Samba problem? Macintosh (Panther) can't see Windows PCs

Benjamin Scott dragonhawk at iname.com
Mon Jun 6 22:50:01 EDT 2005


On Jun 2 at 9:28am, Bill McGonigle wrote:
> Like Ben mentioned, I've had best luck configuring a samba server to force 
> and win elections so that remains stable.  That doesn't stop the occasional 
> XP Home machine from announcing itself as Master Browser anyway.

   For best results with SMB, I recommend the following:

   Configure a WINS server.  Configure all nodes to use said WINS server.

   Set your NetBIOS node type on most or all nodes to "peer" (AKA "P-node" AKA 
"type 2").  This means NetBIOS will use WINS, and *only* WINS, for name 
resolution.  No more broadcasts for NetBIOS name resolution.

   Configure a designated "browse master" with the highest possible likelihood 
of winning the browser election.  With standard doze, this means running a 
Domain Controller with the latest release of doze.  With Samba, this means a 
high "os level", and "local master", "domain master", "preferred master" all 
set to "yes".

   Configure clients to not even attempt to participate in browser elections. 
In doze 9X, this is a setting on the properties of the "Windows File and 
Printer Sharing" service.  In doze NT, you can set a registry option -- or 
just disable the browser service entirely, if you don't need network browsing 
(on LANs following the "central servers for everything" approach, browsing is 
often rarely if ever used).

   Don't allow untrusted/configured/unmanaged clients (e.g., those rogue Win XP 
Home boxes) to even plug into to your LAN.

   Yah, I'm a heavy-handed bastard.  But my networks stay up.  :)

-- 
Ben <dragonhawk at iname.com>



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