Samba related question.

[Paul Lussier]

In a message dated: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 08:55:25 EST
bscott at ntisys.com said:

>  While I do agree, it is important to understand that Microsoft Windows is
>designed around Microsoft's concept of networking (i.e., "peer to peer" vs
>"client/server").  If you put a Microsoft Windows Server computer on a LAN
>of computers running Windows "clients", the server will automatically take
>over the NetBIOS "Master Browser" roles, and the workstations will
>automatically defer to it.  This is how Windows is coded.

Well, I suppose so.  But it's really client/server no matter how MS
wishes to look at it :)

>On Thu, 12 Feb 2004, at 11:43pm, p.lussier at comcast.net wrote:
>>> I would like to know how the Windows boxes on my network know the name of
>>> my Linux box running Samba with no DNS or host files beyond the one on
>>> the router.
>> 
>> One of your systems is acting as a WINS server.
>
>  Not necessarily true.  Both Microsoft's and Samba's implementations of
>NetBIOS will use local broadcasts for name resolution. 

Right, sorry, as you correctly state further down, I was confusing
WINS w/ NetBIOS.  What I meant was essentially what you state, that
there is some resolution going on via NetBIOS, which should 'just
work' but is occassionally unreliable.

>Unfortunately, "unreliable" does not mean "always does not work" but
>rather "sometimes does not work".  It appears the human race has trouble
>with this concept.

Blame marketing :)

>> [Samba will] broadcast [it's NetBIOS name] to the local network.  As a
>> result, whichever system is the WINS server will notice that system and
>> announce it to all clients which register with it.
>
>  No.  WINS is not broadcast.

My bad.  I was using the term 'broadcast' to mean announce, not
actually broadcast.  When Samba starts up, it will make a NetBIOS
request of 'Can I use this hostname', the NetBIOS server will either
say yes or no.  (amusingly, years ago at a DefCon, someone presented a
hack he had created to just answer 'no' to any request that came
along, effectively telling any client that no matter what name they
requested to use, it was already in use :)

>  WINS is not auto-discovered.  WINS is configured just like DNS.  That
>means you can manually enter the IP address of your WINS server(s), or you
>can assign them via DHCP.

Right.  I was thinking of NetBIOS.

>> There is *always* a WINS server on a network unless you explicitly tell
>> all Windows systems not to try to be one ...
>
>  Totally incorrect.
>
>> There's a whole election system built into the protocol such that the one
>> most "qualified" to be the server "WINS" (pun intended :) the election.
>
>  You're confusing WINS with NetBIOS master browsers.

As I said, you're right again (hey, it was damn near midnight when I was 
typing this, and I get up at 5:30am, gimme a break, huh? :)

(..a whole bunch of stuff which said basically what I meant, but
actually accurately mapped the protocol names to the correct
functionality :) 

Thanks for correcting me once again Ben, and I promise not to answer
technical e-mails when I should be going to sleep (which is damn near
all the time ;)


Seeya,
Paul
--
Key fingerprint = 1660 FECC 5D21 D286 F853  E808 BB07 9239 53F1 28EE

	It may look like I'm just sitting here doing nothing,
   but I'm really actively waiting for all my problems to go away.

	 If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right!