use this method).

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## taskara

why don't you use samba to create a domain server, and then log your win98 machines onto the domain ?

you can add users to your samba file by using

smbpasswd -a {username} (make sure they are a local linux user too)

then in your samba conf file use 

security = user

users = {usernames}

I have a win98 machine here.. I'll check it out and let you know.. 

you should experiment and see what works for you

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## delta407

 *taskara wrote:*   

> why don't you use samba to create a domain server, and then log your win98 machines onto the domain ?

 

That's unnecessarily complex and may not be possible due to administrative policy on his large network.

Add an account on your Gentoo box for these Win98 machines, set the password (using passwd) to what you want, and add the line "user = [mynewaccount]" to that Samba share. (You may have to be in "security = share", as well; I'm not sure.) According to "man smb.conf", it should compare the supplied password with the passwords of the account(s) specified, and upon matching give the remote user the same filesystem permissions as the local user would have.

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## Pegasus

thank you,

that's exactly what i needed.

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