times-out going to an IP address

[MisterEarl]

Similar issue here. I can browse the Samba server via the SMB client command if I use the IP address, but if I use the hostname it chugs for a while and times-out going to an IP address 24.xx.xx.xx outside my network.

It almost sounds like the server name isn't being resolved. Do I need to create a hosts file somewhere that will resolve server names?

[Hal343]

I haven't used samba, however here is the doc link The Official Samba 3.2.x HOWTO and Reference Guide which may help you.

[kmitnick]

first you have to run this command

sudo apt-get install smbfs

then edit the samba configuration file

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

and look for

# Change this to the workgroup/NT-domain name your Samba server will part of
# workgroup =WORKGROUP

and unqute second line so it becomes

workgroup=Workgroup

then change it to your windows xp workgroup name for example, every xp box i have has Zaben workgroup

then after that all what we need to do is mount the network drives

sudo mount -t smbfs -o username=kmitnick "//192.168.2.100\D" /mnt/network

where -t refers to type and here smbfs
-o refers to options such as username,password then the IP address you want to connect to followed by the shared path , here D or it can be a folder X in D so it becomes 192.xxx.xxx.xxx\D\X and the last parameter is where to mount the desired shared path and here let's say /mnt/network

but make sure you create network before runnign the command

if you have any other question post here plz.
enjoy

[kmitnick]

MisterEarl you can add a host to to the hosts files
use:

sudo nano /etc/hosts

sth like this will appear

127.0.0.1 localhost
127.0.1.1 kmitnick-laptop
192.168.2.100 zaben-family
# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1 ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters
ff02::3 ip6-allhosts

I added the third line so you can add what ever you want so if you want that if you have a wireless router having an ip 192.168.2.1 and you want to assign a name to it , all what you have to do is add the following line:

192.168.2.1 wlan

[b2bwild]

Well, If you directly using IP, there will be no name resolution.
You dont need samba server to connect another samba server. just samba-client is needed.
The timeout error is more like a network error.
Just try pinging that host.