RE: Network Computers

[Matt Drew <mdrew redhat com>]

On Thu, 5 Apr 2001, Bill Farrell wrote:

> This is an interesting discussion for me right now, as I have similar
> questions.  I understand "normal" (*nix) TCP/IP but M$'s take on it is still
> a bit confusing.
>
> I have three LANs (separate locations).  The "whole" network is
> 172.24.x.y/16 (implicitly), with location "A" (main office, 15 servers) is
> 172.24.0.y/24, home (three Win98 workstations) is 172.24.1.y/24, and a
> location in the Netherlands (via VPN) is 172.24.5.y/24.

The important thing to remember is the separation of TCP/IP and NetBIOS.
The whole PDC/N'hood/computer name thing is all NetBIOS that runs on top
of TCP/IP (in your case).

> I set the netmasks so that I could use "internal" addresses behind the
> firewall and allow the firewall (a Netscreen 10 [LOVE it!]) to do VPN
> routing for me.  Is this configuration wrong?
>
> There are 15 servers at my office: two NT PDC's and the rest are RH6.2
> running Samba.  Up until I turned on the NL VPN I was blithely unaware that
> the WAN wasn't doing what I thought it was :-(~~~
>
> Under the Net'hood either from my office or from home I can see all
> computers and both NT domains in the US (172.24.0.y and 172.24.1.y).  I
> can't see doodly from the NL LAN (172.24.5.y) with the Net'hood, but
> everything is pingable.  That is, I can't see the third domain that lives in
> the Netherlands in "Entire Network".

This is because broadcasts have been disabled across the WAN link.  There
are a lot of good reasons for this, but it stops NetBIOS (which is a
broadcast-based protocol) from functioning across the WAN link.

> Now, without pissing off the VPN routers, how can I see all three domains?

Short Answer?  Enable broadcasts across the WAN link and eat the bandwidth
chunk that it takes.

Right Answer?  Set up two WINS servers and configure replication across
the WAN link.  There is also the choice of running the entire site as one
domain, with BDC's at the remote sites to handle logins.  Both ways are
not that simple, and Network Neighborhood replication still won't work
across the WAN link.

Ugly Answer?  Build up LMHOSTS files for all the machines involved, and
use those.  Still no Network Neighborhood, but you can use machine names.
Downside is manual maintenance of all the LMHOSTS files. :(

> Mind, this is a "nice-to-have" and not absolutely necessary.  NFS and rcp
> work just fine for most data sharing between all three locations.  But my
> business partner in NL is more NT-familiar and would like to use the Windoze
> Explorer and drag-and-drop.

This isn't necessarily a problem -- you should still be able do SMB
sharing by mounting the share via IP address instead of machine name.
SMB by itself does not rely on broadcasts.

> We can't all be perfect Linux-heads :-)
>
> Life was wonderful up until I had to support NT.  Has anyone else done this
> setup?  Have suggestions?
>
> > I am having trouble trying to figure out why I can ping each computer, but
> > can not view the computers under Network Neighborhood. All entries in the
> > LMHOSTS and HOSTS file are correct. I can ping using the IP address of
> each
> > and ping using the alias. Any suggestions?
> >
> > Thanks, Alvin
> >
> >
> >
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-- 
Matt Drew
Peer Review team lead and Bughunter
Red Hat Consumer Services