[Samba] Can gencache.tdb be deletely at will?

[David Landgren]

List,

I have a client PC that is able to connect to my network via a VPN
tunnel. When the client PC comes back to the mother ship, it acquires
an ordinary network address via DHCP. In this situation, the PC is
currently having problems viewing Samba printers... the printer folder
takes several minutes to open all the printers, and requesting a print
from an application takes a couple of minutes before getting the
dialog box.

When I look at the client smbd log file, I see that the printer server
is trying to open a connection to the IP address that corresponds to
the address the client had when it connects via the VPN tunnel,
instead of the address it currently has. I've even reconnected the PC
via the VPN, where it acquired a different VPN address, but when I
bring the PC back inside the corporate network, the old VPN address
continues to pop up in the client Samba log.

I cannot find any reference to the VPN address in either the client
registry, or the wins.dat or browse.dat files on the server. In fact,
the only place I do find the address on the server is the gencache.tdb
database.

I have tried to find some more information about this file, with no
luck. What I would like to know is whether it is safe to stop Samba,
rename this file, and then restart Samba. I would hope that this fixes
up the problem, but I don't know how critical this file is. Given its
name, I suppose it can be blown away at will, but I'd like to be sure.
Only in the hope that this is the cause of the problem, but I am not
even sure about that.

Thanks,
David