[pptp-server] WINS resolution

Cowles, Steve Steve at SteveCowles.com
Tue Feb 6 12:31:30 CST 2001


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Dege [mailto:rcd at amherst.com]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2001 11:05 AM
> To: Cowles, Steve
> Cc: pptp-server at lists.schulte.org
> Subject: Re: [pptp-server] WINS resolution
> 
> Steve,
> I'm not entirely sure if WINS is working correctly.  I do have
> browse.dat & wins.dat files in /var/lock/samba.
> 
> browse.dat only shows the local master for each workgroup.
> Right now, there are only 2 machines on the LAN that point
> to WINS. They are both local Masters.  I added 4 more machines
> to point to WINS inside a separate workgroup.  If I try to
> double-click on that workgroup from network neighborhood
> (from the PPTP client), I still get that workgroup is
> inaccessible.  The remaining workgroups & computers show up
> via broadcast & are also inaccessible.
> 
> wins.dat shows all the computers that are pointing to it.
> One thing bugs me though.  Here is a quick sample of the file:
> 
> "__MSBROWSE__#01" 981932577 255.255.255.255 84R
> "HOMER#00" 981996600 172.28.254.32 44R
> "HOMER#03" 981996600 172.28.254.32 44R
> "HOMER#20" 981996594 172.28.254.32 44R
> "PPTP_GROUP#00" 981996810 255.255.255.255 c4R
> "PPTP_GROUP#1e" 981996810 255.255.255.255 c4R
> "SIMPLE#00" 981996594 255.255.255.255 c4R
> "SIMPLE#1e" 981996594 255.255.255.255 c4R
> "SKID#00" 981996810 172.28.254.46 46R
> "SKID#03" 981996810 172.28.254.46 46R
> "SKID#20" 981996810 172.28.254.46 46R
> "SNIFFER#00" 981996765 172.28.41.46  4R
> "SNIFFER#03" 981996764 172.28.41.46  4R
> "SNIFFER#20" 981932487 172.28.41.46  4R
> 
> Homer is the local Master of the workgroup SIMPLE.
> SKID is the local Master of the workgroup PPTP_GROUP.
> (PPTP Server) Sniffer is the PPTP Client
> 
> Notice how MSBROWSE & the workgroups have a 255.255.255.255 
> address, as if to infer no viewing capabilities via subnet
> mask.  Is this supposed to be normal?
> 
> Thank for the insight.
> 

Something is not right here. The __MSBROWSE__ entry is probably the most
important record. It should be pointing to an IP address of the system that
"won" the election process to become the master. I have never seen this
entry pointing to all one's. ie. 255.255.255.255. Based on the current state
of the browse.dat file, I would think that the election process has not
decided on a winner... so to speak.

Also, I noticed that you "possibly" have different subnets. 172.28.254 and
172.28.41. What are the netmasks for these network addresses. If they are
set to a 24bit mask, are you using a separate WINS server per network or are
the clients on this other network registering with a single WINS server? The
reason I ask; is if you go by the MS "Enterprise" model... they recommend
that you install a WINS server on each LAN and have each client system
register with the WINS server on that LAN. Then enable push/pull replication
between the WINS servers so that a copy of each WINS server database is
local. Furthermore, in setting up push/pull replication, you also toggle the
"replicate on change" switch, which will send change only updates to all the
other WINS servers as clients register/de-register. This keeps the "very
chatty" MS browse requests from spanning routers. Unfortunately, I don't
think Samba's WINs server supports the push/pull replication with MS WINS
servers, but it does between Samba based WINS servers. i.e.

  remote browse sync (G)

      This option allows you to setup  nmbd  to  periodi­
      cally  request synchronization of browse lists with
      the master browser of a samba server that is  on  a
      remote  segment. This option will allow you to gain
      browse lists for multiple workgroups across  routed
      networks.  This  is  done in a manner that does not
      work with any non-samba servers.

      This is useful if you want your  Samba  server  and
      all  local  clients to appear in a remote workgroup
      for which the normal browse propagation rules don´t
      work. The remote workgroup can be anywhere that you
      can send IP packets to.

      For example:
         remote    browse    sync    =    192.168.2.255
         192.168.4.255

      the above line would cause nmbd to request the mas­
      ter browser on the specified subnets  or  addresses
      to  synchronize  their  browse lists with the local
      server.

      The IP addresses you choose would normally  be  the
      broadcast addresses of the remote networks, but can
      also be the IP addresses of known browse masters if
      your network config is that stable. If a machine IP
      address is given Samba makes NO attempt to validate
      that the remote machine is available, is listening,
      nor that it is in fact the browse  master  on  it´s
      segment.

You might want to check the following options in your smb.conf file. They
would seem to apply to your problem.

OS level
remote announce
local master

Steve Cowles



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