An even more strange win95 browsing problem

Hongwei Li hongwei at morpheus.wustl.edu
Thu Apr 29 16:09:16 GMT 1999


Hi John,

Thank you very much for your help.  I tested on about ten Windows 95 and some
Windows NT.  Six 95 (let me still call them 95-1) can see Linux and AIX shares,
four 95 (call them 95-2) can see AIX shares, but can not see Linux shares.  All
NTs can see Linux and AIX shares.

When I run "nbtstat -a morpheus" (our Linux), I got

on all 95-1 and 95-2:

MAC Address = 00-00-00-00-00-00

on all NT:

Host not found.

If I run nbtstat -a neurology (or NEUROLOGY), I got on all 95-1, 95-2 and NT

Host not found.

A few things: all of our systems (95, NT, Unix) use the same DNS server, which
is the Washington University DNS server, not our subnet server, and TCP/IP as
the default protocol.  All of them are on the same subnet: 128.252.85.x, and
there is no machine in our Washington University called neurology or NEUROLOGY
(I checked the DNS server).  I configured all 95-1 and 95-2 the same way.  Of
course, they are slightly different from NT because the interface is different,
but the basic points are the same: TCP/IP, DNS, Gateway, NT Domain.

I still don't understand:

1. If the problem is on those 95-2, why can they see AIX shares without any
problem?
2. If the problem is on Linux, why 95-1 machines and NTs can see it?
3. If the problem is in samba (I tested version 2.0.2, 1.9.17p4 and 1.9.16p9 on
Linux and AIX), why all 95-1, 95-2 and NT can see AIX shares, but 95-2 can only
see AIX, not Linux?

I greatly appreciate any further help!

Hongwei Li

"Nelson, John P." wrote:

> >From your description, it sounds like there is another computer on the
> network claiming the same smb name used by your samba server.  Some machines
> are seeing one of the computers, the others are seeing the other computer.
>
> Try running "nbtstat -a computername" on both a client that sees your Linux
> box and again on one that sees the NEUROLOGY data.  Ignore everything but
> the MAC address (the rest of the information is interesting, but irrelevent
> in this case).  I'll bet it reports two different MAC addresses (i.e. they
> are reporting two different computers).
>
> The reason that some clients see one and some see the other may be related
> to your networking configuration:  the NT systems may all be using a WINS
> server or DNS server or all be on a single subnet, where the Windows 95
> systems are somehow configured differently.
>
> I hope that helps...
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Hi,
>
> I posted a few messages a couple of days ago about a strange windows 95
> browsing problem with samba-2.0.2, 1.9.17p4 that none of our Windows 95
> users can see our Linux shares, but all NT users can see the Linux
> shares, and all 95 and NT users can see AIX shares.  All of our Linux
> and AIX use the save version of samba (I tested 2.0.2 and 1.9.17p4).
>
> Yesterday, I tried to down grade the version -- installed samba-1.9.16p9
> on all of AIX and Linux systems.  Then, I found that all NT users can
> still all unix shares, but only some of win 95 users can see all
> shares.  Other win 95 users still can not see the Linux shares (they can
> see AIX shares as before).  I compared two Win 95 machines, say called
> 95-1 and 95-2.  On 95-1 users can see all shares, on 95-2 users can see
> only AIX shares.  I click the "Network Neighborhood" icon, it shows the
> AIX and Linux box's names on both 95-1 and 95-2.  However, when I
> right-click the Linux box's name, I got the following strange results:
>
> On 95-1 where users can see all shares, I got a reasonable showing:
>
> Comment:                Samba 1.9.16p9
> Workgroup:            wumdnet (this is our domain name)
> User Logged on:     msnet
> Type:                      Microsoft Windows NT
>
> On 95-2 (and all other win 95 machines where users can not see the Linux
> shares) I got a strange result:
>
> Comment:                NEUROLOGY
> Workgroup:             SLEEP
> Type:                       Microsoft Networking file and print
>
> I don't understand what "NEUROLOGY" and "SLEEP" mean.  We don't have
> such a group/subnet/software.  If I right-click the name of AIX system
> on 95-2, I got the same result as I got on 95-1, i.e. the correct
> result.  That is probably why 95-2 users can not see the Linux box, but
> can see AIX shares.   I reboot the machines (Linux, win 95), restart
> samba, etc., but no difference.
>
> Can somebody give me any clue?  I appreciate all help!
>
> Hongwei Li



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