samba - Oct 2011 - how to access public shares without password even when security = user

Hello everyone,
I have always thought that with security = user , a login window will pop-up
and you must insert credentials to access the shares of a samba server.

Yet here I am sitting in front of a QNAP system file server, running Samba
3.5.2. When I type in the address of the samba server, I am presented with
the top level shares (public or not). No login window pops up.. Then if I
try to access some of these shares (that are not public), a login in window
will pop up..
I checked the QNAP's smb.conf thoroughly and found the following

security = USER
map to guest = Bad User

I used the 'map to user' option in another samba server i have
(slackware64
v13.37) Samba v.3.5.10. I also allowed guest users
I almost mimiced the behaviour. I.e. I access the samba server, a login
window pops up, i can type in some random characters and will access the
shares without the need for a proper username password.

But I want to omit having a login window pop up in the top level of the
shares. how should I go about doing that? (of course that will map me to
some guest user and give me access to public folders. the private folders
should still throw a login window at me)

Thank you for your help

Nass

hello there,
does not ANYone have an idea about this following post?

On Tue, Oct 11, 2011 at 4:50 PM, Athanasios Silis <
athanasios.silis at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hello everyone,
> I have always thought that with security = user , a login window will
> pop-up and you must insert credentials to access the shares of a samba
> server.
>
> Yet here I am sitting in front of a QNAP system file server, running Samba
> 3.5.2. When I type in the address of the samba server, I am presented with
> the top level shares (public or not). No login window pops up.. Then if I
> try to access some of these shares (that are not public), a login in window
> will pop up..
> I checked the QNAP's smb.conf thoroughly and found the following
>
> security = USER
> map to guest = Bad User
>
> I used the 'map to user' option in another samba server i have
> (slackware64 v13.37) Samba v.3.5.10. I also allowed guest users
> I almost mimiced the behaviour. I.e. I access the samba server, a login
> window pops up, i can type in some random characters and will access the
> shares without the need for a proper username password.
>
> But I want to omit having a login window pop up in the top level of the
> shares. how should I go about doing that? (of course that will map me to
> some guest user and give me access to public folders. the private folders
> should still throw a login window at me)
>
> Thank you for your help
>
> Nass
>
>