[Samba] samba server suddenly denies loggins

[Paul van Noort]

Last friday my samba server stopped responding to new loggins
Nothing in the smb.conf was changed neither was anything else changed 
 
the redhat server (still need to upgrade but waiting on new office space to
deploy better hardware) was responding a little slow.
 
after investigating i noticed that the samba log directory was flooded with
false login attempts. an ls  command to minutes to process. I emptied the
directory en recycled the server.
 
I was still able to mantain connections allready opened but new logins are
still denied "because the computer account in the primary domain is missing
or the password is incorrect"
 
the network consists of xp,win2k and a few 98 machines
 
excerpt from smb.conf
 
#======================= Global Settings
=====================================
 
[global]
 log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
 smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd
 admin users = USERNAMES PROTECTED
 socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
 deadtime = 10
 domain master = yes
 add  machine script = /usr/sbin/adduser -n -g machines -c Machine -d
/dev/null -s /bin/false %u
 time server = Yes
 max disk size = 0
 wins support = yes
 netbios name = Donkey
 server string = %h server (Samba %v)
 logon script = logon.bat
 local master = yes
 acl compatibility = Auto
 workgroup = themall
 os level = 64
 hosts deny = ALL EXCEPT 192.168.2.,127.0.0.1
 security = user
 preferred master = yes
 max log size = 20
 log level = 2
 domain logons = yes
 ;basic server settings
 
        
 
 ;PDC and master browser settings
 #os level = 255
 
 ;security and logging settings
        #logging
       #security
 #domain admin
 
#unix password sync = yes
 
 ;user profiles and home directory
 ;logon path = \\%N\profiles\%U
 
 ;automatically maps the home directory of the user (Windows NT only?)
 ;logon drive = Z:
 ;logon home = \\Donkey\%U
 
#win2k comp.
 
 
 
#======================= Shares =====================================
 
[homes]
 comment = Persoonlijke documenten van %U
 path = /home/profiles/%U
 browseable = no
 read only = no
 valid users = %S