Mount Windows Shares Permanently

CIFS installation

sudo apt-get install cifs-utils

Mounting unprotected (guest) network folders

First, let’s create the mount directory. You will need a separate directory for each mount.

sudo mkdir /media/windowsshare

Then edit your /etc/fstab file (with root privileges) to add this line:

//servername/sharename /media/windowsshare cifs guest,uid=1000,iocharset=utf8 0 0

Where

• guest indicates you don’t need a password to access the share,

• uid=1000 makes the Linux user specified by the id the owner of the mounted share, allowing them to rename files,

• iocharset=utf8 allows access to files with names in non-English languages. This doesn’t work with shares of devices like the Buffalo Tera Station, or Windows machines that export their shares using ISO8895-15.

• If there is any space in the server path, you need to replace it by \040, for example //servername/My\040Documents

After you add the entry to /etc/fstab type:

sudo mount -a

This will (re)mount all entries listed in /etc/fstab.

Mount password protected network folders

Enable WINS share detection

sudo nano /etc/nsswitch.conf

Add to the hosts line: WINS

Install WINS packages

sudo apt-get install libnss-winbind winbind

Using a text editor, create a file for your remote servers logon credential:

gedit ~/.smbcredentials

Enter your Windows username and password in the file:

username=msusername
password=mspassword

Save the file, exit the editor.

Change the permissions of the file to prevent unwanted access to your credentials:

chmod 600 ~/.smbcredentials

Determine which userid you have

id (username)

Then edit your /etc/fstab file (with root privileges) to add this line (replacing the insecure line in the example above, if you added it):

//(serverip)/(sharename) /media/(sharename) cifs credentials=/home/(username)/.smbcredentials,iocharset=utf8,gid=1000,uid=1000,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777 0 0

Save the file, exit the editor.

Finally, test the fstab entry by issuing:

sudo mount -a

If there are no errors, you should test how it works after a reboot. Your remote share should mount automatically.