Hello,

Short version: One of my Win98 machines can access files on my Linux server. The other can't, it asks for a password, and none that I give it work.

Long version:
I had a LAN of two Win98 machines and a Linux Server. The two Win98's could access specific directories that Samba made available on the Linux. The one Win98 machine had a catastrophic hard drive crash. I've got it fixed now and almost working (almost in that I can't get to the Linux server).

I also upgraded the Linux box and software (to Mandrake v6.?) I've configured Samba as it had been (I think). The old Win98 box accesses the files on the Linux box.

But, when I try to access them (map drives to directories on Linux) I am confronted with a dialog to enter a password. Any password I use, fails. I will point out that the same userid, and same password, is on all three boxes.

In the dark recesses of my mind, I recall something about Windows upcasing passwords unless told otherwise, but I thought that was Win95, and in anycase, I don't recall how to tell it not to.

Any ideas?

Thanks in Advance

Hi
Are you using encrypted passwords on Samba, or did you change Win98 to unencrypted? This could be the problem.
Jim

After do consideration and much contemplation, let me say this about that.... Uh?

I don't mean Uh? about encryption, I mean..
how do I check/set Win98 and Samba encryption settings? I could probably find information on Samba encryption (if I can decipher the man pages), but anything systemic on Windows is a b****h to find (at least at my skill level).


Thanks in Advance, again

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\VNETSUP]

"EnablePlainTextPassword"=dword:00000001

to set Plain Text Passwords on, change dword to 0 to set it back to Encypted.

Skot.

Hi
I've been trying to reply, but was emailed a virus, so had to deal with that first!
Check SWAT (or SMB conf) encrypt passwords should say YES.
I imagine yours already does.
You can browse OK from your other machine, so undoubtedly it's a problem with the rebuilt box.
1 Are you using client for M$ networks as logon, my box tried to use windoze logon, which stuffed things up.
2 Have you got the right workgroup/user/PW in your network settings.
Jim

BINGO!! That's what I was missing. Thank you, Skot

That was brave. I'm not a regedit fan ;-)

The flipside solution was to set Samba to use encrypted passwords by adding these two lines (or uncommenting them) in your smb.conf file.

encrypt passwords = yes
smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd

This would also do the trick. You'd then add your Window's users' names to the smbpasswd file specified by using this commmand as root:

smbpasswd -a username

I'd recommend using encrypted passwords for the same reasons I'd recommend using SSH and secure FTP. Plain text passwords are bad mojo.

Unfortunately, I'm forced to work with doze workstations on my network.

Have you ever tried doing that on a mixed network of Win95, 98, and 2Krappy workstations? They don't all handle encryted passwords the same. If your smb system is not on over the Internet then Plain text is just fine, just not as much fun.

Adding the users to the Samba config (smbpasswd -a username), this just adds the username, no password, right?

'Cause this brings up another question. I want to be able to change my password when I log on to the Win98 machine, and have that propagated to the Linux box (so I don't have to change twice). I'd also like to change it on the Linux box and have that propagated to Windows, but this isn't as important as the first. Can I do this by setting Samba config, and if so, what's the setting? I'd found something in the comments in smb.conf, but it didn't make sense.

And, bye the bye, thank you all for your responses.