Asymmetric file sharing on mixed (Win-Fedora) network

[DWeiner]

Hi,
This has been driving me nuts for two weeks. I'll skip the history for now and just describe the situation.
I have a home network with the following nodes: 3 (Windows XP,Vista, Win7), 2 (Fedora v11,12) One Fedora box is a workstation, the other is a back-up server. It is a peer to peer network using Samba on the Fedora boxes.
1. All Win boxes (dhcp) can share files in both directions with each other, with either one acting as server or client.
2. Both Fedora boxes (static IP) can share files in either direction with each other using Samba, again as either server or client.
3. Win boxes can act as clients, sending and receiving files to/from Fedora boxes.
4. Fedora boxes can not act as clients for Win boxes. Fedora boxes can "see" the workgroup and members of it, but show no directory structure under the share (using Dolphin) on Win nodes. So Win nodes can't act as servers to Fedora clients.

The share's icon shows up under "network/Samba shares/workgroupname" in Dolphin, but clicking on the icon produces a blank window with "0 Items" as a caption.

All was well when the two Fedora boxes were running vers. 8 and 10, but as most of us do I made some changes. Upgraded Fedora and one of the Win boxes from Vista to Win 7. The problem actually started with the upgrade to Fedora 12 on the server (the last change).
I have not been able to find any references to a problem like this on the web or in books.
The smb.conf file seems to be correct for this use and in fact Samba is working well as a server. Does anyone have any ideas? I'm sure that I've missed something in the configurations.

Thanks in advance.
David

[madhavdiwan]

do you have an active directory domain set up for windows shares?

please see this article: https://help.ubuntu.com/8.10/serverg...tegration.html

[DWeiner]

Hi,
Thanks for your response. No, my network is peer to peer with a workgroup. A domain with AD would be overkill. This setup has worked in the past, but there have been too many changes all at once. Some of them were voluntary (Fedora versions) and some were not (windows upgrade and updates). Thanks again for your interest.
DJW

[DWeiner]

Hello again,
Two new bits of info. 1) a new clean install using DHCP as opposed to static IP allows file transfer in both directions. As soon as I switch to static IP using system-config-network I lose the ability to get a file from a Win machine (7, Vista, XP). If I switch back to DHCP the problem isn't solved.
2) log file below. doodles is the intended server running Win7

[2010/02/20 15:14:55, 0] lib/util_sock.c:539(read_fd_with_timeout)
[2010/02/20 15:14:55, 0] lib/util_sock.c:1491(get_peer_addr_internal)
getpeername failed. Error was Transport endpoint is not connected
read_fd_with_timeout: client 0.0.0.0 read error = Connection reset by peer.
[2010/02/20 15:15:19, 0] lib/util_sock.c:539(read_fd_with_timeout)

Does anyone have any ideas?
Thanks
David

[madhavdiwan]

firewalling?.. check iptables status..

/sbin/iptables -L -n -v

look at the byte counters .. do you have a netbios rule , do you have the netbios conntrack iptables module loaded ? did your firewall start after your network service in your runlevel?

maybe restarting your firewall will do the trick after restarting the network

just reaching here .. but this is definitly the clue to work with:

Error was Transport endpoint is not connected
read_fd_with_timeout: client 0.0.0.0 read error = Connection reset by peer.
[2010/02/20 15:15:19, 0] lib/util_sock.c:539(read_fd_with_timeout)

[DWeiner]

Again, thanks for your reply and interest.
As a test for firewall and SELinux problems I disabled both temporarily. No luck there. Also, I have not changed any start orders or run level assignments. What puzzles me most, is that Linux to Linux through Samba works fine with either box as client or server, but Win to Linux only works with windows as client and Linux as server. Of course Win to Win also works both ways. That seems to indicate that both Win and Linux (Samba) are set up correctly, permissions and all. I have examined all of the Win logs and can't find any mention of a rejected request for access.
djw

[DWeiner]

Hello to anyone interested in this thread,
I have been able to sort-of fix this problem. It turns out to be a name resolution problem. I decided to look at packets sent by one of my Fedora boxes when attempting to access a share on a Win (7,XP, Vista) machine. I used Wireshark set to catch all packets from and to the Fedora machine. The result made the problem obvious. There were numerous requests for the IP of "doodles" the Win machine. At first local, then from my ISP's name server. There were no replies from any network devices. Attempting command line access (smbclient) produced the same result, but by then I suspected name resolution. Running the command line command with the IP substituted for the name allowed access to the shares.
The Win boxes were all using DHCP, so my "hosts" files did not include those name-IP pairs. The Fedora machines had static IPs since one of them was a server and I like their setups to be consistent. The Fedora boxes were included in my "hosts" files. So the only situation in which external name resolution was needed was when a Fedora box wanted to contact a Win box. There was no Win box entry in the "hosts" file. Making all IPs static and adding the new IPs to the "hosts" files solved the problem.
Being curious, I am not completely satisfied. Question: Why did the original configuration work before, just after de novo installation of Fedora? Why do icons for Win boxes appear with name labels in Dolphin, yet the OS doesn't know the IPs? Discovery involves an exchange of packets.
Anyone? Thank you.

DJW