browsing mystery....

[David Highley]

"Anthony Brock wrote:"
> 
> I don't know if it's actually rare, or if most people rely of Windows OS 
> for WINS when Samba fails. We have been attempting to use Samba with WINS 
> for several years, and have encountered erratic/difficult to diagnose 
> problems the entire time it has been installed. Perhaps 40% of our networks 
> don't have a problem, about 10% of our networks function properly 
> "occasionally", and the remainder have NEVER worked.

Here are a few things that may help you. In the smb.conf file define the
wins server:
    wins server = 10.2.2.3

Then in the dhcp server file, /etc/dhcpd.conf, in the subnet section:
    option netbios-dd-server 10.2.2.3;
    option netbios-node-type 8;

We are using Samba as the wins server and PDC server. The above settings
will stop the Windows boxes from broadcasting. One reason you maybe
having problems is networking administrators commonly block the Windows
broadcasts at the routers. If they did not do this and there were very
many Windows systems they would swamp the network with broadcasts, ask
Microsoft, their networks used to go down quite regularly.

> 
> This has been persistent from version 2.0.0 through 2.2.2. Unfortunately, 
> there is almost no assistance available to help with:
> 
> 1) properly diagnosing if a machine is properly registered,
> 2) diagnosing how to determine WHAT information it is registering,
> 3) diagnosing how to pull the information from the WINS server using 
> Samba's utilities,
> 4) a step-by-step guide for what SHOULD be seen and how to fix common problems,
> 5) and what to do when nothing else seems to be working (i.e., a 
> step-by-step guide to using tcpdump, etc).
> 
> In my case, I have given up (after about 10 posts over 3 years asking for 
> help and no responses which actually help, other than "read diagnose.txt" 
> which has NOTHING that helps with this problem). I live with hard-coding IP 
> addresses as they seem to function when WINS fails. Other than WINS, Samba 
> seems to work great. However, I don't believe they have ever actually 
> gotten this properly functioning.
> 
> Good luck!
> 
> Tony
> 
> At 03:45 PM 11/26/2001 -0800, stoffer at billen.dk wrote:
> >Hi, Sebastian
> >Thanks for your response, I'm also trying to solve the problem...
> >Anyway, it's nice to hear I'm not alone.....hehe
> >I just can't understand why this problem apparently is so rare....
> >
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Sebastian Trahm" <Sebastian.Trahm at alcatel.de>
> >To: <stoffer at billen.dk>
> >Cc: <samba-ntdom at lists.samba.org>
> >Sent: Saturday, November 24, 2001 11:14 AM
> >Subject: AW: browsing mystery....
> >
> >
> > >> Hi,
> > >>
> > >> no, we couldn't solve the problem 'til today. Our workgroup was build up
> >on
> > >> three subnetworks, for every subnetwork we configured a
> >local-master-browser
> > >> and one subnetwork had the domain-master-browser. After a time we were
> > >> able to see all the host from the "other  side" within our "whole"
> >workgroup, but trying
> > >> to connect to them failed with an error message, that the requested host
> >couldn't
> > >> be found. We paused the trial & error method; now going to test only
> > >with
> >two
> > >> subnets, simple routing between, trying another OS;
> > >>
> > >> If i get any further results on it, you will here from me, the only
> >problem is the effort of time.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> take care,
> > >>
> > >> Sebastian
> > >> inthisdefiance at gmx.net
> > >> sebastian.trahm at alcatel.de
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> 
> ******************************************************************************
> * Anthony Brock                                         abrock at georgefox.edu *
> * Director of Network Services                         George Fox University *
> ******************************************************************************
> 
> 
> 


-- 


Regards,

David Highley		      Phone: (206) 669-0081
Highley Recommended, Inc.	FAX: (253) 838-8509
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