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<authorgroup>
<author>&Mike.McBride; &Mike.McBride.mail;</author>
<author>&Jost.Schenck; &Jost.Schenck.mail;</author>
<!-- TRANS:ROLES_OF_TRANSLATORS -->
</authorgroup>

<date>2002-02-12</date>
<releaseinfo>3.00.00</releaseinfo>

<keywordset>
<keyword>KDE</keyword>
<keyword>KControl</keyword>
<keyword>Windows shares</keyword>
</keywordset>
</articleinfo>
<sect1 id="windows-shares">
<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; folders made available by the server)
as well as printers.  </para>

<para>&kde; comes with built-in 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 an NT domain controller, you will need at least
<application>Samba</application> version 2.0 or higher. If you want to
access &Windows; 2000 shares, you will need
<application>Samba</application> 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 authenticate 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 authenticate itself on
<acronym>SMB</acronym> hosts. If you leave the field <guilabel>Default
user name</guilabel> empty, &kde; will try to access
<acronym>SMB</acronym> hosts without a username. If you leave the
default password empty, it will try without a password. If &kde; is
unsuccessful accessing 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 a <quote>$</quote> will be shown.</para>
</sect2>

</sect1>

</article>