Samba configuration for public shares

Solution 1:

If you follow the FAQ link from JasonAzze, you will see there is a "map to guest" line which is also required, so you need both of these lines:

security = user
map to guest = Bad Password

I had the same problem as the OP, and I have tested that this solution works on Fedora 18

Solution 2:

I feel obligated to share this after spending hours trying to get this to work under SAMBA4 - here is my working SAMBA4 smb.conf that does NOT require a password to get to the share from windows

  [global]
  workgroup = HOME
  server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu)
  dns proxy = no
  log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
  max log size = 1000
  syslog = 0
  panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
  server role = standalone server
  security = user
  map to guest = Bad Password
  passdb backend = tdbsam
  obey pam restrictions = yes
  unix password sync = yes
  passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
  passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:*        %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
  pam password change = yes
  usershare allow guests = yes

  # VIDEO SHARE
    [HD]
    comment = HD Video Share
    path = /RAID/HD
    public = yes
    writable = yes
    available = yes
    browsable = yes
    guest ok = yes
    create mask = 0777
    directory mask = 0777

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Solution 3:

Change "security = share" to "security = user"

Reason: both share and server have been deprecated in Samba4.

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Solution 4:

I had to remember to do one other thing before I could get this to work... it was to make sure the permissions on my shared unix directory were read/write for the nobody user or the nogroup group. Debian Jessie, Samba 4.1.