Linux And MS Windows ME File share w/internet

[oldalfer]

I am using Mandrake 8.2
I am a newbe to Linux.
I have a simple network installed. It started out as 3 windows me systems using file and printer sharing. Now the Catch is that i have a cable modem puged in to a hub and all my system are connect to that hub so we all get on the Internet (www). windows has setup up using Mircosoft Client for microsoft networking, netbuei, tcp/ip. file and printer sharing.

I have installed Linux on my system as a duelboot. lets call that one Computer 1, Computers 2 and 3 are still runing windows me.

cence I am not using 2 NIC cards in my linux system the DHCP (ok.cox.net) Server give the ip addresses to all 3 systems.

I am able to see computer 2 and 3 shares in linux but they are unable to see me.

All system are using workgroup as the workgroup.
WINS is turned off in the win me systems.

I don't want to set it us as an NT Server because of the duelboot. I want to be able to reboot in to windows me at will. Play a lot of windows games.

I know nothing about the firewall or even if its setup and runing. I am going to check that. As well as add the ip addess of computers 2 and 3 in the Hosts file. (not reall a good idea becasue they are subject to change some times. )
I have used webmin to setup samba for file sharing with windows.

The help files i have read are to nemrus to list not in cluding the howto's.

Any help Would be appreciated
Thank you.

[cowanrl]

Since you are able to see Computer 2 and 3's shares from the Linux box, you've got some kind of NetBIOS connectivity. It's possible that Samba isn't running and or configured properly.

Are you sure Samba is running? Execute these on the Linux box as root:

smbstatus
If Samba is not running, this will give you an error. If it is, you should at least see the Samba version number.

smbclient -L localhost -N
This should show you your sever name, workgroup name and possibly some of your shares. If you get errors, Samba isn't running or configured properly.

Let us know the results of these 2 commands.

It would help if you posted your /etc/samba/smb.conf file here.

[oldalfer]

ok ran commands

smbstatus
Samba version 2.2.3a
Service uid gid pid machine
----------------------------------------------

No locked files

smbclient -L localhost -N
added interface ip=68.97.5.229 bcast=68.97.63.255 nmask=255.255.192.0
error connecting to 127.0.0.1:139 (Connection refused)
Error connecting to 127.0.0.1 (Connection refused)
Connection to localhost failed

also tryed with allen and allen.localhost with almost same results.
I am able to ping the linux box from computers 2 &3 using command
Ping allen or ping 68.97.5.229

checked firewall and it is disabled for now.
In drakconf, mount points, samba mount points, Linux box is not showing any shares but i have 2 shares enabled. Don't know if this is normal or not. I can see computers 2 & 3 shares in there, and log on to them.

FYI: I do not want to use a NT Doman becouse of duel boot.

Hosts file
65.97.5.229 allen.localhost localhost
68.97.6.13 laura
98.97.5.126 jacob

HostName file
allen.localhost

I would like to use the host name of "allen" but netconf will not let me set it up that way and i cant find the files that it is editing.

Used NetConf to setup samba smb.conf file.

smb.conf file
# This is the main Samba configuration file. You should read the
# smb.conf(5) manual page in order to understand the options listed
# here. Samba has a huge number of configurable options (perhaps too
# many!) most of which are not shown in this example
#
# Any line which starts with a ; (semi-colon) or a # (hash)
# is a comment and is ignored. In this example we will use a #
# for commentry and a ; for parts of the config file that you
# may wish to enable
#
# NOTE: Whenever you modify this file you should run the command "testparm"
# to check that you have not made any basic syntactic errors.
#
#======================= Global Settings =====================================
[global]
path = /home/%u
smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd
auto services = ROOT_DRAKX
printing = cups
allow hosts = 68.97.6.13, 69.97.5.126
dns proxy = no
null passwords = yes
encrypt passwords = yes
only user = yes
socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_SNDBUF=8192 SO_RCVBUF=8192
valid users = allen,,laura,,jacob,,rick
printcap name = lpstat
max log size = 50
writable = yes
printer = Canon
security = user
workgroup = workgroup
server string = Allen
comment = home folder
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
load printers = yes
unix password sync = no
netbios name = allen
netbios aliases = allen
map to guest = never
password level = 0
os level = 0
preferred master = no
domain master = no
wins support = no
name resolve order = lmhosts
dead time = 0
debug level = 0
status = yes
domain logons = yes

[public]
comment = Public space with read-write access
path = /home/local/samba-public
guest ok = yes
writeable = yes

### Autogenerated by smbconfig at Mon Aug 19 18:30:57 CDT 2002 on host allen.allen.network
[printers]
comment = All Printers
path = /var/spool/samba
browseable = yes
public = yes
writable = no
available = yes
printable = yes

[ROOT_DRAKX]
path = /root/drakx
comment = /root/drakx
public = yes
guest ok = yes
writable = no
[homes]
available = no
browseable = no
public = no
writable = no
allow hosts = 68.97.5.126, 68.97.6.13
only user = no
preexec close = no
root preexec close = no
[allen_download]
comment = download folder on drive d
available = yes
browseable = yes
path = /mnt/win_d/download+
public = no
guest only = no
writable = yes
allow hosts = hosts allow = jacob, laura
user = jacob, laura, rick, allen
only user = yes
valid users = jacob, laurea, rick
preexec = chs -c 'echo \"Welcome to %S!\" | \ /usr/local/samba/bin/smbclient -M %m -I %I' &
preexec close = yes
root preexec close = no

[kazaa shared]
path = /mnt/win_c/Program Files/KaZaA/My Shared Folder
comment = kazaa shared files
[netlogon]
comment = allen
available = yes
preexec close = no
root preexec close = no