<sect1 id="windows-shares">
<sect1info>

<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Mike</firstname>
<surname>McBride</surname>
</author>
<author>
<firstname>Jost</firstname>
<surname>Schenck</surname>
</author>
</authorgroup>

<date>04/02/2001</date>
<releaseinfo>1.00.00</releaseinfo>

<keywordset>
<keyword>KDE</keyword>
<keyword>KControl</keyword>
<keyword>Windows shares</keyword>
</keywordset>
</sect1info>
<title>Windows Shares</title>

<sect2 id="windows-shares-intro">
<title>Introduction</title>

<para>In many small local area networks the <acronym>SMB</acronym> protocol is
used to offer network services. Names like <quote>Windows Network</quote> or
<quote>Windows for Workgroups Network</quote> or <quote>LanManager</quote> are
often used as well. Using <acronym>SMB</acronym> you can access so-called
<quote>shares</quote> (&ie; directories made available by the server) as well as
printers.  </para>

<para>&kde; comes with builtin support for the <acronym>SMB</acronym>
protocol. As &kde; is network-transparent that means you can access
<acronym>SMB</acronym> shares from everywhere you can access your local files,
for example in the &konqueror; file manager and in the file dialog. To make use
of this you should provide &kde; with some information on your
<acronym>SMB</acronym> network. But don't worry, this is normally pretty simple
as for example all the Windows clients in your network need and have the same
information.</para>

<!-- Don't know if the following info should go in the base documentation -->
<!-- this smb-ioslave doesn't support showing a list of hosts (like e.g. smb:/),
for this you need the lan or rlan-ioslave, very cool thing (TM) btw. If you want
to write some documentation for this one too, have a look at
kdenetwork/lanbrowsing/lisa/README and contact me if you have questions. -->

<note><para>For the <acronym>SMB</acronym> protocol to work it is required to
have <application>samba</application> correctly installed. If you have a NT
domain controller, you will need at least <application>samba</> version 2.0 or
higher. If you want to access &Windows; 2000 shares, you will need
<application>samba</> version 2.0.7 or higher. Older versions may work, too, but
have not been tested.</para></note>

<!-- TODO: link to some place which explains USING SMB, i.e. konqueror or file
dialog manual -->

</sect2>

<sect2 id="windows-shares-use">
<title>Use</title>

<para>Although there are a lot of insecure <acronym>SMB</acronym> networks out
there which allow access to anyone, in principle you have to authentificate
yourself to access the services of an <acronym>SMB</acronym> server.  By
default, &kde; will use the data entered in the <guilabel>Default user
name</guilabel> and <guilabel>Default password</guilabel> fields to
authentificate itself on <acronym>SMB</acronym> hosts. If you let the field
<guilabel>Default user name</guilabel> empty, &kde; will try to access
<acronym>SMB</acronym> hosts without a username. If you let the default password
empty, it will try without a password. If &kde; doesn't succeed to access the
host using these settings, you will be asked for a username and a
password.</para>

<important><para>While it makes things more comfortable if &kde; stores your
<acronym>SMB</acronym> password, this may be a security problem. If you are
using <acronym>SMB</acronym> in a security conscious environment, you should not
store your password here but rather enter it anew every time you need to access
an <acronym>SMB</acronym> host.</para></important>

<para>In the <guilabel>Workgroup</guilabel> field, you can enter your workgroup
name.  If you don't know it, ask your system administrator or have a look at
other already configured machines in your network.  However, in most cases
providing the workgroup name is not required, so you probably can also leave
this empty.</para>

<para>If the option <guilabel>Show hidden shares</guilabel> is checked, shares
ending with an <quote>$</quote> will be shown.</para>
</sect2>

<sect2 id="windows-shares-author">
<title>Section Author</title>
<para>This section written by: Jost Schenck <email>jost@schenck.de</email></para>

</sect2>
</sect1>
