# How well does FreeBSD do Windows file sharing?



## NickC (Apr 5, 2012)

Hi,

A bit of a noobie to the linux/unix world so forgive me if this is a dim question but: how well does *F*reeBSD integrate with a Windows 2008 network?  I guess this needs to be done using Samba, is there any sort of GUI sharing manager application integrated or available to enable maintenance of network shares?

I am looking at ways that I can start gradually integrating Linux/Unix into my Windows world, however from what I have seen so far most versions don't make this particularly easy to do.

Thanks,
  Nick


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## tingo (Apr 10, 2012)

FreeBSD uses Samba (as you said), so FreeBSD does Windows file sharing as well as Samba does.
There are FreeBSD ports for Samba versions 3.6, 3.5 and 3.4 (there is also a samba4-devel port).
When it comes to configuring Samba to your needs; you get exactly the same "easiness" and level of documentation as Samba itself provides (plus whatever you can Google up).


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## drhowarddrfine (Apr 11, 2012)

Since Unix did file sharing and network long before Windows, the real question is, how well does Windows share files or integrate into a network.

Thank you! That's my dig for the day. I'll be here all week!


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## roddierod (Apr 11, 2012)

There is a GUI for SAMBA, SMB/CIFS by a third party and it works pretty well.

This is an old version and it compiled for FreeBSD 5, but I have used it on up FreeBSD 8.x 32-bit

http://www.obdev.at/products/sharity/download2.html

There is also a version 3, which for some reason I did not choose, but I can't recall why.
http://www.obdev.at/products/sharity/download.html

I'm not affiliated with the product and have only used it for basic quick sharing with Windows so YMMV.


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