Ubuntu – Ubuntu 16 Samba server with Windows 10 client – Tutorial/Howto

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I had some problems with connecting my Windows 10 computer to my Ubuntu 16.04.1's samba server. Finally I got it.

So how to share files on the Ubuntu 16 server with Windows 10 computers?

Best Answer

First, if you made any changes to an existing samba configuration, revert them, or delete the /etc/samba/smb.con and uninstall samba.

I assume your Ubuntu server username is peterlustig and the Ubuntu server IP is 192.168.2.42.

  1. sudo apt-get install samba
  2. sudo cp -pf /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.bak Just backup your config
  3. sudo mkdir /myshares- what you want to share via Samba
  4. sudo chown peterlustig:peterlustig /myshares
  5. sudo chmod 777 /myshares or experiment with lower rights, I havn't done that yet
  6. sudo smbpasswd -a peterlustig Adds the user peterlustig to the Samba database and activates it. (Usually different password than peterlustig in Ubuntu itself. The password is what you need to enter later when connecting with the Windows 10 client to the server, step 10)

  7. sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf And add the following to the bottom of the file:

    # Samba share for Windows clients
[my-shared-folder-name] 
path = /myshares
available = yes
valid users = peterlustig
read only = no
browseable = yes
public = yes
writable = yes

  8. sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart restart your server and reload the config

  9. If you use the ufw Firewall, you need to configure it. E.g. I allow only 192.xxx.xxx.xxx hosts to access my Samba shares, so I entered: sudo ufw allow from 192.0.0.0/8 to any app Samba
  10. In the Windows 10 client, open a Windows Explorer and enter the IP address of your host: \\192.168.2.42. Now you should see your shared folder named my-shared-folder-name from step 8 in the [] brackets. Open it. Now you need to enter your credentials, i.e. username peterlustig and the password you entered in step 6.

You can even map it as Windows network drive. Address will be \\192.168.2.42\my-shared-folder-name, and don't forget to enable using different credentials (than your Windows 10 user provides) and enter peterlustig and password from step 6 there.

Hope this helped anyone. Happy sharing!

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