smb question

So, I've got samba and debian and everything is working fine, but the
linux machine doesn't resolve windows names. I can use the smbclient
to access windows shares, but I just want to make sure I understand
this.

When I'm at my linux machine and to >ping "machinename" it says server
not found (although it can find the IP address). So, is there a way
to remedy this or is it that Windows uses their own name resolution
stuff and I just always have to use smbclient if I want to access a
windows machine from linux?

please respond to my email address: psye@brandeis.edu

thanks,
John

"John Thomas Langton" <psye@brandeis.edu> wrote in message
news:86466881.0310161144.33299764@posting.google.c om...
> So, I've got samba and debian and everything is working fine, but the
> linux machine doesn't resolve windows names. I can use the smbclient
> to access windows shares, but I just want to make sure I understand
> this.
>
> When I'm at my linux machine and to >ping "machinename" it says server
> not found (although it can find the IP address). So, is there a way
> to remedy this or is it that Windows uses their own name resolution
> stuff and I just always have to use smbclient if I want to access a
> windows machine from linux?
>
> please respond to my email address: psye@brandeis.edu
>
> thanks,
> John

post to the group, reply to the group.

You need to add your windows machine(s) to the /etc/hosts file

HTH
Allan

On Thu, 16 Oct 2003 23:05:07 +0100, Allan Bruce wrote:

>
> "John Thomas Langton" <psye@brandeis.edu> wrote in message
> news:86466881.0310161144.33299764@posting.google.c om...
>> So, I've got samba and debian and everything is working fine, but the
>> linux machine doesn't resolve windows names. I can use the smbclient
>> to access windows shares, but I just want to make sure I understand
>> this.
>>
>> When I'm at my linux machine and to >ping "machinename" it says server
>> not found (although it can find the IP address). So, is there a way
>> to remedy this or is it that Windows uses their own name resolution
>> stuff and I just always have to use smbclient if I want to access a
>> windows machine from linux?
>>
>> please respond to my email address: psye@brandeis.edu
>>
>> thanks,
>> John
>
> post to the group, reply to the group.
>
> You need to add your windows machine(s) to the /etc/hosts file
>
> HTH
> Allan

Is there a command line command which will detect and list various
machines on the network? I have my machine (Linux), 5 XP machines, 2 BeOS
boxes and 3 Apple PPCs (YD Linux). For some reason Lisa isn't working,
but that I think is a separate issue.

TIA

"Thorg Thorgussonne" <thorg@thorg.org> wrote in message
news:b564edb341ddb17b0d861f833e6b0440@news.teranew s.com...
> On Thu, 16 Oct 2003 23:05:07 +0100, Allan Bruce wrote:
>
> >
> > "John Thomas Langton" <psye@brandeis.edu> wrote in message
> > news:86466881.0310161144.33299764@posting.google.c om...
> >> So, I've got samba and debian and everything is working fine, but the
> >> linux machine doesn't resolve windows names. I can use the smbclient
> >> to access windows shares, but I just want to make sure I understand
> >> this.
> >>
> >> When I'm at my linux machine and to >ping "machinename" it says server
> >> not found (although it can find the IP address). So, is there a way
> >> to remedy this or is it that Windows uses their own name resolution
> >> stuff and I just always have to use smbclient if I want to access a
> >> windows machine from linux?
> >>
> >> please respond to my email address: psye@brandeis.edu
> >>
> >> thanks,
> >> John
> >
> > post to the group, reply to the group.
> >
> > You need to add your windows machine(s) to the /etc/hosts file
> >
> > HTH
> > Allan
>
> Is there a command line command which will detect and list various
> machines on the network? I have my machine (Linux), 5 XP machines, 2 BeOS
> boxes and 3 Apple PPCs (YD Linux). For some reason Lisa isn't working,
> but that I think is a separate issue.
>
> TIA
>

You could ping your subnet, e.g. 192.168.0.255 and use a packet tracer to
see which replies come back, e.g. tcpdump, ethereal etc.
HTH
Allan

