Samba is a server module and an open source
CIFS (
Common Internet File System) implementation created by Aussie
Andrew Tridgell. Its two key programs are
smbd and
nmbd, which implement the four basic CIFS services:
File & print services (provided by smbd)
Authentication and Authorization (handled w/ an authentication server called a Domain Controller)
Name resolution (two types: broadcast and point-to-point. Handled by nmbd)
Service announcement (browsing) (a browsable list of services handled by nmbd)
Note: BSD systems can use smbclient to access files with samba, but using it to access other disks as easily as with NFS would require an smbfs kernel module (for Linux).