CIFS only available from some clients - Urgent

[jgreen]

I'm having a very strange problem connecting to the CIFS server from some clients.

When I issue a net use… command, I get a couple of different error messages, generally around the name being not found or unavailable.

I've enabled the smp debugging,  but I never see the users hit Alfresco, they get a challenge, enter id/pwd and get a error popup.

We set up a DNS Entry for the <node name>_a with the same IP as the node because we thought that there might be an issue with netbios name resolution.  Pings work from all systems now.

Ive been able to connect to the share from
Win 2003 Server (Lab Domain)
Win 2003 Server (running as a workgroup member)
XP Pro Laptop (Office Domain)
Virtual Server (2003, on XP laptop above)

Authentication is NTLM against the office domain server with LDAP synch
FTP, WebDAV and HTTP connections work fine, only CIFS is flakry.

When initially trying to connect from Virtual PS, I could not initially connect, then (after lunch) the net use succedded, I deleted the map and tried again and it failed.   I added the Virt PC to the domain and it connects fine now.

Config is as origionally unpacked:

<alfresco-config area="file-servers">
- <config evaluator="string-compare" condition="CIFS Server">
  <host name="${localname}_A" /> 
  <comment>Alfresco CIFS Server</comment> 
- <!–  Set to the broadcast mask for the subnet 
  –> 
  <broadcast>255.255.255.255</broadcast> 
- <!–  Use Java socket based NetBIOS over TCP/IP and native SMB on linux 
  –> 
  <tcpipSMB platforms="linux,solaris,macosx" /> 
  <netBIOSSMB platforms="linux,solaris,macosx" /> 
  <hostAnnounce interval="5" /> 
- <!–  Use Win32 NetBIOS interface on Windows 
  –> 
  <Win32NetBIOS /> 
  <Win32Announce interval="5" /> 
- <!–       <WINS>
         <primary>1.2.3.4</primary>
         <secondary>5.6.7.8</secondary>
      </WINS>

  –> 
  <sessionDebug flags="Negotiate,Socket" /> 
  </config>‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

Also, clients who cannot connect to the CIFS Share can still connect to other shares on the server (<host>/share works <host>_a/alfreso does not). 

I'm wondering if something else might be responding to the SMB requests other than alfresco and reporting that it doesn't exist, I'm not a net guru

I'm really stumped on this, and I'm supposed to deploy to a user testing next week. :!:

I can get packet logs from problem machines if anyone cen tell me what to look for   :wink:

[gary_spencer]

Hi,

If you're using the default setup on Windows it will be registering the Alfresco CIFS server using the Windows NetBIOS APIs so that the file server can sit alongside the existing Windows file server. The NetBIOS name is registered via the Windows APIs using JNI code so it should either use broadcasts or WINS.

You could try adding an entry for the Alfresco CIFS server to the lmhosts file on one of the problem clients.

Cheers

Gary