Authenticating a Windows client to a Samba share

Question

I have a Samba network share being served by a Linux machine. The share is read-only unless you give it a username and password. I want my Windows 7 client machine to connect to it.

It appears that the Windows machine is connecting as a guest because it does not have write access. The Windows machine never asks me whether or not it should connect as a guest or with a username.

How do I make the Windows machine authenticate? Where do I input my password? This seems like such a simple thing yet I am totally confused. On Mac OS and Linux, it simply asks you for a username.

Answer 1

You can right click on My Computer and click Map Network Drive. There you can specify the server you want to connect to and also a user to connect as. You will need to make sure any existing connections to that server (seen & unseen) are cleared out beforehand. The "unseen" factor includes hidden IPC$ shares. If you click start, type cmd, then type "net use", you'll see if there are any hidden connections.