[Samba] Re: Lost All Win95 connections to Samba

[Miguel Da Silva]

On Fri, 04 Aug 2006 19:05:21 -0400
Gary Dale <garydale at torfree.net> wrote:

> Douglas D Germann Sr wrote:
> > <<Gary Dale <garydale <at> torfree.net> writes:
> >   
> >> I'm wondering at this point about the difference in the handling of 
> >> DNS/WINS between Win95 and WinXP. Normally, XP is the fussier of the 
> >> two, but ...
> >>
> >> With a separate switch and router, and a router normally providing DNS 
> >> services, perhaps you are having a problem in that area. You can ping 
> >> google, presumably from the name and not the ip address, so your DNS is 
> >> likely working.
> >>
> >> It appears your switch is working. You can ping between stations OK.
> >>
> >> You may need WINS services running to get Win95 to connect to Samba 
> >> properly. That's what I'd concentrate on.
> >>     
> >
> >
> > Gary--
> >
> > Thanks, especially for your reasoning through this for me.
> >
> > I am wondering if my local computer hardware dealer and repair folks
> > might be able to test the switch and router to see if there are problems.
> >
> > Yes, I did ping google from the name.
> >
> > OK, I'll go look for a howto on WINS and see what that takes. Perhaps it is
> > just a Synaptic install.
> >
> > In the meantime, does it make sense that it needs WINS if it just stopped
> > working one night? Now granted it has only been on this server for about 2-3 
> > weeks. 
> >
> > Before that I had another server, an older red hat 9.0 box. Maybe I could try
> > getting that box back up and running and see if Win95 can still connect to it.
> >
> > Thanks, Gary!
> >
> > :- Doug.
> >
> >   
> 
> WINS is the Windows Internet Name Service - it is similar to DNS but 
> different enough to cause problems. Samba handles WINS differently, so 
> searching for WINS won't work. And I don't have anything old enough to 
> test from here. However, you could look at winbind or nsswitch 
> configuration. Possibly it's just a matter of starting winbind...
> 
> 
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Finally Microsoft could make WINS work correctly, but it's too late since one can use SMB directly over TCP/IP.

I think you can use the lmhosts file (lmhost, lsmhosts or somethink like that, I don't remember right now). This file is similar to /etc/hosts; each file containing an "netbios name -> IP" relation. If you do not use DHCP it could help you.

I had some problems with a Samba server at work; I used IPTables to set the firewall and the opened all the ports needed by Windows (135, 137, 138, 139 and 445) and the problems persist. It was a kind of "netbios name resolution problem". The lmhosts file solved the problem, you have to set this file at each Windows client.

Greetings.

-- 
Miguel Da Silva.
Servicio de Informatica.
Facultad de Ciencias.