Samba giving me so much grief (can't connect to samba share from windoze)

[benkenobi]

Hi all, I have spent days and days trying to fix allegedly such a simple kind of issue, but I have just lost too many hairs and at this point I am giving up on getting a nice simple linux server if you all can't figure it either.

Anyways, I have a linux server running jaunty jackalope, I've got the newest samba version installed (I've installed and uninstalled nearly 10 times), here is my smb.conf file:

[global]
panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
workgroup = workgroup
netbios name = "Server"
invalid users = root
security = user
username map = /etc/samba/smbusers
wins support = no
log file = /var/log/samba.log
log level = 3
max log size = 1000
syslog = 1
encrypt passwords = true
passdb backend = smbpasswd
socket options = TCP_NODELAY
dns proxy = no
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat =*Enter\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\sUNIX\spassword:* %n\n .
obey pam restrictions = yes
pam password change = no
null passwords = no

#Share Definitions

[homes]
comment = Home Directories
browseable = yes
writable = yes
security mask = 0700
create mask = 0700

[ben]
path = /home/ben
available = yes
browsable = yes
public = yes
writable = yes

[test]
path = /home/ben/test
available = yes
valid users = ben
read only = no
browsable = yes
public = yes
writable = yes

[home]
path = /home
available = yes
browsable = yes
public = yes
writable = no

I do realize it is pretty big and messy but this is a result of all the little parameters I've found on the interest that would have supposedly fixed my issue. The main issue is that I can't connect to any of the 3 samba shares that you can see above from any of my computers ( i have one xp and one vista, neither can connect.)

I try to connect by doing 192.168.1.106/home/ben (I found the IP by doing ifconfig, wher e i got inet addr:192.168.1.106). The strangest thing is that the first day I installed samba, the thing worked fine, I could transfer files onto the share between the server and the computers. The next day, it didn't work, and the weirdest thing was that when I tried to figure out what was wrong, I did ifconfig and the ip had changed to 192.168.1.106 from 192.168.1.102. I don't know what caused the change, but I found it very weird. The other day it changed to 192.168.1.105 as well, but now it's back to .106. This probably has something to do with it. IDK, I am a very big linux noob which is something you can probably tell by now.


So the error I get when I do a 192.168.1.106/home/ben from one of my computers is the standard "connection interrupted" in firefox or the "internet explorer cannot display the webpage" in IE. SO FRUSTRATING!!!

Before you ask, yes, I have made a username for samba as ben and made a password for it.

Any help would be so greatly appreciated, this project is the first time I have tried linux and I feel like an idiot

[rcgreen]

One of the first things you can get control of is
the IP address. This may not be the only thing
causing trouble, but it obviously needs fixing.
If your computers get their IP addresses from a router,
go in to the configuration of the router and make
it always assign the same address to each computer.

Also, check your logs. Mine are in /var/log/samba

[coopstah13]

did it stop working after a reboot? I'm wondering if samba is even running, it is possible that it isn't set to start up at boot time

[ihayhurst]

Once you've sorted out your DHCP and can keep the IP address static (as mentioned by last poster) I cant help thinking you may be testing this the wrong way.

Whilst it is possible to connect to file shares with web browsers (I thinking Konqueror here with its smb:// protocol,(no idea about firefox and ie doing this)
SMB (server message block or cifs as it's known now) is best tested by attaching your shares as drives or browsing to them from say start-->search \\server\share

It's possible you meant this however it's also possible you are experiencing a senior moment and are inadvertently trying to browse to a file share in a web browser.

Hope this is some help