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On Monday 25 March 2002 15:17, you wrote:
1. workgroup name is very important in MS networking. very important that each machine be given *the same* workgroup name. Example: my home LAN is named HOME. So on the Toshiba laptop running Win98, I have workgroup HOME. On the Athlon machine running xp, I have workgroup HOME. On the Linux machines, I have workgroup HOME. I'm behind a Linksys router and each machine is assigned a number in the 192.168.1.x range where x is 1 to 253.
I am also using a LinkSys router. You say that your Linux machines are also assigned workgroup "home". Where and how did you do this?
2. The machine name is different for each machine on the MS network (same goes for the Linux boxes as well). For example the Toshiba laptop is named TOSH. The SuSE linux box is named Athena, the xp machine is Venus. You can use uname -a to show you the box name in Linux. On the MS machines, net name should show the machine name
OK, I tried uname -a and got "Linux thor" thor should be the name of the computer. I don't know what the Linux is doing in there. I already know the Win boxes names, but get nothing with smbclient -L <computer name>.
3. If you have your LAN set up as above, then you should be able to see the other MS machine(s) in the Network Neighborhood (regardless of whether smb stuff is working or not on the Linux box.) If not, try pinging from one MS machine to another in an MSDOS box (command window) and just use the numeric IP addresses. Example: ping 192.168.1.5 where .5 would represent the address assigned to one of the MS machines. No answer back means could mean networking not configured correctly, cable problems (physical wire) or hub/switch/router problems.
I can see the Win machines when I boot into Win 2k and use network neighborhood. My only problem is when I boot into SuSE, smbclient can't seem to locate anything with "smbclient -L" <computer name>.
4. Verify that you have all machines on the LAN using the same network numbers. By that I mean they should all start with 192.168.1.x for example. There can't be one that's 192.168.2.4 and another that's 192.168.1.5. They'll be seen as being on different networks (and that's what routing's all about) and won't see each other the way you want them to.
I assume that they all are as I can see them all in Win 2000, but just to be on the safe side, how do I check the IP addresses when they are assigned dynamically?
5. For test purposes, you might abandon DHCP till things are sorted out and just assign each machine an IP in the 192.168.1.x range if that's feasible. It could make pinging and identification easier while testing.
This would be a last resort Tom, as accessing the smb shares is mainly for my benefit. My other family members will not appreciate me mucking around with the machines and they suddenly have no Internet access (as an example). Cheers, Brian