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5.1.2 Terminal Server Hosts File Aliases
The Windows Terminal Server can be configured with a hosts file that is similar in function to the
UNIX/Linux /etc/hosts file. The Terminal Server hosts file can be configured to supply Terminal
Server aliases for a back-end Samba file/print server. The resulting behavior is the initiation of a
discrete TCP/IP connection for each configured alias, which then starts a separate smbd process
on the Samba server associated with the transport connect. The default hosts file location is:
C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32\DRIVERS\ETC\HOSTS
The format of hosts file configuration entries is similar to /etc/hosts: an IP address followed by a
name. Multiple alias naming strategies are possible. Using the same naming strategy as the
Samba “netbios alisases =” from the example above, a sample hosts file would look like:
127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.0.1 emonster1
192.168.0.1 emonster2
192.168.0.1 emonster3
192.168.0.1 emonster4
192.168.0.1 emonster5
192.168.0.1 emonster6
This strategy would result in the same access behavior as the Samba netbios aliases method:
the alias must be manually configured, and the user must know the share name
(\\emonster3\share) to connect to.
Another naming strategy is to create an alias with the same name as the Terminal Server user
name:
127.0.0.1 localhost
192.168.0.1 buffy
192.168.0.1 spike
192.168.0.1 willow
192.168.0.1 oz
192.168.0.1 giles
192.168.0.1 cordelia
This strategy would result in the Terminal Server user mapping the drive using their own user
name (\\buffy\share) instead of the Samba server NetBIOS name (\\emonster\share):
