Biweekly Report - Report 5

26 Jul 2010 – 6 Aug 2010

1. Things I did:

In the first week, I began with re-design the Information Collector I started a few weeks ago. Then I was introduced to a new project to construct a file server for Guangzhou office with Samba, an open source package for file sharing and security control. I studied it for days, to get familiar with its features, functions and usages. Then I built a Samba server on Debian Linux system (Ubuntu 10.04 LTS) for testing and configured basic setting by the end of this week.

In the second week, I continued with the Samba server I built last week. I focused on its security issues, accessibility and networking this time. Also I went through the official guide HOWTO of more than 540 pages and the official example book ByExampleof more than 640 pages to be able to use the Samba under various conditions.

2. Things I learnt

Although I had been working on Linux system for years, it was the first time for me to know about Samba, and lots of relative terminologies, like NetBT, NetBIOS, SMB, CIFS and Opportunistic locking. During the Samba server testing, I also had a better understanding of Linux-Windows interaction and NT domain.

The other skill I improved was time management. It was always a good practise to retrive useful information from large amount of data in limited time.

3. Expectations

I wish to continue to work on Samba server, especially on method to map Windows NT accounts to Unix accounts, so that Windows NT users no longer need to have separate accounts on the Samba server.

Also I wish to install the file server system for Guangchou office in real sitaution in the following two weeks before the end of my internship.