samba - Dec 2022 - [newbie] Making sense of network discovery

Hello,

Windows 10 not seeing Samba servers through "net view" is the occasion
to understand the issue.

Did I get this right?

Windows' Network Browser (both GUI and CLI?) relied on the Netbios API, 
which, for historical reason, relied itself partially on SMB1; The two 
weren't neatly separated at birth.

When WannaCry 
<https://dougrathbone.com/blog/2020/09/14/making-linux-samba-shares-browsable-to-windows-hosts-after-wannacry>?came
out, Microsoft had to disable SMB1 in a hurry? and broke Network 
Browser, leaving Windows users with no way to browse the network ? while 
it was still possible to connect to a remote computer if you knew its name.

Upgrading SMB1 to SMB2/SMB3 didn't solve t the solution since Netbios 
relied partly on SMB1.

What did/does Microsoft offer as an alternative Network Browser that 
didn't rely on SMB? WSD <https://github.com/christgau/wsdd>? Does it 
work for both GUI and CLI (net view)?

To avoid reconfiguring Windows 7/8 hosts, can a Samba server run both 
WINS and wsdd?

Thank you.

PS: Is there an online archive of the list that's easier to search than 
downloading and grepping zip files
<https://lists.samba.org/archive/samba/>?

On 14/12/2022 14:06, Gilles via samba wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Windows 10 not seeing Samba servers through "net view" is the
occasion
> to understand the issue.
> 
> Did I get this right?
Yes
> 
> Windows' Network Browser (both GUI and CLI?) relied on the Netbios API,
> which, for historical reason, relied itself partially on SMB1; The two 
> weren't neatly separated at birth.
Wasn't Network Discovery released with Vista ?? So your machines should 
be able to use it instead of Network Browsing.
> 
> When WannaCry 
>
<https://dougrathbone.com/blog/2020/09/14/making-linux-samba-shares-browsable-to-windows-hosts-after-wannacry>?came
out, Microsoft had to disable SMB1 in a hurry? and broke Network Browser,
leaving Windows users with no way to browse the network ? while it was still
possible to connect to a remote computer if you knew its name.
> 
> Upgrading SMB1 to SMB2/SMB3 didn't solve t the solution since Netbios 
> relied partly on SMB1.
> 
> What did/does Microsoft offer as an alternative Network Browser that 
> didn't rely on SMB? WSD <https://github.com/christgau/wsdd>? Does
it
> work for both GUI and CLI (net view)?
> 
> To avoid reconfiguring Windows 7/8 hosts, can a Samba server run both 
> WINS and wsdd?
You shouldn't be using wins at all, it sounds like you are still running 
an NT4-style PDC, if so, can I suggest you upgrade to AD.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> PS: Is there an online archive of the list that's easier to search than
> downloading and grepping zip files 
> <https://lists.samba.org/archive/samba/>?
There are a few other Samba archives out there, whether they are easier 
to search is debatable.

Rowland