[KLUG Members] Nautilus smb: - was Two questions.

[Bruce Smith]

>>Does the fact I'm running a private class "B" cause it to
>>take longer than if I were running a private class "C"?
>>(does it scan all possible nodes?)
> 
> Nope. ...


Nautilus/smb: works fine at home, one Win98 box & one Linux box.

I guess it's takes longer at work because I have more Winxx PC's
to browse in the workgroup (about 100)???


>>That may be a problem.  At work we are primarily a *nix shop.
>>My main "NT Server" is Samba running on HPUX (old ver of Samba).
>>We have a bunch of Windows 9x clients, one small 5 client NT4 server
>>running on a P5-120 32MB for payroll (because our payroll service
>>REQUIRES NT and won't support us otherwise), and one Citrix Winframe
>>box.  But I don't have anything setup to be a PDC (or BDC).  We're
>>just one big happy "workgroup" and a bunch of *nix & Xterminals.
> 
> Good move.  You can actually put a Samba 2.2 server "in charge."  I
> would _at_least_ make your Samba server (and 2.0/2.2 version) the WINS
> Server and have all systems, both Windows and Linux, point to it.


I've been thinking of doing that.  I need to compile a newer version
of Samba on HPUX.

>>Can I "join" a workgroup?
> 
> Actually, Samba doesn't differentiate between workgroups and domains. 
> They are basically the same.  Windows uses the terminology to
> differentiate between a few key attributes that translate to a couple
> different options.  Actually, this is where Samba is most flexible --
> tying together existing, non-domain NT networks.
> 
> You can use Samba in a "domain-like" mode for browse lists -- so you can
> scan all Windows systems across your multiple subnets, but still do
> authorization on each local server or subnet.  NT won't allow you to do
> that.
> 
>>Or would anything else help my speed given this setup?
> 
> WINS.  Setup one of your Samba servers to be a WINS server, and point
> all your Windows systems at it.  Also setup your UNIX Samba clients to
> point at it too.  If you read my Chapter 33 in "Samba Unleashed," I talk
> about all this.  Although it is driven towards multiple subnets, much of
> it is still very applicable to single subnets.  I would have written
> more, but the chapter was a 3-day weekend "rush job" because another
> contributing author "flaked out."


I was thinking that I didn't need WINS since I have only one subnet.
(hence the class "B")   I wasn't thinking of the speed issue.


>>Just for my own curiosity, how would I "join a NT domain"
>>with this Nautilus browser?  Is that part of the smb.conf?
> 
> It's actually a command you have to run. 


Oh?  What command is that?

> NT/2000/XP has a lot of "false
> security" crap in its use of what is known as a "security identifier"
> (SID).  You have to create an SID, and tell the NT domain what it is.
> 
> But you're not running an NT server as a PDC/SDC, so that's not an
> issue.  The options are endless when it comes to Samba, but enabling
> WINS on one of your Samba boxen and pointing every other box to it would
> probably improve browsing speed -- and performance in general (as the
> number of broadcasts -- remember, "me too" networking ;-> -- are cut
> down).
> 
> Maybe we should re-look at all your systems and what services they need
> to provide.  BTW, what are you using for UNIX directory services, NIS?


Yes, all my HPUX boxes are running NIS.

--------------------------------------------
Bruce Smith                bruce@armintl.com
System Administrator / Network Administrator
Armstrong International, Inc.
Three Rivers, Michigan  49093  USA
http://www.armstrong-intl.com/
--------------------------------------------