i need help- i setup a file server using red hat 9 with samba. my win2k and win98 machines access the server no prob. however, my xp pro desktop and my xp pro laptop cant access the server seamlessly. i try browsing to my server and i get unaccessible error. duplictae name exists on the network which i know is a load of bull. the i try again and i get a login prompt for the server! i log out of windows and try again and not accessible again!
after a few tries i get the login screen! so what i did was cancel the login screen and tried browsing to the server. sometimes i get a login screen sometimes i get an unaccessible error. WTF?! any ideas? i've gone to the registry as some threads suggest check the firewall and i dont know whats going on. it works then it doesnt. when i get the login screen i enter a user name and password and it logs in fine. so im lost. please help

Do you have the Samba server set-up to do nmb browse master? If not, you should try this.... it appears that your XP is trying to be master for the workgroup, but your Samba server is not part of that workgroup (according to XP). If XP gets it's workgroup list FROM Samba, then all should work.

One other item, the XP default of simple sharing should be turned off. This may not make a difference, but maybe it will. It can certainly cause problems in the other direction.

no i didnt, i'll research that. how hard is it to do that? thanks for the help. would this have anything to to with inheriting permissions? i created folders for different files and assigned read write and execute on the folders and included my user name and group. however if i save a file in it and someone else wants to make changes they cant even if they are in the same group as me. i would have to log in to my file server and set the permissions so they can make changes which is not how i want to do it. is there a way to inherit the permissions?

to do that... in the smb.conf file - the default puts most of the browse mastering entries together under [global]. Read the man page for smb.conf for individual settings and what they mean.

Inheriting permissions is different entirely. With RedHat each user belongs to a unique group, so when you save a file under Samba - it is automatically saved as belonging to jrawk:jrawk. So when gavollink:gavollink tries to edit the file, I can't. ... Samba has entries like "force group =" and "force mask =" that can be used to make sure everything is editable by a shared group of users. (Make all users part of a group called "share") set the "force group = share" and set the force mask to make all files editable. This problem is RedHat specific, as all other Unix varients create new users as members of the group 'users'. Again, smb.conf man page for details.

thanks again. i found info on the smb.conf. this thread should be very useful since i couldnt find a thread relevant to my situation. i'll post my results after i make those entries to solve my problem and conclude this thread. thanks again

you where right i started the nmbd and it worked fine. thanks alot!

I'm happy to help. I had a LOT of problems with Samba when both it and I were young, and so Samba and I know a lot about eachother.

off topic. i broke my xserver it was fine until i accidently cut the power on my server. ive checked chkfontpath and all paths are there and i didnt move them but three paths say unscaled after them. i entered xfs start and says starting but no OK. its an error 104. i still cant get xstart to open. please help ive search all across these forums for a way and i give up on searching.