I am stumped on sharing files through Windows
 

Hey Guys,

I am so stumped right now I don't know what else to do. When I originally installed smb4k I could easily view my shared files on my Network PC running mandrake.

My other PC is running windowsXP and I had trouble getting Mandrake to share a printer with my printer DeskJet612C was connected to a windows box running Windows-XP as previously stated.

After 8 hours or so, I figured it out how to set-up configuration to print off Mandrake Linux when printer is connected to a windows-XP box.

I don't know what I did to my networking, but apparently I affected something that no longer allows me to view the shared folder files. This happened before I figured out the printer issue. I was playing around with home network and shared folders throught this troubling shooting process.

I have tried everything, unintsalling smb4k and reinstalling it, recreating home networking on my windows box and all I can still see is my "workgroup name" and the PC name, but I can't expand it like I did before to see my shared files or documents.

Does anyone have a clue what I might be missing or what I am doing wrong?

d-1

Re: I am stumped on sharing files through Windows
 

I have tried to reinstall my Network setup in windows PC using the Network setup "Wizzard".

My Computer name in Windows is: "VTAN1"
Computer description in Windows is: PC2

In windows Network Setup wizzard, it says; " ready to apply Network-Settings" furthermore, it states; "This wizzard will apply the following settings. This process may take a few minutes to complete and cannot be interupted;

settings:

When I click OK or finish it appears to move the share files over, but when I open smb4k, I see the group name and the name of the PC "STAN2", but that's all I see, I do not see any shared folders.

Should I uninstall and reinstall smb4k?


I don't know what else to do to it. In windows its pretty easy to share files between a windows box and windows box, but not so easy with Mandrake-Linux - Windows XP share.

Please any suggestion are helpful....

d-1


I still can only see my computer named SAM2 under network name of "WORKGROUP", but I still can't expand or view my "shared files or documents.

I know this doesn't help much,
but in case you're desperate enough and all else fails,
reinstalling XP and mandrake (in this order) has to solve the issue.

Steve

Check your TCP/IP settings on the XP side. Do you have the service "File and Printer Sharing" installed and enabled? Check the drive permissions, too. It really sounds like a configuration issue on the XP-side. Do you have NetBIOS enabled and is dynamic DHCP server enabled? As I recall, Samba server uses NetBIOS to mimic a Microsoft Network.

Because you see the machine but not the drives, I'm assuming you have the service, "Client for Microsoft Networks" installed and enabled. I suggest you take notes of the settings and changes, as you make them. As you already found out--there's a lot of settings to hit and miss on!

Do you have a firewall enabled on XP? Disable it, as it may be blocking the NetBIOS calls. Temporatily disable any anti-spyware programs, etc.... to get the cleanest connection possible without any middle layers of security software possibly thwarting a perfectly good configuration. In otherwords, security software doing its job and blocking the outside world from seeing into your XP box!!

Wish I could be more helpful, as I know how frustrating this problem can be. Hope my suggestions point you in the right direction.

The first thing to check is if the Linux box and Windows machines are both resolving each other's name.

E.G.

Can they ping each other by name?

On the Linux box can you do this?

smbclient -L MACHINENAME -U VALIDUSERNAME

where USERNAME is a VALID login name on the Windows machine and MACHINENAME is what you called the Windows machine.

This should give you a login box and a dump of the shares and what the Windows machine sees on your network.

If it is communicating with Linux you'll see Linux listed as a "server".

Likewise you should do this to the Linux box itself, so you can see what it's presenting to the network.

Also have you enabled the nmb component of Samba so that the samba shares are made visible?

From an XP machine can you view the Linux machine by IP?

E.G.

\\192.168.0.12

Should show you the shares on your Linux box.

Remember that KDE's Samba browser is seperate from Samba itself although it utilizes it.

Have you tried looking at the Windows shares from KDE using the build in network browser?

You need to set up username and password for this first.

That is, you need a valid account that is common on each windows machine. You give Linux this username and password in the KDE
control panel along with the workgroup name.

Once you've done this and restarted KDE you should be able to browse the Windows shares from KDE...

e.g. using.

LAN://

opjose,

I typed the following:
I have no idea what it is telling me or trying to do. I tried typing the IP address to my Linux system inside the browser of windows IE and that failed too. Is there anyway to check IP address inside Konsole with Linux? Just want to make sure I typed the right IP adress.

All I am trying to do is be able to read and exchange files between my
Mandrake-Linux box and Windows XP box. What is weird was, when I first
installed smb4k (before I had this problem) I was able to do just that. I had
no idea how I did it, but was able to do it, exhange files by simply installing smb4k.

Then I started trying to figure out how to make the printer work/share off the
Windows box and I played around with setting up my Network between windows
and windows Operating sysytems. Both of my PC's are dual boot systems. I can
boot into windows or Mandrake-Linux. Since I made a connection between Windows-Windows (and I can see that when I a inside smb4k), would that affect my ability to look at the other windows files. I can see the other stan1 (name of the little pc), here's what I don't know, I used the same name ("VTAN1") as my share name "VTAN1" when setting up the printer. My windows PC's name is named "VTAN1".