"Allan Bruce" <allanmb@TAKEAWAYf2s.com> wrote in message news:<bmn4kp$nr0$1@news.freedom2surf.net>...
> "John Thomas Langton" <psye@brandeis.edu> wrote in message
> news:86466881.0310161144.33299764@posting.google.c om...
> > So, I've got samba and debian and everything is working fine, but the
> > linux machine doesn't resolve windows names. I can use the smbclient
> > to access windows shares, but I just want to make sure I understand
> > this.
> >
> > When I'm at my linux machine and to >ping "machinename" it says server
> > not found (although it can find the IP address). So, is there a way
> > to remedy this or is it that Windows uses their own name resolution
> > stuff and I just always have to use smbclient if I want to access a
> > windows machine from linux?
> >
> > please respond to my email address: psye@brandeis.edu
> >
> > thanks,
> > John
>
> post to the group, reply to the group.
>
> You need to add your windows machine(s) to the /etc/hosts file
>
> HTH
> Allan

Thanks. The only problem I see with that is my network is using dhcp
thus the machines have changing ip addresses. I think in the
etc/hosts file you have to specify the ip thus I'd be updating this
file everyday. Let me know if you have any other ideas.

Also, if you could point me to a resource that might be able to point
out the difference between networking with windows and linus (i.e. why
linux would automatically see another linux machine but not a windows
machine...or is that the case?)

thanks,
John

"John Thomas Langton" <psye@brandeis.edu> wrote in message
news:86466881.0310201110.57a89c33@posting.google.c om...
> "Allan Bruce" <allanmb@TAKEAWAYf2s.com> wrote in message
news:<bmn4kp$nr0$1@news.freedom2surf.net>...
> > "John Thomas Langton" <psye@brandeis.edu> wrote in message
> > news:86466881.0310161144.33299764@posting.google.c om...
> > > So, I've got samba and debian and everything is working fine, but the
> > > linux machine doesn't resolve windows names. I can use the smbclient
> > > to access windows shares, but I just want to make sure I understand
> > > this.
> > >
> > > When I'm at my linux machine and to >ping "machinename" it says server
> > > not found (although it can find the IP address). So, is there a way
> > > to remedy this or is it that Windows uses their own name resolution
> > > stuff and I just always have to use smbclient if I want to access a
> > > windows machine from linux?
> > >
> > > please respond to my email address: psye@brandeis.edu
> > >
> > > thanks,
> > > John
> >
> > post to the group, reply to the group.
> >
> > You need to add your windows machine(s) to the /etc/hosts file
> >
> > HTH
> > Allan
>
> Thanks. The only problem I see with that is my network is using dhcp
> thus the machines have changing ip addresses. I think in the
> etc/hosts file you have to specify the ip thus I'd be updating this
> file everyday. Let me know if you have any other ideas.

In that case, what is acting as your dhcp server? This could be resolved by
making lookups to the dhcp server, or by setting up a dns server (a bit
overkill perhaps)

>
> Also, if you could point me to a resource that might be able to point
> out the difference between networking with windows and linus (i.e. why
> linux would automatically see another linux machine but not a windows
> machine...or is that the case?)
>

Not sure of any off-hand, lookup wins resolution in google for the windows
side. Both machines handle networking similarly, just with some subtle
differences. The name resolution should be an easy problem to solve, can I
ask why you are using dhcp? I have found it a lot easier to allocate static
IPs and this will solve your hostname problem.
Allan

John Thomas Langton wrote:

> Thanks. The only problem I see with that is my network is using dhcp
> thus the machines have changing ip addresses. I think in the
> etc/hosts file you have to specify the ip thus I'd be updating this
> file everyday. Let me know if you have any other ideas.
>

If the dhcp server is within your control, you could try setting very long
or even permanent leases.

> Also, if you could point me to a resource that might be able to point
> out the difference between networking with windows and linus (i.e. why
> linux would automatically see another linux machine but not a windows
> machine...or is that the case?)
>

We need some more info here, protocol, domain, workgroup etc.

--

Fundamentalism is fundamentally wrong.

To reply to this message, replace everything to the left of "@" with
james.knott.

