Linux Network Servers (Craig Hunt Linux Library)

Linux System Administration, Second Edition (Craig Hunt Linux Library)

Linux Sendmail Administration (Craig Hunt Linux Library)

Servers

Linux Samba Server Administration (Craig Hunt Linux Library)

Format: Paperback
Author: Roderick W. Smith
ReleaseDate: 13 November, 2000
Publisher: Sybex
Rating:

high powered samba
I just wanted to set up a simple Samba configuration to share files. My background is that I'm a former UNIX admin and now just have a small home (windows) network with a Linux server. I looked in some of the all-purpose Linux books and they mainly devoted 4-5 pages tops to Samba, which I found to be insufficient, even for my simple needs.

This book on the other hand is kind of overkill (for me). It's 600 pages devoted to nothing but Samba, and things related to samba. It goes through all kinds of networking topics, describing the history of all the different networking layers, what they do, and so forth.

The strength of the book is that it takes you through windows and Linux networking in great detail, and if you read it cover to cover I'm sure you'll really know your stuff. The examples in the book are sufficient, but not great. Rest assured that whatever you need to know about Samba you'll find in this book (eventually).

The weakness of this book is that it's not organized in such a way that it will serve as a very good reference, and it's extremely verbose.

If you must run SMB ... buy this book!
That said. Ok, firstly, I am *not* a fan of Microsoft File Sharing (SMB/Samba) as it is usually set up poorly, and quite insecurely.. .

There are times where one has no choice but to use Windows Networking, and truth-be-told, the Samba implementation of the SMB protocol (Windows Networking) is (in my opinion) faster, less buggy, and more secure than the native Windows version.

Now, as with any network file sharing scheme, the System Admin *must* know how to properly configure & secure the system. That is where this wonderful book comes in.

Within these 600+ pages, Mr. Smith shows he understands his topic like the back of his hand, deftly helping newbie and experienced SA alike with both the basic configurations of file & print sharing, as well as esoterica of the SMB protocol suite.

Another feature about this book that I find exemplary is that the author speaks to *Nix admins about Windows file sharing like *Nix admins, not Windows admins trying to figure out how to share a file with a Unix user. This is very important to keep the number of pages about how to use "cat" "less" "vi" or other common tools to a minimum. . .

Overall, this is one of the best Samba books I have found, and highly recommend it to anyone deploying Windows file sharing in a mixed environment.

Linux Samba Server Administration (Craig Hunt Linux Library)
. Wait for the next book or else go to their website and get the manual.