[Samba] Browsning problems from Vista

[Bengt Werstén]

I have a setup where a Vista machine that is behind a NAT connects to a Linux (debian) machine to access SMB shares on that machine. The connection is made with VPN using L2TP/IPSec. I have configured the Linux machine to act as WINS server and PPP will give the Vista machine a new IP on the same subnet and also tell Vista that the WINS server is the Linux machine. 

 

I have added one share named samba and I can connect it using either IP\Samba or Debian\Samba where debian is the name of the Linux machine. What I'm missing is that Vista cannot find the shares unless I know they exists, i.e I cannot find that network and browse it using the network explorer. Since I can write Debian to connect I guess WINS is somewhat working. What more do I need to configure for Vista to be able to browse the network connected with the VPN. Is it something with workgroups? I do not want to change to workgroup on vista and I think it should be possible to browse other workgroups as long as you belong to the same subnet. Any ideas on this?

 

/Bengt Werstén