Try to make entry according to the mac address so that each clients

so both the problem of dhcp and hosts entry will work

try to add entry of each machine in the host file of linux, windows etc

"Allan Bruce" <allanmb@TAKEAWAYf2s.com> wrote in message news:<bn1nfq$aa5$1@news.freedom2surf.net>...
> "John Thomas Langton" <psye@brandeis.edu> wrote in message
> news:86466881.0310201110.57a89c33@posting.google.c om...
> > "Allan Bruce" <allanmb@TAKEAWAYf2s.com> wrote in message
> news:<bmn4kp$nr0$1@news.freedom2surf.net>...
> > > "John Thomas Langton" <psye@brandeis.edu> wrote in message
> > > news:86466881.0310161144.33299764@posting.google.c om...
> > > > So, I've got samba and debian and everything is working fine, but the
> > > > linux machine doesn't resolve windows names. I can use the smbclient
> > > > to access windows shares, but I just want to make sure I understand
> > > > this.
> > > >
> > > > When I'm at my linux machine and to >ping "machinename" it says server
> > > > not found (although it can find the IP address). So, is there a way
> > > > to remedy this or is it that Windows uses their own name resolution
> > > > stuff and I just always have to use smbclient if I want to access a
> > > > windows machine from linux?
> > > >
> > > > please respond to my email address: psye@brandeis.edu
> > > >
> > > > thanks,
> > > > John
> > >
> > > post to the group, reply to the group.
> > >
> > > You need to add your windows machine(s) to the /etc/hosts file
> > >
> > > HTH
> > > Allan
> >
> > Thanks. The only problem I see with that is my network is using dhcp
> > thus the machines have changing ip addresses. I think in the
> > etc/hosts file you have to specify the ip thus I'd be updating this
> > file everyday. Let me know if you have any other ideas.
>
> In that case, what is acting as your dhcp server? This could be resolved by
> making lookups to the dhcp server, or by setting up a dns server (a bit
> overkill perhaps)
>
> >
> > Also, if you could point me to a resource that might be able to point
> > out the difference between networking with windows and linus (i.e. why
> > linux would automatically see another linux machine but not a windows
> > machine...or is that the case?)
> >
>
> Not sure of any off-hand, lookup wins resolution in google for the windows
> side. Both machines handle networking similarly, just with some subtle
> differences. The name resolution should be an easy problem to solve, can I
> ask why you are using dhcp? I have found it a lot easier to allocate static
> IPs and this will solve your hostname problem.
> Allan

Thanks very much for everyone's feedback and help!

Alan, could you point me to what I should look at for making lookups
to the dhcp server? Right now I'm using a linksys router, so that
might pose problems.
I use dhcp because my network is always changing, people show up with
laptops and wirelessly connect.

I think DNS would be overkill, although educational. I might try the
mac adresses in the hosts file as well, although I've never heard of
that.

From my reading thus far (and please correct me if I'm wrong), windows
networking is different from linux in that it is based on an archaic
protocol started by IBM called NetBIOS. Everyone has wanted to be
compatable, and so though the hardware it was written for is no
longer, the protocol remains. WINS is for inter-subnet negotiation of
the protocol. SMB is just for one subnet. And I don't think linux
uses this at all, that's why you have to download samba to do windows
networking. I think linux has no abstraction above tcp/ip, so you can
use dns, or something like ssh, but there is no "network neighborhood"
like thing for linux.

Again, please correct me if I'm wrong.

thanks,
John

James Knott <bit_bucket@rogers.com> wrote in message news:<lG%kb.417740$Lnr1.381903@news01.bloor.is.net .cable.rogers.com>...
> John Thomas Langton wrote:
>
> > Thanks. The only problem I see with that is my network is using dhcp
> > thus the machines have changing ip addresses. I think in the
> > etc/hosts file you have to specify the ip thus I'd be updating this
> > file everyday. Let me know if you have any other ideas.
> >
>
> If the dhcp server is within your control, you could try setting very long
> or even permanent leases.
>
> > Also, if you could point me to a resource that might be able to point
> > out the difference between networking with windows and linus (i.e. why
> > linux would automatically see another linux machine but not a windows
> > machine...or is that the case?)
> >
>
> We need some more info here, protocol, domain, workgroup etc.

Sorry. I was talking about a few windows machines sharing a
workgroup, with no domain controller. My last post about the
differences between linux networking and windows networking (that I
have recently learned) are most relevant for that kind of setup. I
think the differences are similar for a domain but am not sure of the
details. Please correct me if I'm wrong, and feel free to add info.

thanks
John