Wins server not available

[Seth Vidal]

> 
> Date: Wed, 19 Nov 1997 11:42:17 +0000
> From: Karl Royer <karl_royer at sandwich.pfizer.com>
> To: samba at samba.anu.edu.au
> Subject: Re:Hosts disappearing from browser list
> Message-ID: <3472D099.559C at sandwich.pfizer.com>
> 
> Since upgrading our samba servers on all our Unix machines
> (Solaris 2.5.1 and 2.6 an Sun Servers) to versions 1.9.17p2 and p4
> we observe the "Hosts disappearing from browser list" problem.
> 
> In patch level 2 (1.9.17p2) an error was logged in the log.nmb file,
> "WINS server did not respond to name registration!"
> 
> When samba is first started the Hosts are browseable on 95 and NT,
> but after a period of time they dissapear from our WINS server.
> If nmbd is restarted they temporarily reappear.
> 
> The setup is as follows,
> 
> >workgroup = SANDWICH-CR
> >domain controller = san-dom-02
> >os level = 0
> >preferred master = no
> >wins support = no
> >wins proxy = yes
> >wins server = san-dom-07
> >local master = no
> >server string = CR Sandwich Workstation (%h) (Samba %v)
> >username map = /etc/samba/username.map
> >password server = san-dom-02
> >password level = 2
> >security = server
> >default service = homes
> >netbios name    = maxwell
> >browseable = yes
> 
> 
> This problem has been observed by other people,
> 
> >From:   Pat Allen <pat at mbari143.mbari.org>
> >To:     "'samba at samba.anu.edu.au'" <samba at samba.anu.edu.au>
> >Subject: Hosts disappearing from browser list
> >Date:   Tue, 18 Nov 1997 14:46:48 -0800
> >
> >Hi everyone,
> >
> >I'm scratching my head on this one. I'm running 1.9.17p2 on several
> >HP-UX 10.2 systems. Everything works great when samba is first started.
> >The systems show up in the browser as you would expect them to. Over the
> >course of time, they disappear from the browser window. You can still
> >get to them via the Find Computer option but not through the browser.
> >I've got 
> >socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_KEEPALIVE
> >
> >I've even tried setting the keep alive value to 60 to see if that would
> >help. But no luck....
> >
> >Killing the samba processes and restarting them will succeed in getting
> >the server back into the browser list. Does anyone have any >suggestions?
> >THANKS!
> 
> 
> And....
> 
> >Date:   Thu, 13 Nov 1997 16:07:09 +0100
> >From:   Rainer Hauck <hauck at informatik.uni-muenchen.de>
> >To:     samba at samba.anu.edu.au
> >Subject: Server disappearing from Browselist
> >
> >Hi,
> >
> >I recently installed 1.9.17p4 (updated from 1.9.17(p0)). It helped me
> >solve a few problems I didn't expect but it somehow broke my nmbd:
> >
> >Every now and then my Samba-Server disappears from the Browselist. The
> >only way to get him on the Browselist again is to restart nmbd.
> >
> >Anyone else seen this?
> >
> >Any hints to get around it (apart from going back to 1.9.17p0)??
> >
> >Thanks and Bye,
> >
> >Rainer Hauck
> 
> 
> I tried 1.9.17p0 and it was okay, so the break was moving to p2. The
> negative response fix in p4 removes the "WINS server not respond..."
> warning message, but we still have non-browseable servers.
> 
> Can anyone help ???
> 
> 			Karl William Royer.
> 

ok karl,
	I had the same trouble and fixed it very kludgily

set up a cron job that kill's and restarts nmbd every hour.

I know this sounds silly but nmbd stops accepting requests.
it occurs (to my knowledge) only on p4

If you do that then there is a slight chance someone might be logging in at
exactly the same time that the job is killed but we've got 60+ clients on
this network and I have had no trouble with them.

thats the best I can do for you though.

-sv