WinXP client cannot see contents of Samba Share

[Floog]

Hi Group:

Suddenly, I am seeing quirky behavior with the WinXP client trying to access my linux Samba server.

When I first set the WinXP client up a few weeks ago, the client box would need to type in Username and Password before entering the Samba share on the linux box.

Now, the WinXP client sees the "mw" share under My Network Places ----> View Workgroup Computers whether the Samba server daemon is on/off. Also, the WinXP client is never queried for Username or Password now. The XP client always sees the "mw" share regardless of whether the Samba daemon is on/off. The client sees the "mw" share but CANNOT see any of the data on the "mw" share. I try logging off the WinXP user and then relogging, but that doesn't help.

Here's a copy of my /etc/samba/smb.conf:

[global]
workgroup = mw
netbios name = mw
hosts allow = 192.168.1.
server string = MW
security = user
socket options = TCP_NODELAY
os level = 64
guest account = guest
share modes = yes
local master = yes
preferred master = yes
domain logons = yes
wins support = yes
encrypt passwords = yes
smb passwd file = /etc/samba/smbpasswd
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%M

[data]
path = /opt/mw
valid users = elisa
public = yes
writeable = yes
####### printable = yes
browseable = yes

#[cdrom]
# comment = CDROM
# path = /mnt/cdrom
# read only = no
# browseable = yes
# public = yes

#A printer can be added like this:
#[ljet]
# comment = "Laserjet"
# path = /var/spool/lpd/lp
# printer = lp
# public = yes
# printable = yes
# print command = lpr -r -h
# -P %p %s

## --- End Of SMB.CONF

As you can see, my setup is very basic. I've just begun working with file sharing stuff. What do you think happened? What do I need to reconfigure with the Win XP client so that it can see the contents of the "mw" share?

Thank you for your time and help.

Mike

[joycea]

I would imagine what has happened is that Windows XP has cached your password (the reason it doesn't ask for it anymore) and the Samba server has expired this cached password. This happened to me earlier and took a bit to figure out what happened. I would recommend giving the user a new Samba password on the Linux box and see if that helps. I'm not sure how to change/remove passwords from a Windows XP cache.

[Floog]

Hi Joycea,

this is quite a puzzle.
I tried what you suggested but still no go. The WinXP client sees samba share "mw" but can't see the contents and can't copy files to it.

I then looked up XP AND cached passwords under Microsofts online help and came up with a little tutorial about cached passwords. I went into Control Panel ---> Administrative Tools ---> Local Security Settings ---> Security Options. I changed the following to "0" (zero):

Interactive logon: Number of previous logons to cache: 0

But this still didn't help. The same problem still exists.

Interestingly, now I'm noticing an error message that shows up in the system tray when XP boots up. It says the following:

A duplicate name exists on the network.

Kind of odd. I can't figure out what the error is telling me and what I should do about it. But I'm guessing it would help solve the Samba problem.

I'll keep picking away at it. Please respond if you can think of anything else I might try.

Best regards.
Mike

[christsong84]

The Duplicate name means another computer has the same name as your XP machine...What's the comptuer name of your XP client? Your server is named "mw" The cuplicate name could be the entire problem...not sure though. See what happens if you re-name your comptuer to something else.

[Floog]

Hi Christsong:

Thank you for your reply.

I thought I would post this, as I think I found a solution to the problem even though I haven't figured out yet why the solution I found, works.

You can see in my previously posted smb.conf that my workgroup and netbios name were exactly the same: "mw".

I simply commented out the "netbios name" and now the WinXP client can see the samba share on "my network places" (or sumtin like that) and upon double-clicking the share, it is prompted for the userid and password that was created on the linux samba server.

Once id and password are supplied, the XP client can see the contents of the share.

Now, I need to do some hunting on google about what the problem was with using the same name "mw" for both the workgroup name and the netbios name.

Oh, I forget to mention that I also changed the samba user name from "elisa" to "elisa99". The XP client machine name shows up as "elisa" on the network, so due to the error message I also thought it might help to differentiate the samba username to something different.

This is kind of a unique situation, actually finding something that works, but now having to figure out why.

Thanks for your time and help.

Mike