Samba problem

[doctorgonzo]

I am having problems with Samba between my PC running Windows XP Home and a laptop running Mandrake 9.2. They are connected by a NetGear router and use DHCP.

I have Samba 3.0 installed in Linux, and from my laptop I can usually browse to shares on my Windows XP machine. However, from Windows XP I can't even see the laptop in the "View Workgroup Computers" box. I can ping the laptop from the Windows XP machine just fine.

I have been working on this problem for hours now with no solution. Sometimes, I will lose the ability to connect to the XP machine from the laptop, but I am always able to fix this. However, not once have I ever been able to see the laptop from the XP machine. Help!

[Computer Hobbyist]

Have you set up shares on your laptop?

[mairving]

Usually what I do is:

• Make sure that the Workgroup is the same
• Add a Hosts Allow line in smb.conf to make sure that your XP machine is allowed in.
• Make sure that the passwords are encrypted
• Check your log files to see if any kind of errors are encountered.
• Make sure that both the smbd and nmbd daemons are both running.
• It doesn't hurt either if the machines have fixed IP addresses, to add an entry in your hosts file on the XP and Linux machine.

[doctorgonzo]

Originally posted by Computer Hobbyist Have you set up shares on your laptop?

Yep, I did that. Made them public, browseable, and anything else I could think of to make them visible.

Originally posted by mairving Usually what I do is: Make sure that the Workgroup is the same Add a Hosts Allow line in smb.conf to make sure that your XP machine is allowed in. Make sure that the passwords are encrypted Check your log files to see if any kind of errors are encountered. Make sure that both the smbd and nmbd daemons are both running. It doesn't hurt either if the machines have fixed IP addresses, to add an entry in your hosts file on the XP and Linux machine.

• Workgroup is the same.
• Did the Hosts Allow thing too.
• Don't know about the encrypted passwords. I'll take a look.
• Haven't really checked the log files, but the error messages I have seen when running "smbclient -W Workgroup" show that the Windows XP box isn't responding to that command.
• Daemons are running
• Added entries to the hosts file of both machines.

After spending all day Saturday on it, I said to heck with it and set up an FTP server that allows files to be transfered with relative ease. Since then, I haven't taken a look, but when I feel like taking another stab at it I will defintely check these things on the list. Thanks for your help!

[mairving]

The key thing to check is the log files. They can generally give you some kind of idea about the problem.

Let me know if you need some additional help. I have setup Samba about 50 or so times in various ways (domain, users, etc.).

[Floppyman]

Could this maybe be a master browser issue?

Just a thought.....