Win98 takes forever to logon to Samba Server
 

Greetings All

I am running FC2 kernel-2.6.10-XXX and Samba 3.0.10-XXX as a PDC and file server at my school (I'm at home now and can't remember full version numbers). Every hour when the classes switch over, an average of 5 out of 32 students will have to attempt to logon 3 or more times from the Win98 client machines. There is no regular pattern. On different days this problem is encountered by different users on different machines. I have 4 win2k machines which have no problem at all to log on. Total users about 500. %g.bat logon file mounts 3 network drives.

All suggestions welcome.

What error do they get when they try to login?

After i enter username, password and domain and wait for about 1 minute i get the error

"the domain password you supplied is not correct, or access to your logon server has been denied"

What are you using to store the user details in? Are they on file or in some kind of database?

You may find that using a service such as LDAP increases the performance a bit as the databases will be stored in memory.

toss win98 !

I've done some network administration for a small company. guess which clients showed irregular and irrational behaviour.

missing network drives, lost passwords ... just weird stuff.

All the phone calls I got... the next day all would run fine again - WITHOUT me doing anything at all.

I have to stick to Win98 and Microsoft in general
Reasons?
The age and specs. of the machines. Some P1 233Mhz 64MB ram etc.. , so I can't upgrade to Wiin2k or Linux (with GUI)
Courses in MSOffice - Word, Excel, Access - Exams designed for those apps only - means no Open Office
Maintain familiar environment for both staff and students and home and school - Though a Newbie I'm already in love with linux but live in a MS world here. At the mention of complete system switch somebody might have a cow. i wouldn't dare.

Anyway "rtspitz" you are correct about the irregular behaviour. Though the only problem i have is "the domain password you supplied is not correct, or access to your logon server has been denied" message at logon.

Are there any smb parameters i could play with to assist the logon?

Here is one solution from Microsoft
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q187228/
But how do I "Configure the Samba server to support Challenge-Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) password encryption"

I'll continue Googlin' but keep brainstorming

Thanks

Read http://us2.samba.org/samba/docs/man/smb.conf.5.html

Electro

I had to edit the smb.conf file when I was setting up samba. I use swat and always check the man pages and parameter definations etc... Yesterday I tested my new HP LJ1320 ptinter by printing this exact file so I could have a better read. I actually fell asleep reading the man pages last.

Where exactly should I look?
What parameters should I consider editing to solve my problem?

PROBLEM SOLVED

edited lmhosts file on File server (Linux) and added all the win98 machines

MachineName static ip

Thanks for all the help

Now on to my next problem - network printing. Look for the post to help