Any way to get Windows SHARE LEVEL ACCESS working?

[IsaacKuo]

My LAN consists mostly of Windows 98 machines, with one Win Me machine and one XP machine. I have them all set up for "Share level access" to prevent any single points of failure. With "Share level access", each share is protected only by a password--no userid of any sort. This means that I don't have to set up any userids or security server or whatever. I just turn on whatever computers I want and I can access files on the other computers with no fuss.

Great, right?

Well, now I've got a dual boot machine, Win98/Debian. I used a hard drive Knoppix install, which I gather is essentially Debian. Well, that's what it says on the splash screen, anyway.

Everything I've researched so far about setting up file sharing between Windows and Linux machines assumes USER LEVEL ACCESS. That means that Knoppix prompts me for BOTH a userid AND a password when trying to access a Windows share--which kind of works, sort of. I can browse directories but not actually access any files with Konqueror, and it prompts me for the userid/password a zillion times whenever I just try browsing to a new directory. I've had some success accessing files on the XP machine.

But basically, this all sucks. I haven't tried to set up Samba yet, but I can already tell it's going to be a problem--the Windows machines are all set up for SHARE LEVEL ACCESS. That means that when they access a fileshare, they prompt for password only (no prompt for userid). How's that going to work?

I really really really really really do not want to completely redo all of my Windows file sharing setups to user level access just to accomodate my Linux machines. I'd prefer if there were some way for Linux to actually be able to properly access/be accessed by a Windows network running SHARE level access.

Help? Please?

Thanks!

[IsaacKuo]

BTW, currently when I want to access files on my network, I reboot my workstation to Win98, transfer the files, and then reboot back into Linux. It's an embarrasment, really.

[mdwatts]

It's been a few years since I setup and configured Samba, so unless another JL member with Samba and 'share level access' experience can offer asssistance, have a look through these G4L search results for

samba "share level access" (http://www.google.com/linux?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=samba+%22SHARE+LEVEL+ACCESS%22&btnG=Google+Search)

and also look/search in the 'How I did it' forum as many of our members have posted guides/tutorials/howto's on Samba.

[IsaacKuo]

Thanks for the tip--although like most everything else, the links I run into seem entirely concerned with the direction I don't need yet. I know everyone else is only interested in using Linux as a file server with Windows machines as clients. However, my file servers are running Windows 98 and that's not going to change any time soon.

I need my Debian workstation to access Windows shares, preferably in a way which doesn't freak out if the Windows machine is powered on AFTER the Linux workstation is (i.e. isn't available on bootup when it first tries to mount), and which can invisibly handle things if the Windows machine crashes or is powered down, and is later powered back up.

In other words, it would be nice if my Debian workstation could access remote files as robustly and easily as the Windows machines can. I hear that Xandros is good at this, but of course Xandros costs money.