[Samba] Samba WINS issues over VPN

[Gaiseric Vandal]

Thanks for the suggestion.    Do you use OpenVPN-  if you do then I can 
be fairly confident that the issue is related with Sonicwall. Ripping 
out and replacing my existing VPN infrastructure however is not an easy 
solution,

The practical problem is that I have an issue with accessing sone Samba 
server over VPN by name.  Every other samba or windows server is 
fine.    I can't quite figure out what is wrong with the one samba 
server (I have another post to the forums on this) but if I could get 
WINS working over VPN that would probably resolve the problem.  I will 
open up the issue with Sonicwall support.

At least, in theory, it sounds like WINS should work over VPN.

Thanks




On 03/03/2011 05:18 AM, Daniel Müller wrote:
> Openvpn should work this issue.
>
> -----------------------------------------------
> EDV Daniel Müller
>
> Leitung EDV
> Tropenklinik Paul-Lechler-Krankenhaus
> Paul-Lechler-Str. 24
> 72076 Tübingen
>
> Tel.: 07071/206-463, Fax: 07071/206-499
> eMail: mueller at tropenklinik.de
> Internet: www.tropenklinik.de
> -----------------------------------------------
> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: samba-bounces at lists.samba.org [mailto:samba-bounces at lists.samba.org] Im
> Auftrag von Gaiseric Vandal
> Gesendet: Mittwoch, 2. März 2011 20:44
> An: Samba
> Betreff: [Samba] Samba WINS issues over VPN
>
> I am running Samba 3.4.8 as a PDC on Solaris 10.    I recently made this
> the WINS master-  previously the BDC (Samba 3.0.37 on another Solaris 10
> server.)
>
> I also use Sonicwall ipsec VPN for remote access (Windows XP clients.)
> The sonicwall client creates a virtual NIC on the client so that the
> client can have an IP address directly on the company LAN (ie. the same
> LAN as the samba servers.)  I can, via dhcp, assign the WINS server IP
> to the sonicwall clients.
>
>
> All ports should be open through the firewall between the sonicwall
> client NIC and the corporate LAN.   VPN clients can map network drives
> to windows or samba servers over the VPN.   NetBIOS broadcasts may be
> blocked.
>
> It appears to that WINS functionality does not work over VPN.     There
> are two pieces of evidence:
>
> 1.  No Wins.dat registration over VPN.
> On the WINS server, I can view look at the wins.dat file to see which
> machines registered with the wins server.     If I connect from an XP
> laptop over the VPN, I do not see the machine in wins.dat.  (It does get
> added to browse.dat.)
>
>
> 2. NBlookup fails over VPN.
> Microsoft provides a tool called "nblookup" for doing NetBios name
> lookups by querying a name server.    You can optionally specify the
> WINS server if the client is not configured to use one, or it you want
> to query a different WINS server.
>
>       e.g nblookup SOMEMACHINE
>              nblookup -s IP_OF_WINS_SERVER SOMEMACHINE
>
> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/830578
>
> If the XP laptop is connected directly to the corporate LAN,  nblookup
> works fine.     If the XP laptop is connected via VPN, then nblookup
> fails, even if I specify the wins server IP address.  I tried this with
> both the current WINS server as well as the old WINS server (prior to
> the cutover.)
>
>
>
> I would appreciate advice.
>
> Thanks
>
>
>