Why do we treat netbios-name<1D> specially?

[David Collier-Brown]

"Alex H. Vandenham" <alex at avantel.com> wrote:
| the question came up as a result of a problem we were having with 
| multiple workgroups on multiple subnets across a VPN.

Alex had two subnets and two workgroups, the main one ("TELAVAN")
with one Samba server on subnet "A" acting as the browse master 
and the global WINS server.

On the other ("B") subnet there was a local browse master for
the main subnet (if I recollect correctly) and the the 
browse master for the second workgroup, "NEWGROUP".

Unlike the same configuration with NT servers, NEWGROUP wasn't 
visible on the "A" subnet. Both workgroups, of course, were 
visible on subnet "B".

Alex noticed that the WINS data was asymmetrical on the
server on subnet "A":
| "NEWGROUP#00" 956063217 255.255.255.255 e4R	-- Workstation
| "NEWGROUP#1e" 956063217 255.255.255.255 e4R	-- Browser Service
Elections
| "TELAVAN#00" 956109916 255.255.255.255 c4R	-- Workstation
| "TELAVAN#1b" 956109916 192.168.4.1 192.168.0.1 44R -- Domain Master
Browser
| "TELAVAN#1e" 956109916 255.255.255.255 c4R	-- Browser Service
Elections

	The 1b (domain master browser) didn't show up, 
and the code around line 730 in nmbd_winsserver.c says
 
   /*
    * Special policy decisions based on MS documentation.
    * 1). All group names (except names ending in 0x1c) are added as
255.255.255.255.
    * 2). All unique names ending in 0x1d are ignored, although a
positive response is sent.
    */

We both wonder if this is the right thing for the WINS server
to do, and strongly suspect that not having a master browser
for TELAVAN is what's making the behavior asymmetrical and
incompatible
with NT...

--dave

David Collier-Brown,  | Always do right. This will gratify some people
185 Ellerslie Ave.,   | and astonish the rest.        -- Mark Twain
Willowdale, Ontario   | //www.oreilly.com/catalog/samba/author.html
Work: (905) 415-2849 Home: (416) 223-8968 Email: davecb at canada.sun.com