(Fwd) Samba and win9x woes

[Harondel J. Sibble]

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
From:           	Self <scc>
To:             	vanlug at gweep.bc.ca
Subject:        	Samba and win9x woes
Send reply to:  	help at pdscc.com
Date sent:      	Wed, 31 Mar 1999 01:45:09 -0800


Okay was with a client tonight setting up and edge router 
http://edge.fireplug.net and samba stuff and had a few problems.

Samba is the stock one with RH5.2 (1.9.18 I believe), with no patches
installed. The network has a RH5.2 box with a static IP address, an edge
router (v0.7) and a win95 and win98 box, the win boxes get their ip
address via dhcp from the edge router.  Samba is configured with the stock
smb.conf file except for the following changes

1)the proper workgroup is entered
2)domain logons server for win95 clienst is enabled

plaintext password authentication is enabled on both win9x boxes

the win9x boxes are set under access control in the networking applet for
user-level security and obtain list from the workgroup as above in #1.

under client for microsoft networks logon to windowsNT domain is enabled
and the domain is as above in #1.

the windows logon password is set to null while the client for msnetworks
userid and password are set to the same as the accounts that have been
created on the RH5.2 box


OKay, the problem is, the first win9x box that comes up after booting can
browse the network fine (and access the samba shares, the user's home
directory, what have you) while the second box to come online has no
network connectivity and appears blind to the network (unable to browse
anything in network neighbourhood) . The machine that can browse the
network is able to see the machine that is blind to the network. If win98
starts up first, then it can browse the net and the win95 box can't, and
the converse is also true.

I suspect maybe some kind of browser election issue may be going on,
anyone have any ideas/suggestions, as I am unable to recreate this
situation on my similarly equipped network.

Also the way I left it,seems to work, but without proper authentication
for the users, and hence no access to the home directories. I set "null
passwords = yes" under the global section of smb.conf, disabled the
following:

1)the win9x boxes are set under access control in the networking applet
for user-level security and obtain list from the workgroup as above in #1.
2)under client for microsoft networks logon to windowsNT domain is enabled
and the domain is as above in #1.


restarted both machines and the samba server and now both are able to see
each other fine and browse the network just fine,I have enabled the public
/tmp directory in the smb.conf file so that people sitting at the 2 win9x
computers can move file around.

So, what could be the problem? is it becasue both machines are getting
their ip's via dhcp? Should I enable samba's wins server capability?

Any suggestions on how to fix this so that things can go back to having
each login authenticated based on the userid and password supplied would
be appreciated.



Harondel J. Sibble 
Sibble Computer Consulting
Creating solutions for the small business and home computer user.
help at pdscc.com (pgp enabled)    http://www.pdscc.com
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