[Samba] Netbios and Samba

[Nathan Thaler]

I can't seem to get the Windows machines (1x 2000 , 2x XP. 1x 98) on my 
network to see my Linux box's Netbios name (meadow).

"net view \\meadow" yields "Network path not found" and "ping \\meadow" 
yields "ping could not find the host meadow" (both commands run on Windows 
boxes)    The Linux box is a x86 machine running Redhat 7.3 (2.4.18-5 
kernel) and Samba 2.2.3a (built via RPM as part of the Redhat 
install).  Running testparm results in no errors.  The smb.conf is 
extremely basic (just in case, I listed the full text at the bottom of this 
message).  "nmblookup -S meadow" yields the following:

--------
querying meadow on 192.168.1.255
192.168.1.104 meadow<00>
Looking up status of 192.168.1.104
         MEADOW          <00> -         B <ACTIVE>
         MEADOW          <03> -         B <ACTIVE>
         MEADOW          <20> -         B <ACTIVE>
         ..__MSBROWSE__. <01> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>
         TEST            <00> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>
         TEST            <1d> -         B <ACTIVE>
         TEST            <1e> - <GROUP> B <ACTIVE>
--------

(My workgroup, for now, is called "TEST").

However, "nmblookup -M Meadow" yields:

----------
querying Meadow on 192.168.1.255
name_query failed to find name Meadow#1d
----------

The above doesn't make any sense to me.  This is the only machine in the 
workgroup Test, so it should automatically become the master browser.  In 
an attempt to force this Linux box to become a master browser, I added 
"remote announce = 192.168.1.255" in the global section of smb.conf (though 
it doesn't seem to make any difference).  I have waited up to 48 minutes 
(as suggested by the docs) after every change to make sure that the host 
information propagates to all subnets, but it doesn't make any 
difference.  And, although both the Windows machines and the Linux box are 
connected through a Linksys Cable/DSL router, none of the settings suggest 
that it's blocking ports 137-139 on the Linux box's IP.   I don't believe 
that it has a universal role blocking the Netbios ports, because I was able 
to create a share on the Win98 machine and view it on a Win 2K 
machine.  I've started, stopped, and restarted /etc/init.d/smb several 
times, and SMB and NMB start up without any problems every time.  (SMB runs 
as service upon startup in rc3 and rc5 as well).

Anyone have any ideas what's causing this problem and what a solution to it 
might be?   Nothing in the samba list archives matches this problem.


----------
#smb.conf:


[global]
         workgroup = TEST
         netbios name = MEADOW
         server string = Samba Server
         remote announce = 192.168.1.255 # as suggested by the samba 
documentation, but doesn't seem to help
         encrypt passwords = Yes
         obey pam restrictions = Yes
         pam password change = Yes
         passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
         passwd chat = *New*password* %n\n *Retype*new*password* %n\n 
*passwd:*al
l*authentication*tokens*updated*successfully*
         unix password sync = Yes
         log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
         max log size = 0
         socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
         dns proxy = No
         guest account = smbusr
         printing = lprng

[homes]
         comment = Home Directories
         valid users = %S
         read only = No
         create mask = 0664
         directory mask = 0775
         browseable = Yes