[Samba] very very weird problem, Samba completely broken

[Eric Evans]

This is very strange and frustrating.  Our users complained that they 
weren't able to get ANY Samba access, not even being able to map a network 
drive (forgetting for now about that domain logon thing for a while).  So I 
went into the /etc/samba/smb.conf and took out all of the statements that 
had anything to do with domain controlling and net logons, basically 
restoring the smb.conf to the state it was in before I started messing 
around with all that domain controller stuff.  To my chagrin, now NOTHING 
works on Samba, even with my original smb.conf!  The only thing I'm doing 
differently now that I wasn't doing last week is I'm now running Samba 3 
instead of Samba 2.  Should I uninstall Samba 3 and put version 2 back 
on?  This is too weird.  Here's the error message I'm getting in my samba 
log file whenever I try to map a network drive on the Windows client:

[2006/07/07 17:24:18, 0] 
nmbd/nmbd_incomingrequests.c:process_name_refresh_request(183)
   process_name_refresh_request: unicast name registration request received 
for name WORKGROUP<00> from IP 128.253.175.150 on subnet UNICAST_SUBNET.
[2006/07/07 17:24:18, 0] 
nmbd/nmbd_incomingrequests.c:process_name_refresh_request(184)
   Error - should be sent to WINS server

>It seems that your Client VENUS tries to register itself to the WINS 
>server it is configured to. Check what WINS server is configured using 
>"ipconfig /all" in   a DOS prompt.
>
>If your client's WINS server is configured to be a.b.c.d and your domain 
>PDC IP is a.b.c.d but the "wins server" parameter of smb.conf is set to 
>"no" then it would seem logical that the error is "Should be sent to the WINS".
>
>Please post your "ipconfig /all" output and your smb.conf file.

Here's the output from the ipconfig /all:

Windows IP Configuration

         Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : cornell-emngrvm
         Primary Dns Suffix  . . . . . . . :
         Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Unknown
         IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
         WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
         DNS Suffix Search List. . . . . . : phonetics.cornell.edu

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

         Connection-specific DNS Suffix  . : phonetics.cornell.edu
         Description . . . . . . . . . . . : 3Com 3C920 Integrated Fast 
Ethernet
Controller (3C905C-TX Compatible)
         Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-06-5B-95-8C-15
         Dhcp Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
         Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
         IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 128.253.175.146
         Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.128
         Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 128.253.175.129
         DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 132.236.56.249
         DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 132.236.56.250
                                             128.253.180.2
         Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Friday, July 07, 2006 5:14:05 PM
         Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Friday, July 07, 2006 6:14:05 PM

Here's the /etc/samba/smb.conf:

[global]
         socket address = 128.253.175.155
         socket options = TCP_NODELAY
         invalid users = bin daemon adm sync shutdown halt mail news uucp
         max log size = 100

         print command = /bin/lp -d%p %s; sleep 5; rm -f %s
         printer = 128_1
         printing = SYSV

         log file = /var/log/samba.log
         log level = 2
         max log size = 50
         debug timestamp = yes

[homes]
         browseable = no
         read only = no
         writeable = yes
         guest ok = no

I'm completely mystified as to why I keep getting these "Error - should be 
sent to WINS server" messages.  If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to 
hear them.  At this point it looks to me that Samba has somehow become 
broken beyond repair.

Eric