hello i have been trying to setup samba and on the windows side it works perfectly. However when I am on the linux side i cant freely browse through the work group. I cant see the workstations on the workgroup and when i try it will wait a few minutes then give out an error Unable to mount location failed to retreive share list from server. I can however connect to a share if i goto it directly with smb:// but id preferr to be able to connect just as i can with windoze. Also on the linux side the file transfer speed is 1/3 of what i get on windows on windows id get 80-95MB a sec wherease on linux im lucky to get 35MB a sec. The server is running RHEL6 server.

here is the output of smbtree on the samba server

JWENZEL
\\JWRHEL6S1 Samba Server Version 3.5.10-114.el6
\\JWRHEL6S1\IPC$ IPC Service (Samba Server Version 3.5.10-114.el6)
\\JWRHEL6S1\homes Home Directories
\\JWENZELSMB Samba Server Version 3.5.10-114.el6
\\JWENZELSMB\IPC$ IPC Service (Samba Server Version 3.5.10-114.el6)
\\JWENZELSMB\homes Home Directories

now heres the output of the same command on the fedora client
JWENZEL
\\JWRHEL6S1 Samba Server Version 3.5.10-114.el6
\\JWENZELSMB Samba Server Version 3.5.10-114.el6

here is my global config


[global]
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
load printers = yes
socket options = TCP_NODELAY
hosts allow = 127. 10.220.0.
encrypt passwords = true
passdb backend = tdbsam
dns proxy = no
cups options = raw
netbios name = jwrhel6s1
netbios aliases = jwenzelsmb
server string = Samba Server Version %v
local master = yes
workgroup = jwenzel
os level = 20
auto services = global homes
security = user
preferred master = yes
max log size = 50

By this comment, I'm assuming you can access the shares on the linux system without problems. If yes, then your server is fine.

Linux finding windows shares is not the fault of your server.

Have you got an update hosts file on every system? This is something most new users never think of. The hosts file is a list of names to IP addresses. For the systems to find each other, you need to update this on all systems. Then next problem, most users run DHCP on windoze machines, because its easy, and for the most part works; until you turn them into servers and share files and printers.

The problem is the IP addresses can, and probably do change with DHCP. Samba, and the windoze protocol use names to find things. This a process that is slow, and sometimes fails. The work around is to use fixed IP addresses on windoze boxes as well as your samba server. Update the hosts file with correct information.

I see you have the samba server set as Preferred master. Good choice.

The hosts file on linux systems is usually in the /etc directory. On windoze you will have use the 'find files and folders' to locate it.

A typical entry in the hosts file will look like this:

It is just the IP address of the system, and the hostname, and alias name of the system.