This is the third post of this series which shows you how to install, configure and manage Samba in Ubuntu. The second post can be found here.

In this post, we’re going to show you how to change Samba workgroup in Ubuntu. This should also apply to other Linux distributions, but are main focus here is Ubuntu.

You see, when it comes to file sharing, a workgroup is kind of like a container which contains computers. Each computer that belongs to a workgroup can see other’s machine resources that are shared in that workgroup. They are in the same domain.

So, in other to effectively access and share resources with other computers in the same workgroup, you must make sure that they all belong to the workgroup (container).

It’s not required to belong to a workgroup to access resources of other computers. It’s just that it makes it easier to access resources of computers in the same workgroup.

In part one of the series, we showed you how to install Samba on both Ubuntu server and desktop. Part two shows you how to configure Samba access, including creating a samba user and providing access to resources.

Now it’s time to show you how to change or modify Samba’s workgroup.

 

Changing Samba Workgroup for both Ubuntu Server and Desktop

This method should apply to both Ubuntu server and desktop. It allows you to change the workgroup and resolver order so that sharing is made possible.

To get started, open the terminal and run the commands below to open Samba configuration file.

sudo gedit /etc/samba/smb.conf

 

Then edit the file so that the workgroup matches what you want it to be. Also, add the next line to set the name resolver order. This is important in some cases where Ubuntu failed to retrieve share list from server.

 

workgroup-samba-ubuntu 

replace WORKGROUP with the workgroup name you want under “Global Settings.

 

Save the file and you’re done. Although you can change the workgroup name using Samba GUI config tool, doing it here might work as well.

Using the config file also allows you to set the name resolve order list.

Restart Samba or restart your computer to view systems of the same workgroup.

This is how you change Ubuntu Samba workgroup name.

Enjoy!