samba - Jan 2000 - Name Resolve Order?

I am a little confused.  In the smb.conf man page under the "name resolve
order" section, it states that setting "name resolve order =
wins" will be
ignored if the "wins server" parameter is not set.  Elsewhere in the
man
page it states that if you set "wins support = yes" then you cannot
set the
wins server parameter.  Does this mean that a machine that is acting as a
wins server cannot use wins in the name resolve order?  I am asking because
I am using Win98 clients and one RedHat 6.1 Server and I do not want to have
to manually maintain the lmhosts file, and the man page states that bcast is
not very reliable.  Is there some other method I am overlooking, or a way to
get wins to work?

Thanks in advance.

Keith Muska
Clements Mfg., L.L.C.

> I am a little confused.  In the smb.conf man page under the "name
resolve
> order" section, it states that setting "name resolve order =
wins" will be
> ignored if the "wins server" parameter is not set.  Elsewhere in
the man
> page it states that if you set "wins support = yes" then you
> cannot set the
> wins server parameter.  Does this mean that a machine that is acting as a
> wins server cannot use wins in the name resolve order?  I am
> asking because
> I am using Win98 clients and one RedHat 6.1 Server and I do not
> want to have
> to manually maintain the lmhosts file, and the man page states
> that bcast is
> not very reliable.  Is there some other method I am overlooking,
> or a way to
> get wins to work?

Ok, I think the thing you seem to be confused about is the the parameter
'wins server' this parameter sets the address of a WINS server to poll.
So
if you set up the server you are working on to be a WINS server (by enabling
'wins support') you should not poll another WINS server (which excludes
the
use of the 'wins server' parameter and the value wins in the 'name
resolve
order' parameter).

HTH,
Christian Brink
All Sports Supply - IT Manager
Clackamas,OR
cbrink@allsportssupply.com

I think there's still a question mark over the following:

1) BROWSING.txt states that if samba (nmbd) is acting as a WINS server,
internal lookups into that database are used for name resolution.

2) If wins support = yes (i.e. the above is true) then "wins server"
mustn't
be set.

3) The documentation for "name resolve order" states: 
"If no WINS server has been specified this method [wins] will be
ignored."

So what controls the order of lookups if samba is acting as a WINS server???

-
Piers Scannell
Systems Engineer
GlobeCast France Telecom

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christian Brink [mailto:cbrink@allsportssupply.com]
> Sent: 26 January 2000 19:00
> To: Multiple recipients of list SAMBA
> Subject: RE: Name Resolve Order?
> 
> 
> > I am a little confused.  In the smb.conf man page under the 
> "name resolve
> > order" section, it states that setting "name resolve order 
> = wins" will be
> > ignored if the "wins server" parameter is not set.  
> Elsewhere in the man
> > page it states that if you set "wins support = yes" then you
> > cannot set the
> > wins server parameter.  Does this mean that a machine that 
> is acting as a
> > wins server cannot use wins in the name resolve order?  I am
> > asking because
> > I am using Win98 clients and one RedHat 6.1 Server and I do not
> > want to have
> > to manually maintain the lmhosts file, and the man page states
> > that bcast is
> > not very reliable.  Is there some other method I am overlooking,
> > or a way to
> > get wins to work?
> 
> 
> Ok, I think the thing you seem to be confused about is the 
> the parameter
> 'wins server' this parameter sets the address of a WINS 
> server to poll. So
> if you set up the server you are working on to be a WINS 
> server (by enabling
> 'wins support') you should not poll another WINS server 
> (which excludes the
> use of the 'wins server' parameter and the value wins in the 
> 'name resolve
> order' parameter).
> 
> HTH,
> Christian Brink
> All Sports Supply - IT Manager
> Clackamas,OR
> cbrink@allsportssupply.com
>