Connecting XP Box to Linux box via samba question

[kc78]

I think I have samba configured correctly, however I have a small problem. I'm trying to setup my linux box (RH8.0) as a file server for my windows machines. When I try and connect to the linux box through my network neighborhood it says that I can't connect because a duplicate name exists on the network. I'm pretty sure one doesn't though.

My two XP machines have different names. I'm not 100% sure where to check to see what the name of the linux box is. Can anyone tell me where to look to make sure it doesn't have the same name as another machine on my network, and if it doesn't what else may be causing the problem?

Thanks

Kevin

[Dolda2000]

Samba uses the hostname stored by the kernel. Check what it is set to using the "hostname" command.

[kc78]

well my hostname was set to localhost.localdomain.com or something like that. Once I changed the hostname to something else it worked fine. I'm not sure why it did, but it did. So the problem is resolved as of now I think and I have a file server on my network now.

[Dolda2000]

Well, localhost.localdomain made Samba name itself localhost, which is hostname that is more or less built-in to most platforms, pointing at the address of the loopback interface, 127.0.0.1.

[kc78]

ok, one more question on this.
I've got the folder mapped as a drive on my XP machine, but I noticed it's only a 2 gig folder. The drive itself has 20 gigs on it. Why is this showing up as a 2 gig folder only, is there a way to change that folder to give me whatever space is available. That's about the only thing my linux machine is going to be doing for now.

[Dolda2000]

Probably all space is available, only that the SMB protocol fails to represent the available space. 2 GBs correspond exactly to the largest positive that can be represented by by a signed 32 bit integer. (Then of course one would wonder why Microsoft would use a signed integer, let alone only a 32 bit such, but that's not the only question I'd like to ask Microsoft...)
If you copy files to that directory, you'll see that the available disk space doesn't decrease.

[kc78]

thanks so much. I'm glad I found this board. It's been a great help so far. Answered all the questions I've been looking for.

I have one other quick question but it's not linux related, maybe someone can still help. I'm running through a workgroup at home. For some reason when I first log in I seem to be able to access the network via my network places, then for some reason it will suddenly just disapear out of my network places and if I try to get into the network it says the network name cannot be found. now, I can still access the network via that new mapped drive and can view the individual computers if I use \\ipaddress\sharename but I just can't get in via my network places. Any idea as to what causes this?

[Dolda2000]

Those symptoms dissappear magically after a while, right? Windows networking depends heavily on regular broadcasting, and it takes a while for it to settle down.

[kpzani]

I've had loads of problems running MS clients in a workgroup so I aways use a domain server.

Recently we installed a samba server in work to replace our win 2k advanced server PDC. The clients use to take over 5 minutes to load their personal settings (profile) from the PDC now with samba it takes seconds.

If you're setting up samba for fun then I recommend checking out the "SMB HOWTO" on tldp.org - I found it very good. I also bought a book "Teach yourself SAMBA in 24 hours" from amazon. Excellent book covered a bit of networking theory with practical application to the SMB and CIFS protocol. Then covered replacing an NT server and setting up a PDC for MS clients.