Samba is a free implementation of the SMB/CIFS protocol used by Windows systems for file sharing over a network, and it is the easiest way to share your linux storage with Windows PCs in a local network (also possible for Mac computers, but for that ones it is more recommended to use NFS rather than Samba).
Samba security can be customized in many ways in terms of users and permissions, basically in the same ways as you can do with Windows systems (just google samba for details) , but if your local network is 100% secure and what you need is a fast way to start sharing files with unrestricted access then you can start here.
NOTE: The following method should only be used in fully secured networks, as it will provide unrestricted access to the storage, giving to all external users the same permissions as the local mistika user. This means that with this method all the external users in your network will be able to copy or destroy all the files that they want!! (for more decent security please ask to a proper system administrator to configure a better security scheme)
STEP 1:
The main SAMBA configuration file is this one:
/etc/samba/smb.conf
As root user, make a backup of that file, and then edit the content with a text editor to look as below (this example will provide a network drive for the storage volume that is mounted at /REALTIME_STORAGE locally. You can use it as a reference for adding other similar volumes).
[global]
workgroup = WORKGROUP
printing = cups
printcap name = cups
printcap cache time = 750
cups options = raw
map to guest = Bad User
include = /etc/samba/dhcp.conf
logon path = \%L\profiles\.msprofile
logon home = \%L\%U\.9xprofile
logon drive = P:
usershare allow guests = Yes
username map = /etc/samba/usermap.txt
[REALTIME_STORAGE]
comment = REALTIME_STORAGE]
path = /REALTIME_STORAGE
guest ok = Yes
browseable = Yes
writeable = Yes
create mask = 0777
directory mask = 0777
strict allocate = Yes
read raw = Yes
write raw = Yes
strict locking = auto
socket options = TCP_NODELAY IPTOS_LOWDELAY SO_RCVBUF=131072 SO_SNDBUF=131072
min receivefile size = 16384
use sendfile = true
aio write size = 16384
inherit owner = yes
inherit group = Yes
STEP 2:
As you may have noticed, the important line in the above example is this one (it is probably the only line that you will need to add to your smb.conf file)
username map = /etc/samba/usermap.txt
Now, as root user you have to create the file /etc/samba/usermap.txt file wit a text editor, and just put this line on it
mistika = *
The star symbol "*" means that ALL remote users will be remapped as the local "mistika" user, thus having exactly the same permissions as if they were the local "mistika" user.
STEP 3:
Finally, restart the samba services for the changes to make effect. Execute this command in a console:
sudo service smb restart
And to test the connection, go to a windows file browser in other computer and in the Network section use the contextual menu to select Map a network drive (the exact menu name may change between windows versions and file browsers, but it should be prettty similar). Then it will ask you for the the path to the network drive, which will use standard Windows CIFS naming (something like \\server\folder ). For example, if the Mistika system has the ip 192.168.1.2 then you will need to type something like this:
192.168.1.2\\REALTIME_STORAGE
That's it. Please note that this is a very rudimentary example to provide unrestricted access. Only use it in a local network where all the users are fully reliable (also, as a minimum you should set a password for the mistika user for minimal security).