In a heterogeneous computing environment (e.g. Linux and Windows), it is necessary to use Samba to share files between the Linux systems and Windows systems. Due to the security enhancements in Windows XP SP2 and above however, the administrative share access (e.g. \\{computer name}\c$ is disabled by default.
To enable administrative share access from Linux hosts, we need to change the Windows machine’s security policy. My assumption is that you are using Windows XP. You may need to make further changes depending on the version of Windows you are using.
The security policy snap-in is located at
c:\windows\system32\secpol.msc
Select local policies and then Security Options:
Then select sharing and security model for local accounts:
Under the enhanced security scheme, “Guest only: local users authenticate as guests” is chosen. This policy means that administrative network access is treated as if it was done with a guest account and therefore you would get permission denied error when trying to access an administrative share — even though your account has administrative rights locally.
To allow administrative share on Samba network, you can simply select the other option “Classic: local users authenticate as themselves”.
