samba password problem

[Baldwin, Lloyd]

We are running Samba rev 2.0.7 on a Sun Enterprise 5000 server and several
workstations.  OS rev is solaris 7.  Samba is configured to use the E5000 as
a password server for all the workstations.  The E5000 is at USER level
security with password encryption enabled and the workstations are at SERVER
level.  All the Suns use NIS for user validation.

We are in a mixed environment with Windows 95, Windows 98, and NT in
addition to the Solaris machines.  PC users have different user ids than on
the Solaris machines.  Some use the same password for both environments
while some do not.

We use a username.map file for translating pc user ids to Solaris and an
smbpasswd file for storing Samba passwords.  We noticed early on that, if
the password in smbpassd is the same as the user's pc network password, the
user can access any of the workstations or the E5000 server without a
password challenge from Samba.  Thus we have been using Solaris passwords in
smbpasswd so that users will be challenged by Samba for a password before
being allowed to access shares on the E5000 and workstations.

This week, we have run into a problem.  NT users can access all Solaris
machines through Network Neighborhood as usual and are challenged for
passwords as usual.  Windows 95/98 users are able to access Solaris
workstations as usual and are challenged for passwords as usual.  However,
Windows 95/98 users get an "access not allowed" message when trying to open
the E5000 server through Network Neighborhood.  It appears that Samba is not
accepting passwords from Windows 95/98 machines unless the password is the
same as the user's pc password.  In that case, shares are accessible with no
password challenge from any of the machines.  I thought that Samba might be
reading the NT encrypted field in smbpasswd correctly but not reading the
Windows 95/98 encrypted field on the E5000.  However, Samba does read the
Windows 95/98 field if the password is the same as the user's pc password,
and it works fine for workstations in SERVER mode.

Does anyone have any suggestions to find the problem?


Lloyd W. Baldwin
Computer Systems Administrator
Suwannee River Water Management District
9225 County Road 49
Live Oak, Florida  32060
phone 800-226-1066 (Florida only), 904-362-1001
 Suncom 821-3220
email baldwin_l at srwmd.state.fl.us