Run the below to check if chkconfig and the SAMBA RPM's are installed:

# which chkconfig
/sbin/chkconfig
#

# rpm -aq|egrep -i "smb|samba"
.
samba-client-3.3.2-0.33.fc11.i586
.
#

If anyone is missing, you can use:

# nice -n 19 yum search samba

to get a list of available packages to install from.

Check if the smb daemon is installed:

# chkconfig –list smb
smb             0:off   1:off   2:off   3:off   4:off   5:on    6:off
#

If nothing comes back other then the prompt, check if the service exists:

# ls -al /etc/init.d/smb
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 1745 2009-03-26 16:49 /etc/init.d/smb
#

and enable it in this manner:

# chkconfig –add smb 5

to add it to run level 5 (Linux GUI stage).  Then turn it on in this manner:

# chkconfig –level 5 smb on

Samba comes with an comprehensive set of commands to choose from.  Those most important to this post are enbolded:

/usr/bin/findsmb
/usr/bin/mksmbpasswd.sh
/usr/bin/smbcacls
/usr/bin/smbclient
/usr/bin/smbcontrol
/usr/bin/smbcquotas
/usr/bin/smbencrypt
/usr/bin/smbget
/usr/bin/smbpasswd
/usr/bin/smbprint
/usr/bin/smbspool
/usr/bin/smbstatus
/usr/bin/smbtar
/usr/bin/smbtree

 To find out version of package owning above files use:

# rpm -qf /usr/bin/smbclient
samba-client-3.3.2-0.33.fc11.i586
#

Finally, you can use:

# ps -ef |grep smbd
root      2026     1  0 Jul23 ?        00:00:00 smbd -D
root      2046  2026  0 Jul23 ?        00:00:00 smbd -D
root     14524  2026  0 Jul25 ?        00:00:00 smbd -D
#

to ensure it is in fact running.

If the daemon is not running you can restart it by running:

# service smb restart

OR

# /etc/init.d/smb restart

• In Windows, right click on the start button then choose
  Explore
  OR
  Explore All Users
• Browse to or create a folder you would like to share such as C:\HomeMovies or I:\HomeMovies etc.
•  Right click the folder then select Properties… from the pop up menu.  On the popup menu select the Sharing tab.  You should see this panel:

Ensure:

• Share this folder on the network is checked.
• Share name: is set to either the default value or you can type your preference.
• If you would like others to modify files on this disk, select Allow network users to change my files.  This will depend on whether you need to let others modify files there and the who will have access to it.

You will notice that after you do this there will now be a blue hand under that folder indicating it is shared:

as opposed to:

for non shared folders.
 

For this, we wil use the smbclient command like this:

# smbclient -L 192.168.57.7
Enter root's password:
Domain=[MSWIN_NAME] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

        Sharename       Type      Comment
        ———       —-      ——-
.
.
.
        HomeVideos          Disk
.
.
.
session request to 192.168.0.3 failed (Called name not present)
session request to 192 failed (Called name not present)
Domain=[WINPC_NAME] OS=[Windows 5.1] Server=[Windows 2000 LAN Manager]

        Server               Comment
        ———            ——-

        Workgroup            Master
        ———            ——-
#

At least one shared folder off the remote Windows PC should be visible.  In this case, HomeVideos is visible, which is good.

Create a mount folder then use the mount command to mount the shared drive: 

# mkdir /mnt/HomeVideos
# mount -t cifs "//192.168.76.6/HomeVideos" "/mnt/HomeVideos" -ouser=windowsuser,pass=mypassword,domain=WINPC_NAME,rw

though even depending on permissions and setup, the default anonymous user should work (see further down):

# mount -t cifs "//192.168.76.6/HomeVideos" "/mnt/HomeVideos"

Test the drive by navigating to it and creating a test file:

# cd /mnt/HomeVideos
# touch test-file.txt

On your Windows system, check that the test-file.txt exists and remote it.  This simulates a short read and write test on both systems.

See the Q&A below.  If you don't find the answer there, try to search this post as many errors I've encountered are listed in the Q&A.