Fwd: RE: [pptp-server] unable to browse network using WIN NT Client -> LINUX pptpd server

[Bjorn Kuiper]

d0h!,
It seems there was an WINS server on the network!
together with editing the hosts and lmhosts file and using
the option ms-wins in /etc/ppp/options made it work.

Thanks for all your help.

and some advise for starters. just install a NT wins server!

Greetings Bjorn

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bjorn Kuiper [mailto:kub at cfc.at]
> Sent: Friday, February 23, 2001 3:36 AM
> To: pptp-server at lists.schulte.org
> Subject: [pptp-server] unable to browse network using WIN NT Client ->
> LINUX pptpd server
>
>
> Hello,
>
> I'm trying now for 2 days in a row to make it all work.
> The connection is made and i can add any share as a mapped
> drive to my NT client. But i'm not able to browse the network
> enviroment on the client.
>
> There were about four solutions given to this problem and i
> tried almost everyone of them.
>
> first of all a small description of the current status. i want to
> connect with my win NT client to a linux pptpd server which
> is connect to the local network. i can ping every host on the
> local network and can map any share to a drive. the only problem
> is to 'browse' through the network.
>
> the solutions that are mentioned on this list:
> - edit your lmhosts and hosts file
> - make your linux server a master browser
> - make your linux server a wins server/or any other machine
> in the network.
>
> i edit my lmhosts and hosts file. the hosts file is ofcourse
> no problem. the lmhosts file has some extra setting, you can
> specify an DOMain controller by adding #DOM:<domain> behind
> the machines name and ip.
>
> This didn't get the preferred result. it's just makes the DNS
> server a bit more useless on the localnetwork and spares some
> bandwith.

Your PPTP client should have at least been able to authenticate to the
domain controller that you specified with the #DOM:<domain> directive.
That's about it though. Adding this record would not have fixed browsing.

> Then i made the linux machine as master browser (using
> of course samba).
>
> But if i don't change anything in the /etc/ppp/options file
> nothing happens. No (extra) data is send between the host
> and server.

If I understand the above correctly, then your PPTP client's netbios node
type is still set as b-node (broadcast). Broadcast packets (by default) are
not routed across the PPTP tunnel.

> the only thing wat always happens is that my client tries to
> send a first query to the name server and get's a respons
> (btw: it always a fault request. the name asked to resolve is
> wrong and has always the same error at the end, but everything
> is typed right in my hosts and lmhosts file).
>
> If i change wins-server to my linux pptpd server (now running
> as master browser) then some data is sent between them, but
> this of course fails.
>
> (there exchanging smb 'requests' and 'negatives')
>
> Then i tried something else, i set wins-server <host> to my
> main DOMAIN-CONTROLLER on the local network. now i CAN SEE
> every machine on the network while browsing, but i can only
> access the NT machines that are known as SERVERS and not as
> WORKSTATIONS. This is probably normal,

Normal?? Possibly. I would be interested in the error you get when you try
to access a workstation. i.e. access denied. Also, was your DOMAIN
CONTROLLER running Microsoft WINS server?

> but i don't want to setup a WINS-server because, if i'm right,
> then every machine on the local network has to change his
> settings to access and report to the local WINS-server!?

That's correct!!! Although, if you are currently using DHCP to assign ip
addresses, you can add WINS server and netbios node type to your DHCP scope
so that all systems on your LAN automatically register with the WINS server
without having to physically visit each desktop/server to manually change
these settings. Especially your PDC/BDC's

>From the man pages: man dhcp-options

 option  netbios-name-servers  ip-address  [, ip-address...];

   The NetBIOS name server (NBNS) option specifies a  list
   of  RFC  1001/1002 NBNS name servers listed in order of
   preference.   NetBIOS Name Service  is  currently  more
   commonly  referred  to  as  WINS.   WINS servers can be
   specified using the netbios-name-servers option.

 option netbios-node-type uint8;

   The NetBIOS node type option allows NetBIOS over TCP/IP
   clients  which  are  configurable  to  be configured as
   described in RFC 1001/1002.  The value is specified  as
   a single octet which identifies the client type.

    Possible node types are:
      1    B-node: Broadcast - no WINS
      2    P-node: Peer - WINS only.
      4    M-node: Mixed - broadcast, then WINS
      8    H-node: Hybrid - WINS, then broadcast

> So my question on the end,
> Does anybody knows a solution so i can browse the network, without
> having to change the configuration of all the machines on the local
> network? Did i somewho missed an option somewhere?

I'm not aware of any other available options. Mainly because of the inherent
nature of netbios, which by default (b-node), uses broadcast packets to
build its browser list and eventually designate a master browser through an
election process. Using broadcast packets will always work fine when all
servers/clients are located on a LAN because these broadcast packets will be
answered. But since your PPTP server is in essence, acting as a router, the
broadcast packets generated by the remote PPTP client will NOT be routed
across the tunnel, so they will never be heard and/or answered. Thus, the
reason for implementing a WINS server.

If your wanting a second opinion, I have also implemented IPSEC based
tunnels in addition to PPTP tunnels. (W2K road warriors) The following link
is based on using IPSEC tunnels but describes the same problem, just using a
different protocol. Anyway, I thought the author did a very good job at
describing the content of your post and reinforcing what I have already
stated. "If you do NOT implement a WINS server... your SOL".

Checkout:

http://jixen.tripod.com/rw-to-domain/win32-to-nt.html

Good Luck
Steve Cowles

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