FreeBSD connectivity problems on a Win98se and Win2k Pro machine

[Bill Moran]

Unix Rookie wrote:
> Now I seem to be able to connect to Samba from the FreeBSD box (internally I
> guess) but i'm unable to connect to the samba server from my Win98se and Win2k
> machines (when I type \\(hostname) under start--->run).

You can't start->run \\(hostname).  Go to a command prompt and enter
"net use q: \\(hostname)\(sharename)" (assuming that q: isn't already
mapped somewhere else.)
I've had problems with Samba showing up on W2K browsing myself. Once I've
figured out what's wrong, I'll post the solution.  But I've always been able
to map drives.

> This is what I've done so far:
> 
> 1. run both "smbd -D" and "nmbd -D"
> 2. enabled both netbios-ssn and netbios-ns in my inetd.conf file

Did you install Samba from the FreeBSD ports? If so, it creates a startup script
and you shouldn't be running smbd/nmbd from inetd.  It's probably not a great
idea to do that way anyway.  The end result is that you need to pick one method
or the other (inetd/startup script) if you do both, there'll be problems.  Type
"ps -ax | grep smbd"  If you have an smbd already running, then it was probably
started from a startup script and you shouldn't have it in inetd.conf.

> 3. diabled my software firewalls on both my msft machines
> 4. activated sharing on both msft machines

The windows machines don't have to have sharing enabled.

-- 
"Where's the robot to pat you on the back?"