samba - Jan 2006 - Trouble Connecting to Server

Folks,

I'm having trouble connecting to my Samba server.  The immediate 
symptom is that I cannot see my Samba server in my Windows Network 
Neighborhood, and so I cannot connect to it to check my share connections.

I'm running SUSE 9.3 on the server, which is running Samba (3.0.22) , 
a dhcp server (which seems to be running correctly--everyone gets an 
address when they ask for one), and a dns server with ddns operating 
(via the dhcpd).  NIC 192.168.1.2 faces the Internet and gets there 
through a Linksys router/switch on 192.168.1.1.  A Win2k PC sits on a 
192.168.2.0 subnet; this subnet's NIC is set to 192.168.2.2 (the PC 
itself gets IP 192.168.2.9).  A laptop dual bootable between SUSE 9.3 
and WinXP sits on a 192.168.3.0 subnet; its NIC is set to 192.168.3.1 
(the laptop gets 192.168.3.9).  Both of these subnets must go through 
the 192.168.1.2 NIC to get to the Internet; all devices have easy 
access to the Internet.  A poor man's ASCII art diagram lies 
below.  Both the XP laptop and the Win2k PC have the same symptoms, 
so I'll just talk about the PC.

.3.0 ----.3.1--samba/dns/dhcp--.2.2---.2.9
                                 |
                                 .1.2
                                 |
                                 |
                         Linksys .1.1
                                 |
                           Internet

I have the following entries in its smb.conf:

         netbios name = lserver0
         workgroup = astra_ent [of which both the laptop and PC are members]
         interfaces = 192.168.2.0/24 192.168.3.0/24 lo  [I can't use 
eth1 and eth2 as SUSE 9.3 assigns the ethx to different NICs on 
different boot ups]
         name resolve order = wins bcast hosts

My /etc/hosts file on the SUSE has the following entries:

192.168.2.2    lserver01.test1.biz     lserver01 lserver0
192.168.1.2    sserver.test.biz       sserver
192.168.3.1    lserver02.test1.biz     lserver02

Being cheap (perhaps pound foolish), I've not registered the test.biz 
domain; although if it comes to that, I will.  I have "registered" it 
by putting the sserver line from the /etc/hosts file into the PC's 
(for now; the laptop solution should look much the same) hosts file 
(which the PC reads just like an lmhosts file).

IP Forwarding is turned on on the SUSE box, and ddns is enabled via 
the dhcp server (and is evidenced by the resolver cache on the 
PC).  The Win2k's resolver cache has both forward lookup and reverse 
lookup files for sserver, sserver.test.biz, and all the lserver0x and 
.test1.biz names. The PC's WINS is pointed at the 192.168.1.2, 
192.168.2.2, and 192.168.3.1 NICs.

I can ping all by hostname, as well as by FQDN; although it appeared 
that I could not ping sserver by hostname only until I added sserver 
and its FQDN to the PC's host file (which it reads as though it were 
an lmhosts file).  I say "it appeared" because it looked like the 
forward and reverse look up files for sserver appeared in the PC's 
resolver cache before I made this addition, but I got too fast with a 
ping test and contaminated that datum.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Eric Hines

There is no nonsense so errant that it cannot be made the creed of 
the vast majority by adequate governmental action.
         --Bertrand Russell

> I'm having trouble connecting to my Samba server.  The immediate 
> symptom is that I cannot see my Samba server in my Windows Network 
> Neighborhood, and so I cannot connect to it to check my share
> connections.
You can still go Start | Run \\ip.address to connect to a 'hidden'
Samba server.
> Being cheap (perhaps pound foolish), I've not registered the test.biz 
> domain; although if it comes to that, I will.
That shouldn't matter, I've been using a nonexistent domain name for a
few years now.  I do have bind running so that doing "host
sserver.test.biz" would work, but I think entries in the hosts file
should be enough (if ping works, so should Samba.)
> I can ping all by hostname, as well as by FQDN; although it appeared 
> that I could not ping sserver by hostname only until I added sserver 
> and its FQDN to the PC's host file (which it reads as though it were 
> an lmhosts file).  I say "it appeared" because it looked like the
> forward and reverse look up files for sserver appeared in the PC's 
> resolver cache before I made this addition, but I got too fast with a 
> ping test and contaminated that datum.
It sounds like "nmbd" isn't running, or more likely, it's only
running
on one subnet.  There are all sorts of issues using NetBIOS names
across different subnets, but Google will tell you all about that.

If running \\samba.ip on a Windows box works, then this is definitely
the problem.

Cheers,
Adam.