Samba is a suite of Unix applications that speak the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol. Microsoft Windows operating systems and the OS/2 operating system use SMB to perform client-server networking for file and printer sharing and associated operations. By supporting this protocol, Samba enables computers running Unix to get in on the action, communicating with the same networking protocol as Microsoft Windows and appearing as another Windows system on the network from the perspective of a Windows client. A Samba server offers the following services:
- Share one or more directory trees
- Share one or more Distributed filesystem (Dfs) trees
- Share printers installed on the server among Windows clients on the network
- Assist clients with network browsing
- Authenticate clients logging onto a Windows domain
- Provide or assist with Windows Internet Name Service (WINS) name-server resolution
