Fedora 3
Samba 3.081013
Windows XP Pro SP2
OpenVPN running on 10.8.0.0/24

Samba Server eth0 is static ip 209.198.x.x - don't want any sharing on this.
OpenVPN virtual TUN - 10.8.0.1
Windows XP virtual TUN - 10.8.0.6

the vpn works fine, they can ping each other and access each others various servers just fine.

Windows machine is on workgroup Olmzog
Samba server is moving around a bit:
when set to anything other than Olmzog the different workgroup never shows up on the windows machine (waiting hours, rebooting windows machine, announces etc).
Set samba server to Olmzog workgroup and the machine shows instantly on Windows machine.

Windows can't view the samba servers shares - can't even "open" the samba server to see what shares are available. Never asks for a password or anything.
Can't mount.cifs or mount -t smb any shares on the Windows machine from the samba machine - mount.cifs says it can't find the windows machine, mount -t smb says connection failed.

Any ideas? I know this is a very basic question but for some reason I've had terrible luck with samba in the past (never been able to get it going right as a matter of fact).

P.S. the windows shares work fine on it's physical LAN with other windows machines - so im almost positive it's a samba configuration problem

[edit]P.P.S. if i run the net use command on the windows machine, along with the /USER flag for it of an existing samba user i will get access denied even after entering the correct password.[/edit]

did u add a samba user

add a valid machine user to samba user as

smbpasswd -a <username>

and set the password with this comand

Its been a little bit since I've played with samba on my machine, but I had a similar problem I was unable to resolve. It ended up that the reduced file sharing security in WinXP Home prevented the XP machine from accessing samba shares after the installation of SP1. I tried tirelesly for days even compiling a new samba version from there latest code to no avail. This may be your culprit though I hope not good luck.

Alex

Thank you both for the replies.
I do have a samba user setup with a password - that's the one I get access denied with when using the net use /user command in windows.
I'm trying to access the default "homes" share by the way.

And yes I thought of the simple file sharing stuff - cuases lots of headaches on windows only networks too - but the machine is Windows XP Pro, and has simple file sharing disabled - so it does try and use user names as it should.

Still, I can't even view the available samba shares via the windows machine. Shouldn't this be possible without a username/login?
I mean on a windows<->windows network if you go to network places, you then see the workgroups, inside the workgroups you see the computers, if you double-click on the computers you see their available shares. It's not until you try browsing into one of those shares that permissions become a problem with windows setups.
I'm getting access denied errors just trying to browse the samba machines available shares.

By the way, some more notes: I have OpenVPN configured correctly on client and server side specifically for using Samba so, while I am going to try accessing samba shares using the physical eth0's subnet today I don't think I'm going to get any better results.

Thanks again for the ideas, keep them coming

can you dump your smb.conf please =D

I knew someone would ask this eventually
I also have a feeling someone's about to make me feel very stupid.
mind you i have tried [home] browseable = yes with no difference

try this for the homes share

[homes]
create mask = 0777
writeable = yes
browseable = yes
public = yes

tried it with no change in the results.
Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to try samba out on a physical network today, hopefully soon though.

Anyone else with any ideas?

small update: i was reading through the posts and noticed i never mentioned that the samba server can browse the windows machines shares just fine

try running this

smbclient '//<sambaserver machine name>/homes' -U<username>

this will prompt for a password

see that u can get to the smb shell

if not then comment this friom ur smb.conf

template shell = /bin/false

and restart samba and try to relogin using smbclient

regards

getting connection failed either way.
just to be clear - i tried this from the samba server machine (the smbclient command that is)
[edit] yes i know its a terrible username [/edit]

i swear i have some kind of hex against getting samba working right - this is my third attempt (first being fairly comfortable in a linux environment), always spend days on forums trying to get things worked out and the replies always die out hehe.

Does noone ever use SWAT anymore? It makes it really easy.

http://h30097.www3.hp.com/docs/iass/...-samba-options

tried swat in the past - had no more luck than straight editing of smb.conf
tried webmin's samba interface in the past - with slightly better luck, but still not fully working

ok instead of the machine name in smbcleint try using the machine IP

regards