My other question; "Server Host" - is that the IP address of the box that has the printer attached to or my Mandrake-Box or vice-versa?

"SMB server IP" - I would assume this is the IP address that has the printer attached to the windows box or should it be the router ?

"Sharename" - this is where I may have messed up - I named it STAN1, same as the name of PC running windows, was this a mistake? should I have named it "WORKGROUP" which is the name of the Netwrok in Windows or does it even matter.

For "User Name" - I used the name I use as my Mandrake User Name. Which is just plain "VTAN".

"Password" - Here I used the password I use in mandrake as adminstraitor. ( I was not sure if I was creating a new user name and passcode for smb4k or if it was asking me for my user name and passcode for my adminstrative functions in Mandrake when I was plugging in those characters

Then for "WORKGROUP" - I picked or used "WORKGROUP" for obvious reasons.



When I recreated the Network between both Windows systems, is when I tried to
check files through Mandrake. (please note) It was easy sharings files between both
Windows operating systems, but when inside Mandrake, I could see both PC boxes and
naturally I could not enter one of them because it is turned off when I am
booted onto Mandrake, so technically it is turned off.

I could see the other Windows box (I think) because I can see the little PC
with the name on it branching off the "WORKGROUP" name. But when I highlight "VTAN1"
or click on the + to expand it, it does not expand nor can I mount it.

At this point I tried to uninstall smb4k and reinstall it all over again, and
that did not resolve anything.

I tried the authentication method (I did not have an adminstrative password
when I set up my Windows operating system) unless you are referring to my
internet username & passcode, which I highly doubt.

The only other thoughts or ideas that come to my head are either something is
corrupted or installed wrong, but what, I don't know.

When I did try to uninstall smb4k, the printer did not work and when I
reinstalled smb4k the printer worked again, without me having to re-enter the
settings for the printer.

I appreciate your information, do you have any idea(s) what else it could be?

I hate to do a complete reinstall of Mandrake-Linux or Windows.

Please let me know and thanks for your time.

I tried some of the things you suggested below.

Let me know if you come to any other conclusions....

d-1

I'll answer your message later, as I have to run as I write this, but in the meantime post the output of

ifconfig

cat /etc/resolv.conf
cat /etc/hosts

route -n
route

smbclient -L NAMEOFLINUXBOX -U STAN1

(change NAMEOFLINUXBOX to your Linux machine name...)

Here it is-----Opjose


ifconfig:
cat /etc/.resolv.conf:
cat /etc/hosts:
route -n :
route:

I hope this works:

Please note that for my printer settings under "sharename" I selected the name:
My "user/adminsitraitor name" in Mandrake is:
My PC name under Windows box is:
I tried to do this:
I hope that helps you figure out my mess.

I did not intentionally mean to choose the "vtan" and "vtan1", I just wanted easy way to "remember", but, also doing that, it creates some confusion as to "who" & "what" is vtan.

d-1

Ok a bunch of problems.


1) Notice that when you attempted to connect to the windows machine with "smbclient -L sinvestments -U STAN1", smbclient resolved the Windows machine back to 172.16.1.35.

Yet this IP is not even on your network!!! Where is this machine located? sinvestments is at some other location according to the above.

This is the FIRST place to start.

What is the IP of the windows box?

What happens when you use SMBCLIENT and instead substitute the Windows boxes IP address for the -L arguement?

2) Is Gateway.2wire.net your machine or router at 192.168.0.1?

3) When you typed "smbclient -L stan1 -U stan1" no designated master browser appears on your network.

A "master browser" is the machine that contains a list of all the available Windows Shares.

Usually machines on a network, with the same workgroup name, "elect" one computer to act as a browse master.

Yet the Samba dump shows NONE.

This means Samba itself has not been configured to be one, and Samba is also unable to find other Windows Machines that can act as a browse master.

This needs to be fixed.

If you edit the stock /etc/samba/smb.conf file pointers are given on how to set all of this up. You really must have at least one browse master on your network.
I make my Linux box (which is up CONSTANTLY) be the browse master.

Usually when you install Windows file sharing, XP/2K set up their own browse master services, yet you show none.

Either you are inadvertently firewalling them off (try the same with XP SP2's firewall turned OFF) or you've disabled this windows service.

As I said this needs to be fixed.

Opjose;

What is the IP of the windows box?
sinvestment is:
Stan1 is the name I gave to the PC when creating the Network within Windows-Windows.

I ran this in Konsole:
I do not know why it attempts to connect to the above IP listed. i.e. 172.16.1.25:445,139 ?

smb4k shows STAN1 as Master and STAN 1 (PC2) as Host , IP address is 192.168.0.100

Again "sinvestments is my other PC it is next to my Mandrake Box, with Stan1 being the name of PC.

Gateway.2wire.net is my router and 192.168.0.1 is IP address for SAM2.

I have a D-Link router coming off that 2wire DSL modem going into 2 PCs.

My firewall is turmed off and I guess I don't understand by what you mean by edit the stock /etc/samba/smb.conf file pointers?

d-1

If sinvestment is a username then your syntax is incorrect (hint: Man pages).

