Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3: System Administration Guide
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# 24.3. Connecting to a Samba Share

You can use Nautilus to view available Samba shares on your network. Select Main Menu Button (on the Panel) => Network Servers to view a list of Samba workgroups on your network. You can also type `smb:` in the Location: bar of Nautilus to view the workgroups.

As shown in Figure 24-6, an icon appears for each available SMB workgroup on the network.

Figure 24-6. SMB Workgroups in Nautilus

Double-click one of the workgroup icons to view a list of computers within the workgroup.

Figure 24-7. SMB Machines in Nautilus

As you can see from Figure 24-7, there is an icon for each machine within the workgroup. Double-click on an icon to view the Samba shares on the machine. If a username and password combination is required, you are prompted for them.

Alternately, you can also specify the Samba server and sharename in the Location: bar for Nautilus using the following syntax (replace `<servername>` and `<sharename>` with the appropriate values):

    smb://<servername>/<sharename>/

## 24.3.1. Command Line

To query the network for Samba servers, use the `findsmb` command. For each server found, it displays its IP address, NetBIOS name, workgroup name, operating system, and SMB server version.

To connect to a Samba share from a shell prompt, type the following command:

    smbclient //<hostname>/<sharename> -U <username>

Replace `<hostname>` with the hostname or IP address of the Samba server you want to connect to, `<sharename>` with the name of the shared directory you want to browse, and `<username>` with the Samba username for the system. Enter the correct password or press <KEYCAP >[Enter]</KEYCAP > if no password is required for the user.

If you see the `smb:\>` prompt, you have successfully logged in. Once you are logged in, type `help` for a list of commands. If you wish to browse the contents of your home directory, replace `sharename` with your username. If the `-U` switch is not used, the username of the current user is passed to the Samba server.

To exit `smbclient`, type `exit` at the `smb:\>` prompt.

## 24.3.2. Mounting the Share

Sometimes it is useful to mount a Samba share to a directory so the files in the directory can be treated as if they are part of the local file system.

To mount a Samba share to a directory, create the directory if it does not exist, and execute the following command as root:

    mount -t  smbfs -o username=<username> //<servername>/<sharename> /mnt/point/

This command mounts `<sharename>` from `<servername>` in the local directory `/mnt/point/`.

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