samba - May 2000 - Win Servers and Samba

Hello,

We are succesfully using Samba with a remote WINS server which is located on
another site. We have a second site which has successfully been using the
same WINS server and communicating with our Samba server.

Recently the PCs on the second site have been  unable to connect to our
Samba server. The other site uses a different DHCP server to our site but it
still gives out the same addresses for the WINS servers. We can ping the
Samba (using IP Address but not name) servers OK. We have even been able to
mount drives on other PCs from our site on the PCs at the other sites. For
some reason (possibly WINS server) we can no longer ping using netBIOs name
or attach to our Samba servers at all from the remote site. However
everything is working fine at the local site.

We feel that someone may be trying to block our samba server domain from
other site using WINS server. Is this possible?

Regards

Dave Lovett




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Thanks for the reply.

I have tried the nmblookup command as you said. I first tried at our remote
site (Worcester) and then the local site (Shipley). Our servers Shipley5 and
Shipley6 do not seemed to be registered with the WINS servers however other
PCs and NT Servers at our site are.

Would I be right in thinking that for the LAN a WINS server is not needed
for name resolution which is why Samba is still working OK at Shipley? To
test this I tried setting up a client with just IP addr and Subnet set no
DHCP or WINS and could still log on to Samba. 

Basically I have a few questions which could help to resolve the situation.

Is a WINS server needed on a LAN?

Is it possible to block servers from a registering on a WINS server?

How often does Samba try to refresh with the WINS server?

If we were to set up our own WINS server would it cause havoc on the WAN?

TIA 

Dave

samba@samba.orgsamba@samba.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Nick Morrison [mailto:nickm@bhwb.nsw.gov.au]
Sent: 25 May 2000 05:06
To: LOVETT, David
Cc: linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au
Subject: RE: Win Servers and Samba


 > Hello,

Hello.

Does nmblookup work?




 > We are succesfully using Samba with a remote WINS server which
 > is located on
 > another site. We have a second site which has successfully been using the
 > same WINS server and communicating with our Samba server.
 >
 > Recently the PCs on the second site have been  unable to connect to our
 > Samba server. The other site uses a different DHCP server to our
 > site but it
 > still gives out the same addresses for the WINS servers. We can ping the
 > Samba (using IP Address but not name) servers OK. We have even
 > been able to
 > mount drives on other PCs from our site on the PCs at the other
 > sites. For
 > some reason (possibly WINS server) we can no longer ping using
 > netBIOs name
 > or attach to our Samba servers at all from the remote site. However
 > everything is working fine at the local site.
 >
 > We feel that someone may be trying to block our samba server domain from
 > other site using WINS server. Is this possible?
 >
 > Regards
 >
 > Dave Lovett




CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE 
The information contained in this e-mail is intended only for the
confidential use of the above named recipient. If you are not the intended
recipient or person responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient,
you have received this communication in error and must not distribute or
copy it.  Please accept the sender's apologies, notify the sender
immediately by return e-mail and delete this communication.  Thank you.