What is Samba? - Definition from WhatIs.com

Samba is a popular freeware program that allows end users to access and use files, printers, and other commonly shared resources on a company's intranet or on the Internet. Samba is often referred to as a network file system and can be installed on a variety of operating system platforms, including: Linux, most common UNIX platforms, OpenVMS, and OS/2.

Samba is based on the common client/server protocol of Server Message Block (SMB) and Common Internet File System (CIFS). Using client software that also supports SMB/CIFS (for example, most Microsoft Windows products), an end user sends a series of client requests to the Samba server on another computer in order to open that computer's files, access a shared printer, or access other resources. The Samba server on the other computer responds to each client request, either granting or denying access to its shared files and resources.

The Samba SMB/CIFS client is called smbclient.

This was last updated in November 2006
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