[Samba] Intermittent problem with samba & win2k

[dave cunningham]

I'm new to linux & samba having just started using each within the last
month or so.

I have a small LAN at home consisting of 2 win2k machines and a samba
file server (2.2.6) on a SuSE 7.3 box.

I'm seeing intermittent problems accessing a samba share from each of
the two win2k machines and would appreciate any help in solving this.

What I see is problems creating a new file or opening an excel file on
the server. There seems to be no problems at all in opening read only
files.

A typical error in creating a file through explorer on a win2k machine
is "'fileName' cannot be accessed. The file may be read only, or you may
be trying to access a read-only location. Or the server the document
is stored on may not be responding"

& the error I see in opening an excel file reads
"'fileName' cannot be accessed. The file may be read only, or you may
be trying to access a read-only location. Or the server the document
is stored on may not be responding".

This seems to happen randomly from either win2k machine and the problem
will sometimes disappear and at other times require smb to be restarted
to see a resolution.

I have 2 trace files available logging this behaviour however I don't
understand what they are showing.

The first (level 3) is here <http://www.upsilon.org.uk/temp/log.smbd>
shows a user opening excel file 'BOR - Donegall Road Timetable.xls'
being presented with the 'cancel/retry' message & selecting retry a
number of times.

The second (level 6) is here
<http://www.upsilon.org.uk/temp/log.smbd.gz> and shows a user attempting
to open excel file 'ITT Financial Statement (version1)(version 1).xls'
being presented with the same 'cancel/retry' message and selecting retry
one time.

It was suggested that this may be being caused by DNS issues - initially
I had no DNS server running on the LAN. In an attempt to remedy the
problem (unsuccessful), I set up a DNS server. Thus the first trace file
is for the LAN without DNS (though with hosts/lmhosts configured
correctly - I hope), the second is for the LAN with a DNS server.

Additionally, the when the first trace was taken the win2k boxes were
running SP2, for the second they have been transitioned to SP3.

I've been trying to get to the bottom of this for a few weeks now &
would appreciated any help at all.

My smb.conf files is as follows:

[global]
        workgroup = WEELAN
        netbios name = MINI
        server string =
        encrypt passwords = Yes
        username map = /etc/samba/users.map
        syslog = 0
        unix extensions = Yes
        socket options = SO_KEEPALIVE IPTOS_LOWDELAY TCP_NODELAY
        printcap name = CUPS
        os level = 2
        printing = cups
        veto files = /*.eml/*.nws/riched20.dll/*.{*}/

[printers]
        comment = All Printers
        path = /var/tmp
        create mask = 0600
        printable = Yes
        browseable = No

[print$]
        comment = Printer Drivers
        path = /var/lib/samba/drivers
        write list = @ntadmin root
        force group = ntadmin
        create mask = 0664
        directory mask = 0775

[documents]
        path = /home/samba/documents
        read only = No
        force create mode = 0770


-- 
Dave Cunningham
PGP Key <http://www.upsilon.org.uk/dc.asc>