[Samba] Network browsing

[James Perry]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for the info! I'll sprinkle comments below...

On Sep 18, 2007, at 12:33 PM, Chris Smith wrote:

> On Tuesday 18 September 2007, James Perry wrote:
>> I'm sending a DNS query to the outside
>> world, and after some hunting around through various DNS servers, it
>> gives up and comes back empty, so then the clients have to resort to
>> broadcast.
>
> They shouldn't resort to broadcast unless WINS for some reason  
> isn't working.
> Check the wins.dat file on the server and see if it is properly  
> propagated
> with the clients information.

I'll check and see if there are any entries in the wins.dat file.

>
>> So just having Samba act as a WINS server with the 'wins
>> support = yes' option set isn't enough, even if the clients are
>> specifically told that the Samba server is also a WINS server...
>
> Make sure the clients also have NetBIOS over TCP/IP enabled. Do a  
> testparm and
> make sure that "smb ports" has 139 enabled (445 is optional, the  
> default is
> both which is just fine). Also verify that nmbd is running.

I have the clients set to do NetBIOS over TCP/IP. I'll double check  
the smb ports. nmbd is running.

>
> It's good to have a local DNS server and cache but it shouldn't be  
> necessary
> for doing NetBIOS browsing as long WINS, or its static counterpart,  
> lmhosts
> files, which you can try in place of hosts file entries - and like  
> hosts
> files they need to be replicated on every system, is working properly.
>

That was my hope, that the WINS server alone would handle the  
queries. I was trying to avoid having to set either the hosts/lmhosts  
on the clients manually.

> Clearly a combination of WINS and DNS are to be preferred over their
> respective lmhosts and hosts files. For NetBIOS browsing WINS and  
> lmhosts are
> to be given preference, especially with older clients.
>
> One problem with many DSL/Cable routers is that there is no way to  
> reserve IP
> address assignments and therefore your systems might different IP  
> addresses
> from time to time, especially after power outages. WINS, being  
> dynamic can
> handle this, whereas lmhosts (and hosts) have to be edited. Best to  
> also run
> a proper DHCP server as well or statically assign addresses, unless  
> you set
> your DNS server to do dynamic updates as well.
>

I've assigned a static IP address for the Samba server. I set the  
WINS server on the clients to point directly to the Samba server  
machine.

> Bottom line is that I think your WINS server, and or clients are  
> not working
> properly.
>
> -- 
> Chris
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