I've got a network of four or five PC's running XP, and one laptop running VISTA (that's a separate can of worns. Let's focus on the XP machines). The Kubuntu server offers up three sharesof interest to us: Administrate (which should be visible only to the Secretary and the Senior Pastor), Public (accessible to all) and ChurchHelpmate (accessible to all). The problems I'm running into are: 1. The Senior Pastor cannot access Administrate, though the Secretary can 2. I cannot share these files with security = user. I have to use security = share in smb.conf (which explains #1) 3. If I set security = user, and attempt to access the Ubuntu server, I'm prompted for a name/password. Enter bbrown with a password of password, and XP again requests a password, this time for Ubuntu/bbrown. In other words, it's hanging the box name on the first. It will not permit log in, so samba isn't authenticating properly. 4. All boxes were part of an NT domain before the unfortunate and untimely death of the PIII 867M 256Meg ram "server". Before that event, I had managed to get Ubuntu to join the domain. After said death (which I had nothing to do with and was in another town at the time. Talking to six ministers and a nun), I reversed what I had done to get Ubuntu to join. 5. Finally, and most puzzlingly, twice now Ubuntu has disappeared from the XP Network Neighborhoods. In both occurances, the line workgroup = xxxxx has been deleted. I didn't delete it, and nobody else here knows what smb.conf is....what's up with that? Many thanks in advance stew smb.conf: #======================= Global Settings ======================= [global] workgroup = FCCASHLAND netbios name = Ubuntu smb ports = 139 security = share # This will prevent nmbd to search for NetBIOS names through DNS. dns proxy = no # What naming service and in what order should we use to resolve host names # to IP addresses ; name resolve order = lmhosts host wins bcast #### Networking #### interfaces = eth0,lo #### Debugging/Accounting #### # This tells Samba to use a separate log file for each machine # that connects log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m # Put a capping on the size of the log files (in Kb). max log size = 1000 # We want Samba to log a minimum amount of information to syslog. Everything # should go to /var/log/samba/log.{smbd,nmbd} instead. If you want to log # through syslog you should set the following parameter to something higher. syslog = 0 # Do something sensible when Samba crashes: mail the admin a backtrace panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d ####### Authentication ####### encrypt passwords = true # If you are using encrypted passwords, Samba will need to know what # password database type you are using. passdb backend = tdbsam obey pam restrictions = yes ; guest account = nobody invalid users = root # For Unix password sync to work on a Debian GNU/Linux system, the following # parameters must be set (thanks to Ian Kahan << <a href="mailto:kahan@informatik.tu-muenchen.de">kahan@informatik.tu-muenchen.de</a>> for # sending the correct chat script for the passwd program in Debian Sarge). passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u passwd chat = *Enter\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* . # This boolean controls whether PAM will be used for password changes # when requested by an SMB client instead of the program listed in # 'passwd program'. The default is 'no'. ; pam password change = no ########## Printing ########## load printers = yes # CUPS printing. See also the cupsaddsmb(8) manpage in the # cupsys-client package. printing = cups printcap name = cups ############ Misc ############ socket options = TCP_NODELAY #======================= Share Definitions ======================= [printers] comment = All Printers browseable = no path = /tmp printable = yes public = no writable = no create mode = 0700 # Windows clients look for this share name as a source of downloadable # printer drivers [print$] comment = Printer Drivers path = /var/lib/samba/printers browseable = yes read only = yes guest ok = no [Shared] comment = Shared File Storage writable = yes path = /Shared public = yes [Administrate] comment = Ike and Nanette shared storage username = nanette, Disciples, revike, sschneider writable = yes path = /Shared/Administrative force group = +Secretary public = no create mask = 770 [Helpmate] writable = yes path = /Shared/ChurchHelpmate public = yes force user = Secretary [Public] writable = yes path = /Shared/Public/public public = yes force user = Secretary create mask = 777