samba problem

[Peter Samuelson]

[Doug Hayden <doug at gcrc.mgh.harvard.edu>]
> Our former system manager set up Samba on my Sun workstation so that
> a couple of NT machines can see my workstation as a network drive. I
> have a new Windows98 laptop but it does not see the samba server. Do
> I need to configure something on the Windows98 machine? On the Sun?

Probably on the Windows box, although there is no way to tell for sure
without knowing more, like how the Sun is configured.

Basically make sure your network settings are as close to those of the
NT clients as possible.  In particular, the WINS server (if any) should
be the same.  Also note that some versions of Windows (95? 98?) have a
bug where WINS doesn't work unless you have *both* WINS server fields
filled in.  So if you just have one WINS server, type it in twice.
(This also applies if you are feeding the WINS address in via DHCP.)

It probably goes without saying that you should check that your
workgroup matches the workgroup/domain of the NT boxes.  Yes, Win98 has 
both the "workgroup" option *and* the "log into NT domain:" option and
they can be set differently, but don't.  Set them the same.

Finally, check your netmask.  I have found that some protocols are much
more forgiving than others when you have mismatched netmasks.  Since
browsing relies partly on broadcasts, it is in the "less forgiving"
category.

Peter