samba and swat problems
 

i'm tring to access the settings on my samba server using the web browser like swat says to do... the problem is that when i type in the address *http://localhos:901* nothing happens and the connection times out. how can i tell if swat is even working correctly? i got samba to start ok, but swat is apparently not working.

Take a look at:
/etc/xinetd.d/swat

Make sure disble is set to "no" and not "yes". If that is set then also make sure that you have not got any firewall rules that may be blocking requests.

checked that... it is set to no... i know that this sounds stupid, but i have no idea how to check for a firewall. that is how new i am to this.

To check your firewall rules:
iptables -L

Also make sure you have localhost defined in your hosts file:
grep localhost /etc/hosts

And that you have the loopback device up:
ifconfig

Also there should be a loopback route (lo):
route -n

when i type in iptables -L, i get:

[root@localhost root]# iptables -L
/lib/modules/2.4.20-19.7/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_tables.o: init_module: Device or resource busy
Hint: insmod errors can be caused by incorrect module parameters, including invalid IO or IRQ parameters.
You may find more information in syslog or the output from dmesg
/lib/modules/2.4.20-19.7/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_tables.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.20-19.7/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_tables.o failed
/lib/modules/2.4.20-19.7/kernel/net/ipv4/netfilter/ip_tables.o: insmod ip_tables failed
iptables v1.2.5: can't initialize iptables table `filter': iptables who? (do you need to insmod?)
Perhaps iptables or your kernel needs to be upgraded.
[root@localhost root]#

/etc/hosts:

# Do not remove the following line, or various programs
# that require network functionality will fail.
192.168.1.2 localhost

ifconfig

eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr 00:40:F4:47:DC:3B
inet addr:192.168.1.2 Bcast:192.168.1.255 Mask:255.255.255.0
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:357 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:300 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:100
RX bytes:141354 (138.0 Kb) TX bytes:44614 (43.5 Kb)
Interrupt:11 Base address:0x9000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:30 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:30 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:1994 (1.9 Kb) TX bytes:1994 (1.9 Kb

swat file:

# default: off
# description: SWAT is the Samba Web Admin Tool. Use swat \
# to configure your Samba server. To use SWAT, \
# connect to port 901 with your favorite web browser.
service swat
{
port = 901
socket_type = stream
wait = no
only_from = localhost
user = root
server = /etc/samba
log_on_failure += USERID
disable = no
protocol = tcp

Your localhost entry in /etc/hosts should point to the loopback address. Change it to:
127.0.0.1 localhost