SAM440ep+os4.1 Networking Problem

[Ruud]

Hello,
I recently set up Samba on my SAM and on my A1200 using Mikey C's very useful guide. I've just got a couple of problems:
On my network the SAM running os4.1 can ping the A1200, the two PC's and the wireless router on the network. It can also mount PC shares with smbfs but as far as the A1200 and the PC's are concerned it is invisible! The SAM can't be pinged or located by any of the other machines. I keep checking that all the IP and workgroup details are correct and they are. I just don't understand it.
There must be some setting or other I'm missing, does anyone have any idea what it is?

The other problem I'm experiencing is transfering files to the PC's from the SAM is painfully slow. Transfers in the opposite direction (PC to SAM) are much much faster. Is this related to my first problem or something different?

Thanks in advance for any help,
Rudi

[Crisisdog]

I know absolutely noting about OS4, but have had lots of Windows network troubleshooting experince in my lifetime.  In general, the problems you're describing may be:

1.  One of your computers may not have the proper subnet mask.  This is the 255.255.255.0 or 255.255.0.0 number in your TCP/IP settings.  Double check that they're all the same.  Home networks usually will use the 255.255.255.0 setting, but your config may be different for other reasons.

2.  Does OS4 have a firewall?  This may prevent ping and Samba responses.

3.  One of your network adapters may be set at the wrong duplex setting.  This enables two-way communication, but more often than not it is not properly auto-detected by network hardware.  You may want to find out how to enable or disable it on both systems via software settings.  (Ooops, just re-read your post.  Scratch this if you're going wireless, it only pertains to wired connections.)

Good luck...

 :-D

[Hans_]

That sounds a lot like a firewall blocking everything. However, I thought that the firewall (which has no GUI) was disabled by default.

Just a few things worth checking:
- Is the SAM on the same subnet, i.e., do all IP addresses have the same first three numbers (e.g., 192.168.0.x)?
- Have you actually installed the Samba services properly? It's not going to serve anything unless the smbd is running (nmbd should be running too). This doesn't explain why you can't ping the SAM machine from the other machines though.
- try accessing via IP address directly instead of name, e.g., \\192.168.0.2\share.

As to why the transfer in one way is faster than the other, I have no idea. Years ago I had set up Samba on my A1200, and it had a 0.5-1 second delay per file being copied. It made copying directories with many little files painfully slow. Windows networking is a complex beast, and you tend to get problems from time to time even with windows machines (e.g., one computer doesn't see the other computers, but can connect directly via IP address).

Hans

[Ruud]

Hans_ wrote:
That sounds a lot like a firewall blocking everything. However, I thought that the firewall (which has no GUI) was disabled by default.

I thought that but how do you check whether the firewall is active or not?

Just a few things worth checking:
- Is the SAM on the same subnet, i.e., do all IP addresses have the same first three numbers (e.g., 192.168.0.x)?

All computers are connected to the wireless router by cables (wireless only used for laptop internet access).  The router has an ip of 192.168.1.1 subnet mask of 255.255.255.0.  The current PC attached has ip of 192.168.1.70 and the SAM is curently set to 192.168.1.179 although I have tried others.  Subnet mask for both matches router.

- Have you actually installed the Samba services properly? It's not going to serve anything unless the smbd is running (nmbd should be running too). This doesn't explain why you can't ping the SAM machine from the other machines though.

I presume so as I can read and write to shares on the PC with the SAM.  I've set up both smbd and nmbd in servers.  And as you say I should still be able to ping the SAM from the PC even if samba wasn't installed at all.

- try accessing via IP address directly instead of name, e.g., \\192.168.0.2\share.

Tried both ways :-(
This is all very strange and frustrating.

Thanks,
Rudi.

[Ruud]

@Crisisdog

Thanks for the duplex setting tip, I will try to look into this.

Thanks,
Rudi.

[Fab12]

I think it's rather linked to SMBFS itself (or the underlying network driver).

On AmigaOS3.x, SMBFS upload was always way slower than download. On MorphOS, while I can get 10MB/s in reception, I barely reach 2MB/s in upload.

Setting the interface in fullduplex mode didn't help in this regard.

