[Samba] one and a half nets

[Nik Trevallyn-Jones]

Hi all,

I am trying to configure a SAMBA server to be connected to two different 
networks in two different ways:

One network, on interface eth0, is the local network, the SAMBA server is the 
main file server for this network, and so I assume it would be best if the 
SAMBA server were the "master" on this network.

The other network, on interface eth3, is someone else's network. I am trying 
to make my SAMBA server as invisible as possible on this network, whilst 
still allowing file sharing.

I set this up as seemed to make sense, and it worked to my expectations. 
However, the single remote PC (Windows XP) on the eth3 network that was 
accessing my SAMBA server can access it no longer, and gets an "An extended 
error occurred" error when trying to re-create the network share. I have no 
idea what has changed to cause this, and suspect that perhaps it is the PC 
and not my server at fault.

Ideally, I want the SAMBA server to support all samba services, including 
browsing, on eth0. In contrast, I don't want the server to be visible in 
browse lists of PCs on eth3. I really only want PCs to connect by explicitly 
creating a network share on that PC. I especially *don't* want my SAMBA 
server to be any kind of controller on the eth3 network.

I have restricted access from eth3 by only including it in the "hosts allow" 
of a single share on the server.

I have some fairly general quations

Q1: Has anyone any idea what the "extended error" might mean?

Q2: Has anyone any suggestions on how to make a single SAMBA server behave 
like the main file server on one network, but be almost invisible on another?

Q3: Is there any way I can adjust my firewall so that a PC can connect to a 
shared drive on my SAMBA server, if it knows the address and share name, but 
the SAMBA server will not show up in browse lists, will not participate in 
master elections, and won't interfere with WINS servers on that same network?

And some more specific questions:

Q4: The parameters "domain master" "local master" "preferred master" are all 
global parameters, so if I enable any of them, my SAMBA server will set the 
corresponding behaviour on ALL connected networks, correct?

Q5: eth3 has a Microsoft domain controller - will anything nasty happen on 
eth3 if I have "wins support = yes" set on my SAMBA server?

Q6: Is the behaviour of the "xxx master" parameters restricted by the 
"interfaces" parameter?

Q7: Just what does the "interfaces" parameter restrict? If I omit eth3 from 
the "interfaces" parameter, will this disable connection to services, or just 
browsing, or...?

Q8: If my SAMBA server's address on eth3 is 123.456.789.100, then what are the 
differences, if any, between the following settings:

interfaces = eth0 eth3

interfaces = eth0 123.456.789.0/24

interfaces = eth0 123.456.789.100

Q9: The PCs on eth0 are all Window 2000 machines. If I disable all the "xxx 
master" and "wins" parameters on my SAMBA server, will the PCs on eth0 still 
be happy, or will I regret it?

Any and all help greatly appreciated.

Cheers!
Nik