Linux, Samba, and Win2K

[Magueta]

Hello everyone.

I'm trying to learn how to install and work with Samba. I have a great book
from O'Reilly that's much better than any of the other books that I've
looked at.
Anyway, I've done at minimum what the book says is required and I've done
the testparm on my test smb.conf file, everything checks out alright.
However, when I do
"smbclient -U% -L localhost" I get the following output. Note certain
information is not explicit due for future security of my server.

added interface ip=192.168.x.x bcast=192.168.x.x nmask=255.255.x.x
Domain=[WORKGROUP] os=[Unix] Server=[Samba x.x.x.x]

Sharename type Comment
----------- ---- ----------
test Disk For testing only, please
IPC$ IPC IPC service (Samba x.x.x.x)
ADMIN$ Disk IPC service (Samba x.x.x.x)

Server Comment
-------- ----------

Workgroup Master
------------ --------

The book implies that there should be a server name and a workgroup in those
fields. I presume that the Master is the Master Browser which should also
be there. Can anyone tell me why they aren't there? I have a hostname,
nmbd seems to be running along with smbd but for some reason I don't think
it's considered the master browser. In fact I can find my Linux box from my
win2K box by doing a search for the ip address of the Linux one but I can't
logon. That's another issue all I'm worried about is getting those fields
to display the correct info. Note: my installation was as a workstation
because I wanted most of my daemons disabled to help secure my Linux box,
I'd add the servers individually later from the disk.

My smb.conf is the simplest one you can get, right out of the book.

[global]
workgroup = SIMPLE
encrypt passwords = yes

[test]
comment = For testing only, please
path = /export/samba/test
read only = no
guest ok = yes

[cowanrl]

What is the hostname of your computer? Is it just defaulting to localhost?
By default, if you don't use the "netbios name =" parameter in your smb.conf file to name your Samba server, Samba will use the computers hostname as the netbios name. You definitely don't want localhost as your netbios name.

As a check, just add the line:

netbios name = smbtest

to the global section of your smb.conf file, then restart Samba. Do the smbclient -U% -L localhost again and see if you then see your "simple" workgroup and the smbtest server listed.

[Magueta]

Originally posted by cowanrl
What is the hostname of your computer? Is it just defaulting to localhost?
By default, if you don't use the "netbios name =" parameter in your smb.conf file to name your Samba server, Samba will use the computers hostname as the netbios name. You definitely don't want localhost as your netbios name.

As a check, just add the line:

netbios name = smbtest

to the global section of your smb.conf file, then restart Samba. Do the smbclient -U% -L localhost again and see if you then see your "simple" workgroup and the smbtest server listed.


Just a bit of an update. I changed the Workgroup name to the workgroup that I had setup the other two non-linux machines on and if I want I can share the test directory with my win2K box. I'm surprised that I didn't have to set Samba up as a domain controller for it to work but it's working great. I added the "netbios name =" line to smb.conf and restarted smbd, nmbd but still nothing. Any other suggestions?

Joe

Joe