Simple LAN where Win2K wont see Linux server 1

[geokor]

Hi. I've posted this problem on several other forums and I think I've narrowed the problem down to my SAMBA install.
I am trying to set up a home LAN to learn about Linux/Apache/Samba etc. I have a SuSE 7.1 box as server and a Win2K as client. So far I have it setup using DNS where my browsers on the Win2K box can see HTML files setup on my Linux server using either the name (

http://kirtland/...)

or the IP address (

http://192.168.1.100/...)

but I can't get the My Network Places on the Win box to see the Linux box or more accurately the directory (htdocs) where Apache is supposed to look for my HTML files. This means I can't save HTML files I build on my Win box to the Linux server.
So far I have read O'Reilly's book on Samba but don't understand a lot of it yet, also the Samba home site, and O'Reilly's Apache book and O'Reilly's Runnin Linux and Linux in a Nutshell books (and a few other Linux books but these were the ones that actually helped in one way or another). But a lot of this is still beyond me - I'm just getting started.
Any help in directing me would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks a 1,000,000!

George K

 

[urgl]

This is really strange George. Did you restart samba completely ? I noticed that samba sometimes does not reread the passwords if you just send a HUP, I tried that here and changed my password and sent a HUP but I could still log in with the old password. After stopping and restarting it worked as it should.
Probably you should update your Samba - I use at work 2.0.10 and it works perfectly with Win2k workstations, at home I installed 2.2.1a and I don't have any problems here.

Hans

 

[geokor]

urgl, I think I stopped and restarted completely. I used :

smbd stop
nmbd stop

smbd -D
nmbd -D

Is this correct?

I did try and update. I ran into problems with the dependencies. It tells me I can't update to the most current samba unless I have the most updated version of the glibc libs as well as others but when I try to install those the system says I can't because a whole bunch of other packages need the old versions!

I have posted on the Linux forum asking for help with how to solve these dependency issues. The only suggestion is to ignore them which I know how to do but all the books say this is dangerous.

Thanks!

GeorgeK

 

[urgl]

Sorry George for not replying earlier but I had a lot of work during the last days.
I will try to duplicate your setup with a new Suse 7.1 and samba 2.0.7.
One thing you could try in the meantime is to set the password level in the smb.conf to a value larger than your password length - that should solve the problems with ipper/lowercase passwords.
IIRC I updated samba on my PC's but I really can't remember which deps had to be resolved - I will try that too on the test PC.

Hans

 

[geokor]

Hans, please don't go to the trouble of trying to duplicate this problem. I have given up on it - sort of. I read some posts on other forums where others have found that the older SAMBA's have a lot of issues with Win2000 so I have obtained a copy of SUSE 8 and will try installing that on Friday. I will let you know if that solves the problems.
Thanks again for all your help.

GeorgeK

 

[geokor]

Thanks to everyone who tried to help, especially Hans. But after weeks of trying I gave up. I've put windows 98 back on and the LAN went up in a day! The only problem I had was the encrypted passwords but I simply followed some instructions from a friend and it was solved quickly. Maybe someday when I have time I'll try Win2K again. Thanks again!

George K

 

[kevets]

georgekay,
I have almost the same problem. My network is a bit different than yours as I am inside a large corporation. I don't control the network infrastructure so I don't know where routers are on the network.

My smb.conf file is configured to use security=DOMAIN and
workgroup=MY_DOMAIN_NAME I utilize WINBIND so that my NT 4.0 domain SAM account information is used for authenication to the RedHat 7.3 Linux server. The linux server is setup in a lab which is connected to the campus network through a switch. While in the lab (on the same network segment) I can NET USE from WinNT 4.0 client without error as long as Netbeui is installed. In the same lab from a Win2K client I can NET USE successfully as long as either Netbeui is installed -OR- Netbios over TCPIP is enabled. This makes sense since Netbios is NOT a routable protocol so if Netbios over TCPIP is disabled and Netbeui is installed, the Netbeui protocol handles the connection to the linux server (within the same network segment).

However, from a Win2K client outside the lab (in a different network segment) if Netbios over TCPIP is disabled even if Netbeui installed I cannot make a connection to the linux server UNLESS I use the command;
NET USE X: \\servername\share /user:domain_name\username
When I do this, I connect perfectly and in fact the linux server now "knows" about my connection and I can make any succesive connections to the same linux server by doing a simple NET USE X: \\servername\share
Also the linux server now appears in the Network Neighborhood browse list.

On a WinNT 4.0 client running Netbeui and TCPIP, outside the lab, I cannot NET USE to the linux server at all. Get Network error 53 saying "Network path was not found". This tells me that perhaps NT does not use Netbios over TCPIP and since Netbeui is not routable I can't see the server.
I can never see the linux server in the Network Neighborhood. I can successfully ping the linux server.

I don't quite understand why passing the /user parameter on a Win2K client makes a difference and I am still trying to figure that out. It is possible I have a misconfigured /etc/pam.d/samba file.

Anyway, perhaps this may help you and if there is anyone out there that could help me I would greatly appreciate it.

Steve

 

[geokor]

kevets, I finally gave up on win2k for a couple of reasons but mainly because I could not get my older version of samba to recognize win2k's encrypted passwords even after I did all the things (encrypted = yes...) I could find that were supposed to work. From what I've read the newest version of samba is supposed to handle this much better.

I did finally manage to get my linux server on the Neighborhood but because the passwords didn't work, I never was able to access the linux box.

Anyways, this site

http://www.sugoinet.com/bits/index.php?bit_id=10

was a big help.

Hope it helps you to.

George K

 

[kevets]

georgekay,
I finally got it to work. Apparently you must join your workstation to the same domain the linux server is in and logon the workstation directly to the domain. This works....
As an alternative to logging on directly to the domain, you can still logon locally but you must the
/user:domainname\userid switch on the net use command like this
NET USE X: \\linuxsrv\share /user:yourdomain\youruserid
If your local userid and password are the same on the domain you should get connected. You can then connect any additional shares, for this user, from the Linux server without using the /user switch as long as you remain connected. Apparently the logon creditials are cached.

Steve

 

[erba]

I looked at your old samba configuration file.
Is this entry correct: smb password file = /etc/smbpassword ?
Do you really have /etc/smbpassword instead of /etc/smbpasswd?
I have 4 win2k in my domain and I have no problem.
My samba version is 2.2.3a.

 

[geokor]

ARRGGHH!!! I bet that was it!

Oh well, many thanks!

George K