ghost machines, revisited

[Jim Watt]

Jumping into this thread somewhat late...hopefully I got the attributions
straight! :-)

} On Thu, 2002-01-03 at 13:44, Keith Warno wrote:

} Heh.  Not quite what I was trying to say. :D
}
} Samba servers remain online.  They've been online for quite a while.
} What I'm saying is the windows machines (in this case, win2000, all of
} which are in the same workgroup; there is no domain here) always appear
} in the browse lists whether the given windows client in question is
} online or not.  By example:
}
} - winboxA and winboxB, both online.  Both in browse lists.  All is happy.
} - winboxB is shutdown.  winboxA still sees winboxB listed in the browse
} list.  winboxB will in fact remain in the list for what seems like
} forever, regardless of winboxB actually being online or not.
}
} Same thing happens with workgroups.  A while ago there were a bunch of
} clients in here and they all brought their laptops in (and hence their
} own "workgroup" settings, from windoze' perspective).  Since then (about
} 3 weeks ago), all of such workgroups (now "ghosts") have remained in the
} browse listings.  Unnecessary clutter and I do not know who
} (samba/win2k) is causing it.  :/
}
} Now that it's clarified: thoughts/ideas??  :)

There are two parameters affecting how long the Samba WINS server will
retain registrations.  When a client registers with a WINS server, it
will be told the length of time the registration is valid.  If the client
doesn't re-register before the "max wins ttl" (time to live) has passed,
the server will purge the registration.

We had to change these in order to allow VPN clients returning from "outside"
to "inside", thereby reducing the likelihood of stale records.

Here are the settings we used, along with the rationale:

# Set WINS ttl to six hours, minimum three.  This allows VPN clients
# six hours leeway before they can reregister after returning to the
# LAN. (ttl is in seconds - so 60*60*6 and 60*60*3)

    max wins ttl = 21600
    min wins ttl = 10800

The max ttl defaults to six days.  "min ttl" defaults to six hours.

We've found that the Microsoft Win2K WINS server is less picky about
allowing clients to register updated WINS information than Samba.

Jim
-- 
Jim Watt                               wattjg at appliedbiosystems.com
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