I'm new to Samba, too, but here's my two cents worth on your questions:
Eric Evans wrote:
<snip> Please let me summarize the points that I'm confused about:
1. Why do I need to use wins support in my smb.conf? I don't see the
point of this since it seems to me we are not using WINS.
WINS is Windows Internet Naming Service. It's how MS machines find out
who they are, when that matters, as it does when you're running a PDC.
When you weren't this didn't matter, but with a PDC, you need WINS
server IP in your Windows machines, and you need wins support = yes in
your smb.conf.
2. If I don't have access to the DHCP server to modify its
configuration, how can I accomplish Craig's suggestion of putting the
IP address of my Samba server in the WINS server list on the DHCP
server, and how can I define the node type? Surely there must be
other Samba users who don't have configuration access to their DHCP
server. How do they deal with this?
AFAIK, you don't need both WINS and DHCP, just one or the other. Both
doesn't hurt (as long as the IP addresses don't conflict with each
other), but you should be able to do fine with WINS--put your WINS
server's IP address (i.e., the address of your Samba server, since it's
typically the WINS server in this kind of environment) in your Windows
PCs' locations as suggested earlier. By the way, what does your
nsswitch.conf file say on this? It should have a line in it that says
something like <hosts: files dns wins> Hosts: is required, or the line
won't work, and wins is necessary or your network services won't be able
to deal with wins resolutions. The others are necessary, too, but
they're not relevant to the present problem.
3. Why is my windows client trying to send to a WINS server anyway?
See 1. above.
4. The [homes] share, at least in Samba 2, always had a special
meaning. It was always interpreted by Samba as mapping to the user's
home directory. Does Samba 3 no longer give this special meaning to
the [homes] share?
The [homes] share has the same meaning in S3 as in S2. However, before
a user can get to his/her [homes] share via a PDC, s/he has to log in
(which is transparent to the user, once everything is running
properly--s/he has already logged in, when s/he logged into his/her
PC). Not only is it necessary for your Samba server to join the domain,
but the PC must, also. The Windows PC can only be joined to the domain
(and this must be done explicitly for the PC) by an administrator or
someone with administrator privileges. In lots of LANs, the PC user has
these privileges, but this is poor security practice.
5. PDC or BDC was not necessary in Samba 2 to connect to the [homes]
directory. Why is it necessary in Samba 3? Are there any other
special shares in Samba that one MUST have PDC or BDC access in order
to use?
See 4. above. A PDC/BDC isn't necessary under Samba 3 to connect to a
homes share. What's different in S3 is the ability to set Samba up as a
P/BDC. Setting up Samba as a P/BDC improves security for the LAN, and
it's this P/DC and increased security that complicates a bit the process
of getting connected.
<snip>
Best wishes,
Eric
Hope this helps.
Eric Hines
--
Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to
war first and then seek to win.
--Sun-Tzu
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