[Hans_]

Ruud wrote:

Hans_ wrote:
That sounds a lot like a firewall blocking everything. However, I thought that the firewall (which has no GUI) was disabled by default.

I thought that but how do you check whether the firewall is active or not?

No idea, sorry. I've never needed to set up the firewall.

Another possibility is that your wireless router's own firewall settings are locking you out. Log on to the router and check if there are any firewall settings that restrict machines on the wireless connection, or any rules that block certain IP addresses. Also, try connecting via wire to the router.

- Have you actually installed the Samba services properly? It's not going to serve anything unless the smbd is running (nmbd should be running too). This doesn't explain why you can't ping the SAM machine from the other machines though.

I presume so as I can read and write to shares on the PC with the SAM.  I've set up both smbd and nmbd in servers.  And as you say I should still be able to ping the SAM from the PC even if samba wasn't installed at all.

You don't need to have the server running in order to connect to other machines. AFAIK, smbfs doesn't need the Samba package to be there at all.

Hans

[Ruud]

Hans_ wrote:
Another possibility is that your wireless router's own firewall settings are locking you out. Log on to the router and check if there are any firewall settings that restrict machines on the wireless connection, or any rules that block certain IP addresses. Also, try connecting via wire to the router.

I've been through all the settings on the router. Nothing seems to suggest it's stopping access to the SAM. It's not stopping the SAM from accessing the internet or connections to other machines. All connections are wired. I only use the wireless aspect of the router for laptops which I'm not sharing with.

You don't need to have the server running in order to connect to other machines. AFAIK, smbfs doesn't need the Samba package to be there at all.

Hans

Yes you are right about that, I just checked the docs. I will double check everything to do with my samba installation when I get home later.  Even if samba is not properly installed I should still be able to ping the SAM from the other machines on the network, shouldn't I? I could ping the A1200 before I installed samba on it. The only difference I can think of between that and the SAM is that the ip for it was set as part of the tcp/ip stack whereas as far as I can tell the SAM's ip is only set in the smb.conf file. I put a matching entry in the hosts list but that doesn't seem to help.

Thanks,
Rudi.

[Ruud]

Fab12 wrote:
I think it's rather linked to SMBFS itself (or the underlying network driver).

On AmigaOS3.x, SMBFS upload was always way slower than download. On MorphOS, while I can get 10MB/s in reception, I barely reach 2MB/s in upload.

Setting the interface in fullduplex mode didn't help in this regard.

Ok that's good to know. This makes me want to get the SAM's shares visible to the PC even more though, so I can see whether performance is better using windows for transfering files.

Thanks,
Rudi.

[Hans_]

Ruud wrote:
Even if samba is not properly installed I should still be able to ping the SAM from the other machines on the network, shouldn't I?

Yes, you should. That's what makes it sound like a firewall issue. Unfortunately I don't have my A1 here so I can't have a closer look at my network configuration.

Hans

[Ruud]

Right, progress has been made. The PC can now ping the SAM and lists it as part of the work group. But if I try and access the share it fails to connect. An error message comes up saying it may not have permission to use the network resource and that the semaphore timeout period has expired.
I haven't got any passwords or security set.
The SAM and A1200 can read the contents of each others shares using the smbclient command. Is this evidence that samba is properly installed?  The PC has similar problems with the A1200 as it has with the SAM so maybe it is the PC that isn't set up right?

Cheers,
Rudi.

[Hans_]

@Ruud

It sounds like your Windows machine is trying to use your windows logon as username and password for shares on other machines. However, it could also just be giving a bogus error message for some other problem.

Have you tried accessing the shares via IP address directly? Otherwise it is still worth checking that you have the shares set up properly in smb.conf. Given that your Amigas can access each other's shares, the Samba server is up and running.

I think that it is possible to tell Windows to not assume that the windows log-on is the user name and password for network shares, but I have no idea how to change that. The other option would be to create a username and password on Samba that matches the one that you use on windows.

Hans

[Ruud]

@Hans_

Thanks for the tips, when I have more time I'll see if I can get windows to behave  :lol:

Thanks,
Rudi.

[Vlabguy1]

Reading this thread closely ..(started a Sam440 thread myself, take a look)...

wish I could help with your network issues..

Rich
ny