I have a samba server with a win0\98 and win2k machine hooked up to it. I can see the shares from linux to the two win machines, and I can see the computer icon in Network Neigborhood from both Windows machines, but I cannot access the linux shares. From Win98 I get the message:

"<linux machine> is not acessible. The specified comptuter did not receive your request"

This suggests a possible firewall issue, however I thought I had addressed that by adding the following commands to my rc.firewall-2.4 script (from the HOWTO--not the stricter ruleset).:
They come straight out of the unofficial Samba HOWTO:

echo " Enabling Samba ports (hopefully...)"
$IPTABLES -A INPUT -p udp -s 192.168.42.0/24 -d 192.168.42.1/32 -m multiport --dports 135,137,138 -j ACCEPT
echo " It worked!"
$IPTABLES -A INPUT -p tcp -s 192.168.42.0/24 -d 192.168.42.1/32 -m multiport --dports 135,139,145 -j ACCEPT
echo " It worked!"
$IPTABLES -A OUTPUT -m state --state ESTABLISHED,RELATED -j ACCEPT

My IP Masking works just fine. both windows machines browse out to the net with no issues.

Below is my smb.conf file. This configuration worked just great on my old system, a RH 7.0 serving the same two machines, only that twas using ipchains instead of iptables. The other difference is that I now have WINS enabled, however it hasn''t worked with that disabled either.


[global]
workgroup = WORKGROUP
server string = "Samba Server"
hosts allow = 192.168.42 127.
printcap name = /etc/printcap
load printers = yes
printing = cups
;guest account = pcguest
;null passwords = yes
log file = /var/log/samba/%m.log
max log size = 0
security = share
; password server = <NT-Server-Name>
encrypt passwords = yes
smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd
unix password sync = Yes
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat = *New*password* %n\n *Retype*new*password* %n\n
pam password change = yes
obey pam restrictions = yes

socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192

; interfaces = 192.168.12.2/24 192.168.13.2/24

; local master = no
wins support = yes
dns proxy = no

homes]
comment = Home Directories
;path = /home
browseable = yes
writable = yes
valid users = %S
create mode = 0664
directory mode = 0775
# If you want users samba doesn't recognize to be mapped to a guest user
; map to guest = bad user

[public]
comment = Public Stuff
path = /home/samba
public = yes
writable = yes
printable = no
; write list = @staff

Now, for what it's woth, while following the troubleshooting steps out of the Unofficial HOWTO, I fail at the attempt to browse my own shares. Unfortunately I have no clue how to fix this. I'm not even sure it's related, but it's definetly broken:

[root@spotnik <user>]# smbclient -L spotnik
added interface ip=192.168.42.1 bcast=192.168.42.255 nmask=255.255.255.0
added interface ip=XX.221.28.XX bcast=XX.221.XX.255 nmask=255.255.254.0
session request to SPOTNIK failed (Not listening for calling name)
session request to *SMBSERVER failed (Not listening for calling name)

The second interface is my cable modem connection. There's nothing in smb.conf to suggest why it's trying, or why it has to add that as an interface. Is that a default that needs to be overriden?

Finally, here's the log for my log.nmbd file, which seems to have the most information (log.smbd just tells ne that a connection from either Windows machine was denied)

003/06/07 11:44:34, 0] nmbd/nmbd_browsesync.c:find_domain_master_name_query_fail(358)
find_domain_master_name_query_fail:
Unable to find the Domain Master Browser name WORKGROUP<1b> for the workgroup
WORKGROUP.
Unable to sync browse lists in this workgroup.
[2003/06/07 11:59:42, 0] nmbd/nmbd_browsesync.c:find_domain_master_name_query_fail(358)
find_domain_master_name_query_fail:
Unable to find the Domain Master Browser name WORKGROUP<1b> for the workgroup
WORKGROUP.
Unable to sync browse lists in this workgroup.

I think that's the lot. Boy I could sure use some help here! I'm obviously overlooking something, but I feel like I've checked evey nook. And like I say, it wasn't nearly this much trouble under RH7.

Thanks in advance. Sorry this was such a long message.

Okay, for the benefit of those who may be troubleshooting similar errors, here's how I solved this one.

1.) Apparently, using the Gnome Security Settings, which generates a RH-Lokkit script creates some conflicts with IPTables that I weren't immediately obvious. When I checked the script there was a Lokkit command shutting off access to the tcp and udp ports. Although I was pretty sure my rc.firewall-2.4 script was overriding this, apparently it wasn't. The iptables -L -v showed this. I shut off the gnome lokkit script, and at least got more promising error messages!

2.) I had enabled WINS for my setup this time (because the tutorials told me to!), and it SEEMED to be working halfway, but I got better results shutting it off again.

3.) Under RH7.0 (I don't recall which version of Samba that was) I did NOT have to specify a netbios name in my .conf file. For some reason now I do, so there's obviously been a change between versions.

Just goes to show--it pays to keep up with the upgrades.

To begin with, moving from RH7 to RH9 caused some problems trying to recycle my old smb.conf file. The main thing was that