[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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