[Samba] Need Help Getting Windows XP To Use Samba Properly

[Chris Smith]

On Wed, Dec 29, 2010 at 6:09 PM, Hodges, Robert CTR USAF AFMC 520
SMXS/MXDEC <robert.hodges.ctr at hill.af.mil> wrote:
> This is interesting, since we've had this working since the beginning (using hosts files anyway).
>
> Works great with Win2K and Samba:  "Servername_Number"

When you break the rules they will eventually break you :)

Microsoft was late to the TCP/IP party so it's possible some things
fell through the cracks. Any reasonable Google search will have you
removing underscores in your hostnames.

See:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc778792%28WS.10%29.aspx
And this:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc959209.aspx
which cautions:
"Do Not Use Extended Characters
Do not use extended characters in NetBIOS names, especially the
underscore ( _ ) and the period ( . ). The underscore character is
converted to a dash in DNS host names. For example, NTServer_1 becomes
NTServer-1, leading to failure of name resolution of a name that may,
in fact, be recorded in the DNS files."

Chris