Odd networking via Samba?

[Dustin Decker]

On Mon, 25 Nov 2002 KRFinch at dstsystems.com wrote:

> I've run into this problem before at home.  I use a Win2k laptop and
> occasionally need to transfer files with my win98 box at home.  I had
> everything set up correctly from an IP standpoint, and I couldn't figure
> out why I couldn't see the Win2k box.  I even tried turning on other
> network services, and still couldn't get things to pick up.  Finally, I
> tried going the other way with the connection, and the Win98 box prompted
> me for a password.  That turned out to be the root of the problem.

> If you log into your 98 box the very first time without a password, it
> assumes that you don't generally need one, and it just sits there as an
> island.  What I would guess that you need to do is to log off of the 98 box
> and log back in with a valid username for the shares on the NT box.  That
> should let you see the shares and connect.

Actually, you do have a password in this case.  It is set to null, which
the Win2K box generally does not like.  You'll wind up with a password
list on the hard drive - do a search for *.pwl on the Win9x box.  When
trying to browse the Win2K box, you're user name is prolly the same, but
you're passing the null string in your credentials and the Win2K box says
"Nope".  (Enable auditing and you'll probably see entries in the security
log for this.)

> If you are doing that and still can't connect, you can try mapping directly
> to the shares forcing the use of IP.  Win9x doesn't browse very well
> through IP unless you have netbios enabled, but that doesn't mean that IP
> doesn't work just fine.  Assuming you can ping your NT box, you can map to
> the share through the Explorer "map network drive" window, but you force it
> to use IP for the connection by entering the IP address instead of the
> servername using a syntax like "\11.22.33.44shared".

Another thing to consider here is the difference in how NTLM
authentication behavior changes across versions of Windows.  Win95 and NT
4.0 < SP4, for example, don't encrypt passwords via NTLM whereas NT > SP4 
_can_ if set in the registry, as well as does Win2K and XP Pro.  This is 
always a pain in the ass in the Samba world if you have to support 
multiple versions, but in this case you might even be feeling it between 
Windows versions.

One other distraction here that _could_ be the case is the order in which 
name resolution takes place on the Windows platform.  My recollection of 
NT 4.0 isn't great (and I'm happy to be forgetting) but I know in the 
Win2K/XP world it's easiest to remember like this:
"Let's Have Dinner Now WHile Baby Laughs"

	Local DNS Cache
	Hosts file
	DNS Query
	NetBIOS Cache
	WINS Server
	Broadcast
	LMHOSTS file

I'm not really certain of it, but I think that various 9x versions of 
Windows may behave differently in this arena - so resolution _might_ be 
the culprit as well.

Whatever turns out to be the present culprit here, be it NTLM 
authentication or name resolution, I expect it will explain why you could 
easily print to the printer connected to the Win98 box, but not the NT 
box.  (Which leads me to think NTLM will be the serious issue here.)

Some links that might help out on this stuff:

http://de.samba.org/samba/ftp/docs/htmldocs/ENCRYPTION.html

http://de.samba.org/samba/ftp/docs/faq/Samba-Server-FAQ-2.html
	(See the section "My client reports "cannot locate specified 
	computer")

http://de.samba.org/samba/docs/Samba-Developers-Guide.html#PWENCRYPT
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q92588

Cheers,
Dustin

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| Dustin Decker                     |
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