[Samba] very very weird problem, Samba completely broken

[Craig White]

Samba 3 works fine for thousands if not millions of people. It is
significantly better than Samba 2 and though the commands seem to be the
same, the results are different.

On Fri, 2006-07-07 at 17:45 -0400, Eric Evans wrote:
> 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.
----
probably would be much easier if you understood Windows Networking
principles.
----
>  To my chagrin, now NOTHING 
> works on Samba, even with my original smb.conf!
----
You shouldn't expect Samba 3 to work with Samba 2 configuration file
----
>   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? 
----
If you lack the patience to learn new things, perhaps that is the easier
solution
----
>  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
----
Nothing below suggests that you are using a WINS server...not in the
Windows clients, not in smb.conf.

Make life easy for yourself, add 'wins support = yes' to smb.conf and
change your dhcp server to use 128.253.175.150 as WINS server and node
type = '8'

Again...a little knowledge of Windows Networking would go a long way
here.
----
> 
> >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.
----
Please don't whine.

READ the documentation...Samba by Example does excellent handholding for
the impatient...

http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-Guide/

I would suggest that you start with 'Small Office Networking'

Also note that firewalls would block access - probably a very good idea
to run firewalls on these systems since they appear to have public IP
addresses - thus a 'hosts allow = 128.253.175. ' would be a very good
thing. Firewall would have to allow ports 137:139 and probably 445 from
that same ip address range.

Also note that you don't have any shares that users can see in your
above configuration since a "HOMES" share is only pertinent to those
that attach to a PDC/BDC and since you have surrendered that ground in
frustration, you can't have it.

Craig