It should be

-U sinvestment


What follows -L is the machine name of the computer you are trying to connect to.


"My firewall is turmed off and I guess I don't understand by what you mean by edit the stock /etc/samba/smb.conf file pointers?"

Eh, just that.

Edit /etc/samba/smb.conf according to what you need. It's pretty self documenting.

But the bigger question is why your Windows machine is not acting as a master browser?!?

Your Windows machine also shows NO workgroup membership.

In effect your Windows machine is acting as if it's Networking is "broken".

I'd try first "repairing" the Windows Interface, Start/Control Panel/Network Connections/Local Area Connection

Right click and hit repair.

Then Start/Control Panel/System/Computer Name/Change then re-enter the values and hit apply.

Finally Start/Control Panel/Windows Firewall/Off

Once done go back to the Linux box and try the smbclient command again.

But this time do it for BOTH your local Linux box and your remote Windows machine, instead of just for the remote so I can see the output.

Will do, but last night I messed around with the BIOS on the Windows box and I have the dreaded "Black" screen today. I have an Athlon 2400 XP and it was reading as an Athlon 1800 XP. I replaced the motherboard the other day because the Albatron Board had evidence of having bad caps. Well when I installed it I noticed the processor read as a slower proccessor. I called my PC store I purchased from and they told me, hey no big deal, just change your front side bus from 133 MHZ -166MHZ.

Well I noticed on BIOS it was set to 100 MHZ and the highest it would go was to 132 MHZ. Well when I rebooted I got the beautiful "black screen" on Halloween night. I will report back on this issue once I resolve my BIOS problem. I hope I didn't fry my motherboard.

Just goes to show you, it's always something....

d-1

Linux-Windows File share problem resolved
 

Opjose,

Guess what? My problem has been solved and how I did it no one really knows. I sort of did it by accident.

Anyway before I begin, I wanted to explain my blacked out screen problem on my new Soyo Motherboard. What happened was, from the factory the jumper on the motherboard's (CMOS) is set at default to go no higher than 100 MHZ. When I set at it 132 MHZ, which was the highest I could set it at (because jumper would not allow me to go any higher, so I had to clear the CMOS memory), the system automatically shuts it down for safety reasons, even though the board is rated to accept an AMD Athlon 3200 XP. (pins 3-4).

Now to my file sharing problem, and how I resolved it. I really don't know, because I did not change anything other than my processor speed. In other words I did not run any repairs as you recommended. All I did was open up my STAN1 documents in windows then went back to Mandrake and opened smb4k.

When I started smb4k it was blank (and I was like, what the h---l, meaning it showed no workgroup, zero, nothing at all.

I then did a search for “VTAN1” and it showed a little pc called “VTAN1”, I hit the [add] button and it moved it over to the left and when I clicked on it, it expanded and showed all my files.

It shows everything now, so I am bewildered as to why it works now.

Anyway as I transfer this letter over to windows in a ceremonial symbolic christening of a madden ship voyage just before it is heading out to sea. I send you this message by the making of OpenOffice.org1.1.3, and through the distribution and delivery of this said document, over Home Networking, through Internet Explorer and back to this great board.

Thank you sir, for helping me through the storm. I must have been lost in “devils triangle” ?

Oh, by-the-way, the name of the ship is “WindowsXP” and its on it's demolish-en voyage..

d-1

Opjose,

This is what is going on. I noticed if I reboot my PC with Mandrake running and my other box with Windows is running I get this:
If I expand the above it I get this:
but please note I cannot expand.

Now if I shut Windows PC down and refresh smb4k on Mandrake Linux, and now I open smb4k, smb4k is blank and has nothing in it. Understand?
Now if I then power onto Windows (turn it on), and remember smb4k is blank, and I do a search for "VTAN1", it finds it, I then hit add and "VTAN1" moves over to the left and I can now see, share and retrieve the expandable files between Mandrake & Windows.

If I then reboot Mandrake-Linux box (turn it off/on-again) with Windows Box running I get the above procedure all over again when I open smb4k, and I can't expand the files:
Can't expand:


Why does it do this, any idea? I guess since my PC was shut down, I had accidentally assumed the problem was corrected. I guess one could say, there is a way around the problem I have and how to make it work.

That is to never turn both boxes off, or to start Linux first then smb4k and, Windows 2nd.

What do you think?

d-1

This happens because the machines may need up to 20 minutes for a browse master to be "elected" and shares propegated across
your network.

The correct way to fix this is to FORCE a single computer to be the browse master.

Linux is the best candidate for doing so when you use Samba and configure it properly.

This causes all of the Windows machines to register with Samba (you must raise it's browser priority in the /etc/samba/smb.conf file!).

So samba knows about all of the remote shares.

Also Windows machines "broadcast" their shares via netbios over tcpip, etc. This is rather slow which is one reason MS went to domain controllers.

It is better to add your Windows machines names and IP's to BOTH Linux's /etc/hosts AND Windows \Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts files.

If you do this then the shares are instantly available to both types of machines once the computer comes up.

Why do you have to do this?

Because most home networks have either rudimentary or non-existant local DNS servers.

Most home users don't even know what a DNS is, let alone that their networks depend upon them.