Mac OS X system can connect to Samba share, but Windows XP can not

When accessing a server running Samba, Mac OS X opens a login window prompting for a username and password. With the correct username and password, I'm able to login and read/write to shares.

Using Windows XP, a similar login window opens, but the username and password appear to fail. After entering both, I click the OK button, the window flashes and reappears. When it reappears the username field now contains, theSambaMachineName\username and the password field is blank.

I'm guessing this is a common problem with Windows XP accessing Samba shares, but searching for general windows to samba problems hasn't been helpful. Anyone know the cause to the problem?

Solution 1:

Typically when you get that kind of prompt, the XP box is looking to authenticate against something and failing. Does this network have a domain? If so, is the OS X machine part of that domain?

The login you provide must match either a domain account or an account that exists on the machine it's connecting to that has permission to that share.

For example, let's say I have a domain called, "MyDomain.local" with a server called, "MyServer". If the account you're using exists in the domain, you'd have to type in the username like this: "MyDomain\Username". If the account does not belong to the domain and only exists on the server, then it'd be "MyServer\Username".

Based on the fact that the XP box is coming back with the name of the server, I'm guessing that the account does not exist on the server.

Solution 2:

you need to set encrypt passwords = true in the global section of smb.conf, because windows sends the passwords encrypted