Well, I have it installed by default on my machine. So, just install it; if it's not used, it'll do nothing, and if it's needed, it's there.
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I think this solution would be fine if you wanted your Ubuntu machine to be reachable (via netbios name resolution) from other machines, but it could help for your Ubuntu machine to reach the other SAMBA servers on the network in some situations, particularly if your SAMBA servers do not include any Windows machines.
This would also be a solution if you had a Windows machine (with a winbind server) always turned on. It would also be a solution if the Windows machine was turned on before the Ubuntu machine.
So, in some situations, you do not need a winbind server but in other situations, you do need a winbind server. Furthermore, if you have a winbind server installed, it doesn't break the network so it doesn't really hurt anything to have it installed. Since this guide is an attempt to cover as many possible Windows networking pitfalls as possible, this guide includes installing and configuring a winbind server.
Maybe I missed it, but I didn't see anything is this thread about changing "wins support".
sudo gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf
Look for this section:
# Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section:
# WINS Support - Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable its WINS Server
# wins support = yes
"wins support" is probably set to "no". Change it to what is shown above, save, close, restart samba.
If you have a line starting with a hash mark (#) it won't matter what you change the rest of the line to, it won't execute.
Perhaps you meant to say:
Look for this section:
# Windows Internet Name Serving Support Section:
# WINS Support - Tells the NMBD component of Samba to enable its WINS Server
wins support = yes
"wins support" is probably set to "no". Change it to what is shown above, make sure you remove the "#" at the beginning of the line, save, close, restart samba.
And yet, my smb.conf does not mention wins support, which is (by default) set to No. Yet mine works.
This is a common mistake. Please refer to man smb.conf where it says:
In Lunux, the server (allowing other computers to reach yours) and client (allowing your computer to reach others) functions of samba are separate. For the most part, smb.conf handles the server part of samba while Windows browsing is a client function and is handled by mount and cifs, or related network tools included in Nautilus or gigolo (GIO and GVfs).Code:wins support (G)
This boolean controls if the nmbd(8) process in Samba will act as a
WINS server. You should not set this to yes unless you have a
multi-subnetted network and you wish a particular nmbd to be your
WINS server. Note that you should NEVER set this to yes on more
than one machine in your network.
Default: wins support = no
With the exception of the "workgroup" and "netbios name" options in smb.conf (which aren't even necessary, just helpful), the smb.conf file has no effect on Linux ability to browse Windows networks.
dmizer, your comments are most helpful, and they clarify the situation, thank you.
I am curious, then, because I have one (minor) problem. The Windows and Ubuntu computers can access each other's public folders in read-write-create mode, with one exception: Ubuntu machines cannot create files or folders on Windows public folders. How do I solve that problem? (They are Windows 7 and Ubuntu 11.04, both fully updated.)