irritated and exhausted...

[toughGirl]

Specs:
Mac OS X - running OS firewall
Win XP - running Norton firewall
HP PSC 750xi (printer)
Network: hardware ethernet w/ cable connection

problem:
the mac is running the server and the printer is connected to the mac also. all machines can see each other through the same workgroup (name: WORKGROUP). However, when I try to print, the error is : cannot start printer, or it just spools, then kicks it out.

we've tried EVERYTHING - new drivers, redoing the workgroup network, firewalls, etc etc. help!

thanks!

tG
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[jkupski]

toughGirl,

I'm guessing you have no problem printing directly from the mac? Also, you might want to post your smb.conf (you didn't mention whether or not you have any difficulties with file sharing, or if printing is the only problem?)

 

[toughGirl]

that's correct - Mac can print just fine. We also have access to files in both directions - Mac to PC and back. We are only having problems with the printing.

i'm the pc user in the fam, how do i find the config for samba?

thanks!

tG
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[toughGirl]

I should add that we are running through a router. I read that if we are going through a router, we don't need the firewalls.. can i get a confirmation on that?

thanks

tG
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[jkupski]

smb.conf should be located in either /etc, or /etc/samba

As for your router: this is not your problem (assuming that all of your computers are connected to the LAN side and the Mac is not on the WAN side of the router.)

Security, that's a rather complex issue. The router protects you from outside threats because it does address translation--no machine outside of your network can ever make a direct connection to a machine on the inside (unless you have the router specifically configured to allow that on certain ports.) Therefore, it's true you're safe from things like worms and exploits targetted at vulnerable services on your machines. Still, properly configured software firewalls do provide a useful defense against OTHER threats--say, for example, you have foolishly opened an email containing an attached virus and executed the code. In some instances, the virus will attempt to send email, in others it will attempt to infect other machines, and in yet still others it will "phone home" for instructions on what to do. Your software firewall should prevent all of those actions from taking place.

btw, based on your "we've tried everything" I'm guessing you disabled the firewalls? Have you tried uninstalling them entirely?

 

[rzs0502]

What does your smb.conf look like?
Can you access shares on the Mac?
For firewall config your need ports 137 138 139 445 TCP and UDP


"If you always do what you've always done, you will always be where you've always been."

 

[ericbrunson]

When you say "it spools" do you mean it spools to the mac or spools locally and then goes away?

 

[toughGirl]

I cannot find a smb.conf. I did a system search and don't have this file... is there one on the mac or is it a pc file?

when i mean spools, it spools locally, then kicks out.

I can access all files and shares on the mac.

how do we see what ports are open or closed on both machines? i've disabled all firewalls, but want to make sure we are protected behind the router.

as an aside, we connected the printer to the pc and it worked fine except it created this spoolsv.exe situation that just sucked my cpu power. after research, i found how to get rid of the bad files and restore my pc to its original state, but we decided to stick with the printer on the mac.

tG
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[ericbrunson]

I'm not sure of the answers to the questions in your last post, but continuing with investigations:

Can you browse the shares on the mac and see the printer as a share along with the shared directories?

Though, actually, to see the open ports you can either look at your firewall tables, use lsof -i or netstat -a locally or use a port scanner like nmap from another machine.

 

[toughGirl]

yup, i can share the printer, add it to my printers list and make it my default.

tG
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[ericbrunson]

And you don't have any messages in your logs?

The next thing I'd have to do is see what traffic is generated to the mac using tcpdump or something of that ilk.

 

[toughGirl]

nothing in my logs.. unless i'm not looking in the right place. been using my eventviewer to try to find any errors. nothing is logging.

how do i find the tcpdump on the mac?


tG
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[ericbrunson]

You may need to install it from source, I don't know anything about package management under OS X or BSD.

 

[toughGirl]

is it REALLY this hard?! yikes.

tG
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[ericbrunson]

Basically, we're just trying to make sure the network traffic is getting to your Mac.

I don't know what you consider hard, I do this sort of thing all the time and I have these tools installed on all my machines by default. However, I also know how to configure Samba to work on my systems and where to find packages for my OS.

You may think changing a carburator on a car is a difficult thing, but with the right tools and enough experience, it's not a big deal.

It's probably something very simple and with the right tools and know-how, would be a 10 mintute fix. But, you seem to be missing a good suite of tools if nothing else.

 

[toughGirl]

i appreciate your help, but i need succinct instructions on what to do and what to look for... can you help me? pretent i'm a grade-school person!

tnx

tG
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[ericbrunson]

According to a google search, tcpdump should be included with OS X, do you have it?

 

[ericbrunson]

FWIW, I'm sitting at an OS X machine and it has tcpdump installed on it.

Also, using 'locate smb.conf' shows that my conf file is in /private/etc/smb.conf

It appears to use ipfw to manage it's firewall tables, I don't have root access on this box, but if you do then 'ipfw -L' *should* list your firewall rules.

Finally, it looks like logs end up in /var/log/samba