Netbios name %m not always correct

[Christopher R. Hertel]

On Fri, Oct 17, 2003 at 06:13:54PM +0100, David Lee wrote:
: 
> Is the following correct?
> 
> 1. Most PC-to-Samba connections these days use NetBIOS-less SMB (445), so
>    the PC's smbd session won't have a NetBIOS name available to all.

Depends on your environment.  In corporations that have forced an 
"upgrade" to W2K and above, then it is likely.  In other environments 
(homes, schools, universities, etc.) using the NetBIOS API is probably 
still the default.

> 2. For a Samba host to use "SMBsend*" protocol elements back to that same
>    PC, it requires the NetBIOS name of the PC to open that connection.

There are all sorts of protocols that Microsoft deployed that used the 
NetBIOS API.  Many of them also used SMB packet formats.  The RAP 
protocol, and Mailslot messages were both carried on top of SMB over 
NetBIOS.  All of these protocols had to be dumped or replaced when moving 
away from the NBT layer, since the addressing scheme was based on NetBIOS 
names.

The Browse Service is similar.  The Browse Service is based on NetBIOS and 
NetBIOS names, even though it runs (yet another layer) on top of mailslots 
and RAP.

Much of this infrastructure was replaced by RPC calls.  The RPC calls can 
be carried over a very wide variety of other protocols.  We've seen RPC 
over SMB, RPC over DCOM, RPC over mixed vegitables...

> If that is correct, then how might one bridge the gap from "1" to "2"?
> (Michael is wanting, quite legitimately, to use "smbclient ... %m ..." as
> part of an "smb.conf" "print command".  And we have other things which
> have used "smbclient ... %m ..." from "preexec".)

Not sure.  Do you mean that you want to send a pop-up message to a user 
when the print job is completed?

> If that is incorrect, then could someone identify the flaw, please?
> 
> (If we're missing something apparently obvious, do tell us!)

Well, if I understand the question then I think what I've provided might 
be helpful.  Maybe.  :)

Chris -)-----

-- 
"Implementing CIFS - the Common Internet FileSystem" ISBN: 013047116X
Samba Team -- http://www.samba.org/     -)-----   Christopher R. Hertel
jCIFS Team -- http://jcifs.samba.org/   -)-----   ubiqx development, uninq.
ubiqx Team -- http://www.ubiqx.org/     -)-----   crh at ubiqx.mn.org
OnLineBook -- http://ubiqx.org/cifs/    -)-----   crh at ubiqx.org