[Samba] smbclient failing due to switch MAC addr table timeout

Giulio Orsero giulioo at gmail.com
Tue Jun 6 07:40:06 GMT 2006


3.0.21c on RHEL3.

I use smbclient to transfer files from Samba to WIN PCs, name resolution is
through bcast on local LAN.

The network is not managed by me, all PC's are connected through switches
(no routers).

Sometimes ago network admins started decreasing the MAC addr table timeout
in the switches setting it to 300 secs, this increased dramatically the
chances a MAC is not in the switch MAC table, this had some side-effects:
- you lose first ping packest (or first 2) when pinging an host whose MAC
addr is not in the switch MAC table
- smbclient will fail to transfer files since it will immediately exit after
failing to estabilish a connection
- other apps (ie: telnet) will somehow wait a bit and manage to make the
connection at the 1st attempt.

So, is there a way to have smbclient wait a bit longer before giving up?
I'd like to avoid having to do pings before calling smbclient or calling
smbclient multiple times.

Thanks
-- 
giulioo at pobox.com


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