[Samba] Interesting Behavior

[Tom Skeren]

I've know that W2k and XP, in a w2k/k3 domain, attempt to attach to port 
445 first before trying 139.  Here's the interesting part.  Once I join 
a 3.0.4 samba server on FreeBSD 5.2.1, if I try to map to the share 
using \\servername\share, from a w2k/xp domain joined workstation, I get 
a logon prompt, but it fails to connect.  Doing netstat -an on the 
workstation shows an attempt to open a connection to port 139 on  the 
Samba server, but the samba machine shows no such attempt.  Obviously, 
this causes the mapping operation to fail.

However, from the w2k/xp box, map \\ip-addy\sharename and we get a 
connection...no user\pass prompt.  Further, netstat shows the xp box 
attached to the samba server via port 445.  I'm not terribly concerned 
about mapping by IP addy-the servers have static addresses.  However, 
this problem DOES prevent browsing shares from My Network Places.  The 
samba server shows up, but attempts to browse its shares fails--a log in 
prompt pops up as described earlier.  Again, not a huge problem for me, 
as my users have trouble turning their machines on.

The biggest problem here is that the domain joined workstations can't 
map shares from 2.2.8a version samba servers by IP address.  I guess to 
fix that I'll have to upgrade.  However, it would be nice to have some 
of the higher level wizards on the list look into this behavior, as it 
would be nice to be able to browse the shares.  I'd be willing to help, 
if I can offer any.

TMS III