[Samba] Remote browse sync, wins, problems...

[Simon Detheridge]

Hi,

I have a network with three different sites, each with their own
workgroup, each on their own subnet, connected by a VPN.

Each site has a master samba server, acting as a domain master and wins
server. Each site has a mixture of Windows (mostly 2000 professional)
and linux workstations on each workgroup.

I am trying to get all workgroups and all machines viewable in 'network
neighbourhood' at each site.

The sites are set up as 192.168.1.x, 192.168.2.x, and 192.168.3.x...
Samba servers are 192.168.1.2, 192.168.2.2, and 192.168.3.2
respectively.

Each server is set up like this:

     wins server = yes
     remote browse sync = 192.168.2.2 192.168.3.2
     remote announce = 192.168.2.2 192.168.3.2

where the sync and announce values are for the two remote networks.

The problem I have is that in each site, while all three workgroups show
up in network neighbourhood, only the 'local' workgroup has machines
visible in it. The 'remote' workgroups are empty.

Conventional wisdom would have me abandon the idea of one wins server
per site, and switch to running one central wins server, so it could
collect the names of all workstations. HOWEVER: there is a problem. Site
2 has a very-high-latency (read: 2-way-satellite) connection. I don't
really want clients on that network to have to use a remote wins server
as it will take a long time for all client machines to resolve names.
Similarly I don't want to host the master wins server on that network
for the same reason.

Anybody have any ideas how I can either:
    a) Fix the above problem so that all workgroups are correctly
populated, using remote browse sync?
or
    b) Set up a caching wins forwarder (like a caching-only bind server)
on the site2 network, that answers wins requests quickly but forwards
unresolved queries to the 'real' master wins server, thus solving the
problem?

or any other ideas on how I can make this work?

Thanks,
Simon