AW: AW: Beware: Samba is a hoax

Sat Feb 6 17:29:11 GMT 1999

Networking itself is very simple but the several components of the
networking soft and hardware are very complex because there is no standard
in setup of the the different components.

As it seems that you can see your samba shares and (partialy) access them
your samba setup seems to be correct. So not the samba setup should be the
cause of your problems. It looks like there is a problem accessing the
network itself.

Try some network tests:

1) ping your linux box from win95 using the ip adress of the linux box. On a
clean network you should see a constant reply time (should be under or not
higher than a ms, depending on the ping tools measurement it may say zero
ms). I assume your win client and the linux box are on the same network
segment. If there is a inconsistancy in the ping reply time there is a
malfunction in some of the network components (maybe soft or hardware,
either on the server or client side).

2) try the ping from the linux box to your win client. The result should be
also constant ping reply time.

4) Next connect to your linux box via telnet (included in win95 or any other
terminal emulation able to use tcp/ip). Login as a user (may be root is not
allowed to do a remote connect. Depends on your linux setup). No produce a
long output. Suitable is "du /" or "find / -print". If your win client don't
seizure it looks good for your network equipment.

5) Test the route between the linux box and your win client using
traceroute. You will find out if there is a router/gateway between the two
systems which will cause a problem/timeout. If configuring routes for a unix
system (linux or any other) you should always give a name to the
router/gateway you are using. Means if you setup e.g.: "route add default
10.10.10.1" i recommend that you at least create a /etc/hosts file
containing "10.10.10.1   xyz". The routing always tries to resolve the name
of a router/gateway. List your routes on the linux box with "netstat -r".
The listing should be displayed quickly. If you have to wait a time there is
a address resolving problem. Look if you see a dummy device in the routes.
On some linux distributions it is setup by default. It is only used for ppp
login. Consult your linux distribution and remove it from the startup.

5) If test 1 to 5 are passed with good results you may raise your debuglevel
in the smb.conf (debuglevel=9 should be enough). Look at the log of the
samba server after connecting from the win client if there is any error
message. The log is usually under "/var/log/log.smb". Even if some messages
maybe "cryptic" you will easily identify an error message.

Again: as you were able to connect to samba you did the right config. If it
would be a problem of samba you were not able to connect to a resource.
Errors in the config result allways in denied accesses. Trust me: there is a
connection problem! Your samba config is ok. A soft/hardware problem may
also be on the linux side. Try connecting form other win clients (if you
didn't yet). If this causes the same errors look at your linux
configuration. A "netstat -i" lists you collisions or other errors on the
net. Perhaps you have a malfunctioning nic in the server. If you can use
another nic do so. Verify that the nic in the server works properly. Boot
with a dos disk and test the nic with the diagnostic program supplied by the
manufactor. Last week i got a SMC nic which was only able to negotiate at
100mbit with a switch over a 3 meter cable. Over a 5 meter cable there were
no sync. With the 3 meter i had no problems with linux. As i knew the 5
meter cable was ok i tested the nic with the dos diagnostic of SMC. It said
the nic was COMLETELY malfunction (wrong base address and used interrupt,
defect interface connector). Changing the nic the 3 and the 5 meter cable
both works fine, the dos diagnostic says all is ok. Linux is very fault
tolerant to the hardware (sometimes to tolerant).

System-Consulting Kollien
Rudolf Kollien

Email: kollien at kollien.de
Our home on the net: http://www.kollien.de
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> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: alex at avantel.com [mailto:alex at avantel.com]
> Gesendet am: Freitag, 5. Februar 1999 22:15
> An: Rudolf.Kollien at kollien.de
> Betreff: Re: AW: Beware: Samba is a hoax
>
> It's nice that it worked for you, but I hope you can understand my
> frustration that my very simple configuration will not work.  I have read
> ALL the documentation that came with each of the three versions of Samba
> that I have tried plus the book published by the Samba team so don't tell
> me to RTFM!
>
> As for testing the clients - I followed the diagnostics procedure provided
> with the Samba package - it all passed.  But I can't access the shared
> services.  And do you really think that a cable would fail only when I
> access a Samba server - this LAN has been working fine.
>
> Having said all that, I agree about the MS documentation - it's hopeless.
> And that's why I'm trying to set up Linux as a file and print server.  But
> if I can't get Linux/Samba to do simple file & print sharing then
> I'll have
> to find something that can.  Hopefully I'll find the problem or find
> someone else who can.
>
> At 02:50 PM 2/5/1999 -0500, you wrote:
> >Try to test your Win clients to work properly.
> >I know there are some problems when you join the samba domain with WinNT
> >workstation 4.0 SP4. But all Win95/98/3.11 should connect to the samba
> >server successfully. As i learned in the past, the most problems
> are on the
> >client side NOT on the server side. Maybe you've got a malfunctioning
> >network cable (was a browsing problem of one of the guys in this mailing
> >list).
> >
> >
> >> 1) Setup is more complex than Sendmail (it set the standard for
> >complexity)
> >On my first start with samba (2 years ago) i spent only 30 min.
> to configure
> >it properly. Read the docs!!!! Contrary to the WinNT docs you will find
> >usefull and understandable information (try to find infos on
> subnet browsing
> >in the NT server docs and understand it!). I used one of the
> exampe configs
> >of samba and adjusted only the parameters for my environment.
> Till today i
> >don't understand the sendmail configuration (i use allways the
> defaults with
> >minor changes).
> >
> >> Samba will still not let you SHARE FILES or SHARE PRINTERS
> between Windows
> >and Unix
> >We use samba on linux with 100 users sharing more than 200 shares and 60
> >printers (accessable from different unix machines and all
> windows clients,
> >even the local printers on the win clients are accessable). All
> shares can
> >be accessed by remote clients over the wan too. There are many
> multiuser win
> >apps using the samba shares with NO trouble. We installed 3
> samba servers.
> >One is the domain master, serving the complete authentification
> of the whole
> >net (across subnets) and providing the wins database. All
> clients joins the
> >domain of this domain master. All clients are able for roaming
> (the profiles
> >are stored on the domain master).
> >
> >Don't flame me, but samba is the most relieable (based on the OS it runs
> >on), fastest win server you can find on this planet. And there are not
> >hidden "features" like security holes or "blue screens". I wish
> to thank all
> >the developers/programmers/hackers of samba for their great job.
> >
> >WinNT server: it only hurts if you survive...........
> >
> >System-Consulting Kollien
> >Rudolf Kollien