Samba q

[grimmster]

OK, my network consists of two win 7 machines on Ethernet, one laptop with xp and one laptop with Fedora 15.

The two win 7 machines have shared folders, and the printer is hooked to one of the win 7 boxes.

I have tried and tried to get the linux box to see the shares and the printer, but no luck at all. I do have my workgroup name in the samba conf file already, but when I browse the network, no of my computers show up.

[Spankin Partier]

Not sure which version of SAMBA FC15 has. But Windows Vista uses Microsofts SMB2 protocal (WinXP and earlier used SMB) where as Win7 uses SMB2.1. SAMBA 3.6.0, which was just released last week, finally added SMB2 support so it can talk with Vista. But SMB2 is not enabled by default.

I don't know how much has changed from Vista to Win7. But there must be some differences since Win7 uses SMB2.1. IIRC, WinXP computers needed to be patched before they would see Vista computers. I wouldn't be surprised if the needed a second patch to see Win7 computers. If so, chances are SAMBA wont work until they properly add SMB2.1 support.

[grimmster]

Wow, really? Win 7 has been out for 2 years and Linux cannot see them? You would think Samba support would be more up to date then that.

Now I have two things my family will complain about for Linux. No support for streaming Netflix and now can't print from it either.

See how long I can keep it on before they say enough.

[Sick Willie]

Fedora 14 connects to Windows 7 without issue so I would think FC15 would work too. In fact, I believe that I've been able to connect to Windows 7 machines at least as far back as FC7.

You should try to use the CUPS system (localhost:631 in a web browser) for printer administration, it should see the Windows printer shares. Be sure you either have the Windows firewall off or configured for file/print sharing.

Edit: what I did find to be a major impediment to Samba working was SELinux. Since I don't need the "features" it provides, it's the first thing I disable when I bring up a Linux box.

[grimmster]

SELinux is the first thing I disable also. There is something else I am missing in my setup I think

[Sick Willie]

Steps I take to get Samba working:

1. Set up the Samba Server - workgroup, user authentication (provide username and password), folder to share and share with username. Since I'm the only user, I also make the share read/write.
2. Start the following services: network, nmb, smb (these are not enabled by default).
3. Disable iptables and iptables6 since I'm behind a router.

[grimmster]

I don't need samba server do I? I don't care if my other systems can see the Linux box, but the Linux box has to see the windows boxes, so just client I need?

[Sick Willie]

I'm normally setting things up where the Windows boxes see the Linux boxes. However, that being said, my Linux boxes do see the Windows boxes. And, at the very least, the network and smb services would need to be running in order for the Linux boxes to be able to use Samba resources (Windows shares).

[bman212121]

I don't need samba server do I? I don't care if my other systems can see the Linux box, but the Linux box has to see the windows boxes, so just client I need?

Nope, you don't need the samba server. It could be that the firewall on your Windows clients are turned on which is not allowing the Linux boxes to ping or recieve netbios information. They would be there if you manually connected, but they won't show up in the network gui.

Been a long time since I'd used Fedora, but look and see if it has a "connect to server" option somewhere in the menu. Change the drop down to windows shares, and then put in the ip and share name and you should be able to map a share. Protocol isn't really going to matter either. If you connect with samba < 3.6 windows will just fall back to SMB instead of using SMB2. I'm only running 3.4.12 on my gentoo box and it connects just fine to a Windows 7 laptop.

The connect to server option is apparently under file when you have a "computer" browser open. (Nautilus) http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=260980

[grimmster]

I just added the ip and names to the /etc/hosts table to make things easier. all is good now as long as my ip's dont change.

yes I know I could make them static, but I seem to have company 1/month that needs to hop on to my network

[Spankin Partier]

You should check your router. Its probably set to assign IPs starting at xxx.xxx.xxx.100. If so, then you can set static IPs starting at XXX.XXX.XXX.10. This way you don't conflict with the DHCP server and can have the best of both worlds. I mix static and dynamic IPs on nets all the time.

Glad you got Samba working. From what I was reading it sounded like it was going to be a hassle. I didn't know that Vista/Win7 would be reverse compatible. I was sure a hotfix was needed for XP before XP would be able to properly talk the newer OSes.