SUNTREEAZ.COM<1b>

[MCCALL,DON (HP-USA,ex1)]

Hi Don,
To be fair, it's a pretty confusing topic, this.  On page 377 of the MS
Windows NT Server Networking Guide it has a nice (but very tedious)
flowchart that indicates that the FIRST thing that NT does when trying to
resolve a name is to check IF the hostname > 15 characters, OR contains a
"."  If yes to either of these questions, it assumes that the name is a dns
fqdn name, and queries dns (if dns name resolution is enabled on the
client/server).  IF dns name resolution is NOT enabled for that client or
server, it will fail RIGHT THERE, and never attempt to use any of the other
name resolution choices (wins, broadcast, lmhosts, etc)...  I don't know if
this is actually true, but its a strong argument against using a "." in the
netbios name...

Having said that, the MicroSoft Q article Q188997 specifically states what
are valid NetBIOS computer names, and in the list of ALLOWABLE characters,
it does state  that "." is allowable.

Hope this helps a bit,
Don McCall
-----Original Message-----
From: Don Sutter [mailto:drs at hevanet.com]
Sent: Friday, December 08, 2000 1:36 PM
To: David Collier-Brown
Cc: samba at samba.org
Subject: Re: SUNTREEAZ.COM<1b>


Dave,

Thanks for the note.  I appreciate your answer but I think I
want to take exception to one of your conclusions.  I would
argue that if Samba is trying to be compatible with the
Microsoft Network then it needs to support whatever
conventions the Microsoft Network supports.  If dotted
netbios names are not "kosher" then I would argue that the
bug lies in the Microsoft realm, not in Samba and that Samba
might want to consider supporting the "bug".

This "problem" started when I set up the first PDC.  I'm
still pretty green with some of this internet terminology,
so when NT setup wanted a "Domain" name I entered our
Internet Domain Name because, although I was planning on
using FreeBSD for all of our internet services I wanted to
be able to fall back on NT if I couldn't get FreeBSD to
work.  I've never installed or setup an NT Internet
Information Server before either so I didn't know if it used
the PDC Domain Name or if I could specify a FQDN to IIS.

You used the term "kosher" in regards to the netbios name.
Is there a document somewhere that defines "kosher" netbios
names?

And again, thanks for the note.

Don

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Collier-Brown"
<David.Collier-Brown at canada.sun.com>
To: "Don Sutter" <drs at hevanet.com>
Sent: Friday, December 08, 2000 6:57 AM
Subject: Re: SUNTREEAZ.COM<1b>


> You wrote:
> | I already told you that the NetBIOS Domain Name and the
> | Internet Domain Name were the same, they are both
> | suntreeaz.com!  I don't understand why this is such an
issue
> | in your mind.  Please explain.
>
> It's because of the dot: I think Robert can't believe
> his ears (;-))
>
> In any case, SUNTREEAZ.COM is not a kosher netbios
> name, as it contains a dot.  That samba accepts it
> is arguably a bug: if the netbios name isn't given,
> it's supposed to be the dns name up to but not including
> the first dot.
> --dave
> --
> David Collier-Brown,  | Always do right. This will gratify
some people
> 185 Ellerslie Ave.,   | and astonish the rest.        --
Mark Twain
> Willowdale, Ontario   |
//www.oreilly.com/catalog/samba/author.html
> Work: (905) 415-2849 Home: (416) 223-8968 Email:
davecb at canada.sun.com
>