Unable To Browse Other Computers On LAN

gboyy2000 · 2008-01-01 19:02:06

Hello all,

I've tried every forum on every webpage but I am still stuck. I use samba to network my linux box and my Win XP laptop. I can browse the LAN on the PC with no problems, my linux box shows up just fine. However, when I try to browse the network from my linux box I get a timeout error. I can still connect to my PC by using its IP, but the name does not show up. (I use konqueror to connect to my PC and to browse the network i.e. smb://192.168.1.2)

Now, if I ping the PC from my Linux box using the IP it shows up fine. The problem is when I ping using the netbios name. My linux box tries to use the DNS address in my resolv.conf file to resolve the name, which obviously is not going to work.

By the way, it is not a firewall problem, I am 99% sure of that.

I have gone through the samba howto's and forums but every possible solution I have tried does not work. If anyone would like to help, please let me know what other info I can provide so I can sort this out.

Many thanks!

Regards,
GB

ralvez · 2008-01-01 19:25:52

What do you have in your /etc/hosts?

R.

ProzacR · 2008-01-01 19:28:07

Hm it is quite drastical solution, but I suggest to use ftp servers instead of samba.
Just:
pacman -S pure-ftpd gftp
Then add pure-ftpd to your deamons in /etc/rc.conf and restart.
Then you can remonte login into your other users home dir with gftp by entering IP user and password.
On windows use filezilla client/server software to do the same.

Add because ftp protocol is well defined there will be no problems between Windows-Linux machines. IE and Firefox can connect to ftp perfectly too.

remote · 2008-01-01 19:29:02

I've not seen your /etc/hosts file to know.
However when we need naming over a VPN we simpling have samba do WINS and problem solved.

gboyy2000 · 2008-01-01 20:24:54

Thanks for the replies. My hosts file simply has the 127.0.0.1 loopback:

127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost

I have a feeling that something might be missing here that would solve the issue, but no idea what it might be.

As far as WINS, I wanted to avoid it as much as possible since I've never used it before, but if nothing else works I'll give it a whirl. And if THAT fails, I'll give the pure-ftpd a try.

Thanks again for your replies!
GB

ralvez · 2008-01-01 20:35:34

Yes, you are missing a few things.
Here is an example of my /etc/hosts.

127.0.0.1               localhost.localdomain   localhost renegade
192.168.1.2             spitfire.ittwo          spitfire
192.168.1.31            firestone.ittwo         firestone
192.168.1.20            crossfire.ittwo         crossfire

As you can see every machine in my network is identified by IP and name, so that when you want to connect to sftp://spirfire your machine knows the address is 192.168.1.2

That will/should solve your problem.

R.

gboyy2000 · 2008-01-01 23:19:19

Good deal, R. Thanks for that, that makes so much more sense.

Out of curiosity, what if I were to let a DHCP server assign IP addresses? Would WINS be the way to go then?

GB

ralvez · 2008-01-01 23:25:39

In a small network it is easier to use this approach.
If you wish the use DHCP (again, considering a small network) you can use statically assigned address via DHCP in which case you "know" what IP will be given to each machine via DHCP.
For large networks there are other technical solutions but they are too complicated to use in a home network, unless of course, you are studying to be a network engineer

gboyy2000 · 2008-01-01 23:29:16

Thanks again for your help R. Everything is sorted now.

Regards,
GB

Arch Linux

#1 2008-01-01 19:02:06

Unable To Browse Other Computers On LAN

#2 2008-01-01 19:25:52

Re: Unable To Browse Other Computers On LAN

#3 2008-01-01 19:28:07

Re: Unable To Browse Other Computers On LAN

#4 2008-01-01 19:29:02

Re: Unable To Browse Other Computers On LAN

#5 2008-01-01 20:24:54

Re: Unable To Browse Other Computers On LAN

#6 2008-01-01 20:35:34

Re: Unable To Browse Other Computers On LAN

#7 2008-01-01 23:19:19

Re: Unable To Browse Other Computers On LAN

#8 2008-01-01 23:25:39

Re: Unable To Browse Other Computers On LAN

#9 2008-01-01 23:29:16

Re: Unable To Browse Other Computers On LAN

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