samba - Oct 2003 - Understanding the role of DMB/LMB on a net that has a WINS server

If I have a client that wants to enumerate and access shares on a
subnet, and that client knows the IP of the WINS server, is there any
need for the client to use the "browsing" services of a DMB or LMB?

What is the order of operations of the client?  Here is what I imagine
to be the case:

1.  client asks LMB for a list of all available shares
2.  LMB sends client the list of all known shares
3.  for each name in the list of known shares, client asks WINS
    server for the server's IP address
4.  WINS server replies with each name resolution

Is there a document which describes the protocol?  I have read RFC
1001 and 1002 but they don't give a high-level procedure.  I think the
process is also slightly different for M and H hosts.

If there is a WINS server, does there still have to be an LMB and DMB?
If there is an LMB, why does the client need to access the WINS server
directly?  Why not just have the LMB do the resolution?  It would
result in less traffic.

Thanks,
Dave

On Thu, 9 Oct 2003, David Wuertele wrote:
> If I have a client that wants to enumerate and access shares on a
> subnet, and that client knows the IP of the WINS server, is there any
> need for the client to use the "browsing" services of a DMB or
LMB?
>
> What is the order of operations of the client?  Here is what I imagine
> to be the case:
>
> 1.  client asks LMB for a list of all available shares
> 2.  LMB sends client the list of all known shares
> 3.  for each name in the list of known shares, client asks WINS
>     server for the server's IP address
> 4.  WINS server replies with each name resolution
>
> Is there a document which describes the protocol?  I have read RFC
> 1001 and 1002 but they don't give a high-level procedure.  I think the
> process is also slightly different for M and H hosts.
>
> If there is a WINS server, does there still have to be an LMB and DMB?
> If there is an LMB, why does the client need to access the WINS server
> directly?  Why not just have the LMB do the resolution?  It would
> result in less traffic.
David,

Have you read chapter 10 of the Samba-HOWTO-Collection.pdf? You can obtain
this from http://us1.samba.org/samba/docs/Samba-HOWTO-Collection.pdf.
If you prefer a printed document you can order from Amazon.Com "The
Official Samba-3 HOWTO and Reference Guide".

If this document does not clearly answer your questions please let me
know so I can fix it.


- John T.
-- 
John H Terpstra
Email: jht@samba.org