File Shares (Windows)

The File Shares (Windows) plugin uses the popular Samba (SMB) daemon to host files on a local network. These files can be accessed from any computer in the network using the network name of the device hosting it and the applicable share name. This plugin is used to coordinate filesharing with Windows-based devices on your network. While this protocol will work with Mac OS X and Linux systems as well, these systems will soon have their own filesharing plugins for use with arkOS.

How to Use

 * To enable the filesharing service, make sure “Running” is listed in the upper button bar. If not, click Start to activate the service and make the shares available.
 * To create a share which can offer your files to other devices on the network, click Add share. The following information is requested:
 * Name: the name of the share. This will be used by other systems when they try to connect to the share. Required.
 * Path: the path to the folder on the disk that you wish to share on the network. Required.
 * Valid Users: a comma-separated list of usernames that should be allowed to access this share. This should correspond to the Windows usernames that should have access, on whatever computer is connecting to the share. Required if Guest Access is disabled.
 * Available: Allows this share to show up in “shared folder” lists on remote machines of the network.
 * Browseable: Allows this share to be opened and viewed by permitted users.
 * Read only: Restricts remote users from modifying the contents of any file in the share.
 * Guest access: Allows users to access this share without having to log in beforehand.
 * Force guest: Prevent users from logging into this share, and only allow access to anonymouns users.
 * The Add User button allows one of the users on the arkOS node to act as a Windows user for the purpose of using or offering SMB shares. When a user is added, a dialog will come up with a host of advanced information. This information should only be changed if you know what you are doing.
 * The Share tab lists all active shares on the machine, and the Users tab lists all arkOS users that are enabled as Windows sharers.
 * The General tab lists general Windows file sharing server settings:
 * Machine description: Shows when viewing the computer in the Network Places window of a Windows machine
 * Workgroup: Declared when connected to a wired (ethernet) network with other Windows computers. If using a network with older Windows computers, this name must match the “workgroup” that these computers are set to.
 * Listen on interfaces: Only offer filesharing on specific interfaces (ethernet ‘eth0′ or wireless ‘wlan0′, etc). Useful if using more than one network interface and restricting availability to certain devices only.
 * Socket options: Advanced arguments to be passed to the SMB server application.
 * Security and Password Server: Use an external authentication source to restrict access to SMB shares, such as Active Directory (AD) or an external password server.