[server] Samba Questions

Hi all,

I have set up a headless Ubuntu server to use for media and have been struggling to get Samba shares working on Windows.

What I want to know is why can I not use my user details that I use to login to the server as my Samba user? I created a new user and added them to a group called "smbgrp" and Windows can access the share no problem. However if I add my login user to the same group Windows does not allow access to the share?

Any reason for this? I don't want to use different credentials for my shares.

Secondly, how important is it to have a user login for my shares on my home network? Can I not just have an unsecured share instead?

Thirdly, if I mount an entire HDD and share it why can I not write to it? Seems I can write to folders but not mounts? Is there a way around this?

Thanks!