I'm having some small trouble getting my local lan running the way I want. I have two samba servers, Windows 95, 98, and NT Workstation systems on it (which are also doing some peer-to-peer sharing). It's all one IP net; there's an ethernet switch in the middle, and a couple of peripheral hubs each connected to that switch. Note that I do NOT have an NT Server system; I'm not running domain security. I've tried a million things, and most of them have sort of worked one way or another. None of them has worked all the time for everything yet. (Generally some systems can't browse to other systems; which ones varies. Sometimes access control doesn't work either.) I think it's very likely, by now, that I have my configurations so hacked around on various systems that I need a really clear plan, and need to go carefully reset everything to match this plan and start over. So I want advice about what this clear plan should be. Should I try to force one of the samba servers to be the master browser? Should I run one of them as a WINS server? Should I enable DNS in the tcp/ip properties on the windows boxes? Should I enable WINS in the tcp/ip properties on the windows boxes? What samba security level? And so forth; there seem to be about a million decisions to make, and it's not very clear to me what the consequences of each choice are. What are the right settings to make a small network like this work? -- Photos: http://dd-b.lighthunters.net/ Minicon: http://www.mnstf.org/minicon Bookworms: http://ouroboros.demesne.com/ SF: http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b David Dyer-Bennet / Welcome to the future! / dd-b@dd-b.net
David Dyer-Bennet wrote:> > I'm having some small trouble getting my local lan running the way I > want. I have two samba servers, Windows 95, 98, and NT Workstation > systems on it (which are also doing some peer-to-peer sharing). It's > all one IP net; there's an ethernet switch in the middle, and a couple > of peripheral hubs each connected to that switch. Note that I do NOT > have an NT Server system; I'm not running domain security. > > I've tried a million things, and most of them have sort of worked one > way or another. None of them has worked all the time for everything > yet. (Generally some systems can't browse to other systems; which > ones varies. Sometimes access control doesn't work either.) > > I think it's very likely, by now, that I have my configurations so > hacked around on various systems that I need a really clear plan, and > need to go carefully reset everything to match this plan and start > over.I can comment on what's worked for me. Not saying there aren't other/better ways.> > So I want advice about what this clear plan should be. Should I try > to force one of the samba servers to be the master browser?Yes: domain master = yes local master = yes preferred master = yes> Should I > run one of them as a WINS server?Yes: wins support = yes> Should I enable DNS in the tcp/ip > properties on the windows boxes?Not necessary for Samba.> Should I enable WINS in the tcp/ip > properties on the windows boxes?You *should* not have to do this unless you have remote (such as dialin) users that need to see machines in your workgroup. But sometimes WINS confuses me...> What samba security level? And so > forth; there seem to be about a million decisions to make, and it's > not very clear to me what the consequences of each choice are. >I use 'security = user' and 'map to guest = Bad User'. I just didn't want to get into all the NT domain shit for the simple stuff we're doing. Hope that helps.
At 04:31 AM 5/6/00 +1000, you wrote:>Thanks to you, and also to several people who have replied offlist. >I'm getting back some momentum on this project, anyway, which *has* to >be good! > >One specific question -- how long do I need to wait, or what do I need >to restart, after changing things on multiple system to be sure things >have settled down into their steady state? One long-term frustration >I've had with Samba is I'll go to bed after my latest brilliant idea >failed, and wake up to find everything working. I can't afford to >wait overnight on every single test :-) . >Not sure exactly how long, but it is not unusual for the changes in browsing to take 1/2-1 hour to show up on all systems on the network.>And another -- how can I determine which system was selected as master >browser? >/var/log/samba/log.nmb is a good place to look. Mikkel -- Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.