[KLUG Members] Win XP showing up as Master and Server in smbclient command

[John Bridleman]

* bill wrote:
> In a mixed Linux / MS network with a Samba server, I found a Win XP box
> listed also as server and something called a Master.

It's the master browser.

> What do those two things (Server and Master) mean?

Server means the XP box is acting as a server and Master means hat it is also the Master Browser:
 - http://us1.samba.org/samba/docs/man/howto/NetworkBrowsing.html#DMB

> Why is the XP box showing up in the Samba server's info?

Because it's a server on the network plus it's the Master Browser.

> The other unexpected thing is at the same time, other Win computers no
> longer show up in the Network Neighborhood of each other's Win boxes.  I
> can find them manually, but why do they stop showing up in Network
> Neighborhood?

If you remove the XP box do the others eventually come back?

Is your workgroup set correctly on all machines? Do you want the Samba server to be the master browser? What is 'os level' set to? What are 'local master' and 'domain master' set to? What version of Samba?

> Are these two issues related?

I believe so.
--
John Bridleman / www.bridleman.org