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Home > Printing > How to Print to Public Printers > From Windows 98, NT, 2K, ME, and Macintosh (using sambasrv)

IMPORTANT NOTE: Windows users must install the plaintext password patch and reboot your system to use Sambasrv to map a network drive or print to RCS network printers.

Macintosh users must also enable plaintext passwords on their machines in order to be able to use Sambasrv.

For Windows Users...

1. To update the registry, right-click the appropriate file for your operating system and click Open. IMPORTANT NOTE: You must open this link in Internet Explorer; this will not work with other browsers such as Firefox.
   
   • Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7
   • Windows 98
   • Windows ME
   • Windows 2000
   • Windows NT

2. The download will begin, and you will be asked whether you would like to save the file or open it from its current location. Click the Open button.
   
   

3. You will be asked to confirm that you wish to add the new registry entry to your system registry. Click the Yes button.
   
   

4. A message box will pop up confirming that the registry entry has been added correctly. Click the OK button.
   
   

5. Before the patch can take effect, you must reboot your computer. Logging off is not sufficient, you must perform a full power down and restart. Click the Start menu and then select Shut Down...

You should now be able to log on to the campus resources that require the plaintext password patch.

For Macintosh Users...

Mac users should follow the steps below to configure their computer to use plain text passwords to make SMB/CIFS connections. (Please note that you must be an administrator to do these steps.)

1. Make sure that you are not currently connected to any Samba or Windows (SMB/CIFS) servers and that you do not have any Samba or Windows-related error messages open.
2. Open the terminal by opening your Applications folder, then opening the Utilities folder.
3. At the prompt, type sudo pico /etc/nsmb.conf
4. Press the Return key.
5. Enter your password when prompted, then press the Return key again.
6. You should see an empty file and a "New File" notice at the bottom of the Pico window that appears. If the "New File" notice doesn’t appear, the file already exists.
7. Enter the following into the file so that it appears as follows:

   [default]
   minauth=none

8. Save the file by pressing Control-O, pressing the Return key, and then exiting the Pico window by pressing Control-X.
9. At the prompt, type sudo chmod a+r /etc/nsmb.conf
10. Press the Return key.
11. Restart your computer.

Last modified: November 2, 2009