Unable to browse Linux shares from windows.

[Bill Moran]

Keith Mastin wrote:
> Thanks for the input. I have all of the above configured, and have
> mysteriously regained one machine, but not the one that has the printers
> attached. As that is the one with all my data files, it is the one I am
> most interested in having connected.
> This was all running perfrectly until friday, and I had it back up
> yesterday for a few hours. The weird thing is that I did nothing
> different, just kept trying the same things over, so it makes no sense
> that it works some of the time but not all of the time.
> Any thing else I could look into?

I've seen behaviour like this, and I have a theory (unproven) as to
what's happening.
The whole browse election thing is rather stupid and unreliable (as far
as I'm concerned) and when you're using WINS it appears that any
machines that are not properly configured to use WINS try to set up
their own browse lists with them as the browse master.
This is very theoretical, but there are two things I'm fairly sure of:
1. Multiple copies of the browse lists are being kept (incorrectly) and
occasionally the machines start using the WRONG copy, and things go
missing from the lists.
2. The solution (any time I've seen this) is to be 100% sure that EVERY
SINGLE SMB CAPABLE COMPUTER on the network is configured properly. It
only takes one to throw browsing out of whack for all the other
computers.

The easiest way to set this up (that I've seen) is to set DNS and WINS
configuration through DHCP, which keeps everything consistent. You still
have to check every single computer, though, because it's possible to
set configuration information that overrides DHCP.

Apparently, at some point, the machines are registering themselves to
one browse master, but looking to another for their browse lists. This
is bizaar, but it seems to be what's happening. Take all your
client/workstation machines and set them to NEVER be a browse master.
You can diagnose this further with the various browsing tools (like "NET
VIEW"), to see if you have multiple browse masters registered. I simply
haven't taken the time to track it down in more detail, since correcting
the network config solved it for me.

-Bill