Server Help :: View topic - School network and SMB

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Trash Talk - School network and SMB

Cyan~Fire - Sun Jan 14, 2007 11:52 am
Post subject: School network and SMB

OK, I have a question for those of you more knowledgeable about networks than I am.

My roommate does not have a printer. We both saw no reason for him to buy one since I had one, so he just used mine over the network as a Windows share. It all worked fine last semester. Now, when we got back after Christmas Break this semester, it all stopped working, here's all the information I collected:

When I run net view on my computer (called fueron, by the way), it lists a bunch of computers on the network.
When I run net view on my roommate's computer (called kickbutt), it lists a different set of computers on the network.
When I run net view \\fueron from kickbutt or net view \\kickbutt from fueron, it returns error 53 "the network path cannot be found.
Both computers are in the workgroup "WORKGROUP" and fueron is running Windows 2000 and kickbutt Windows XP.
And just to mess things up entirely, pinging a third party using its netBIOS name on fueron works, but doesn't on kickbutt.
Fueron and kickbutt can ping each other using IPs. (But this doesn't really mean much because all IPs are external here.)

I called tech support and they said there was a policy change about sharing over the network and that's why it doesn't work, but I don't think they know what they're talking about, since our computers simply seem to be on different networks.

Any clues?

Doc Flabby - Sun Jan 14, 2007 1:45 pm
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This could this be because the computers on different subnets?

Mine GO BOOM - Sun Jan 14, 2007 1:55 pm
Post subject: Re: School network and SMB

Cyan~Fire wrote:

Fueron and kickbutt can ping each other using IPs. (But this doesn't really mean much because all IPs are external here.)

Why not just add the printer via the IP address? Either the Add Printer wizard in the Printer folder, or just \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with his IP and browse his shares that way.

Cyan~Fire - Sun Jan 14, 2007 3:08 pm
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Ahhh, they are on different subnets. Man, why didn't I think about that?

Sadly your solution didn't work, MGB. Sorry, I forgot to mention earlier I already tried that and it gave the error 53 "network path cannot be found".

Cyan~Fire - Mon Jan 15, 2007 6:19 pm
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Any other suggestions?

Chambahs - Mon Jan 15, 2007 6:37 pm
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Get a -really- long cable.

Mine GO BOOM - Mon Jan 15, 2007 6:42 pm
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If it is your roommate, buy a crossover cable if you two have extra NICs. If not, buy a router and connect to that. But please in the name of all that is holy in the computer world, do NOT plug your room's ethernet into the wrong port in the router. Having your router push out DHCP to everyone will cause the local networking administrator coming down on you hard.

A simpler way is to check to see if your firewall(s) allow your printer to be shared. Check to see if he is connecting to your computer under an authorized name on your system.

Doc Flabby - Mon Jan 15, 2007 7:15 pm
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if you can ping both machines you could try using http://openvpn.net/ http://openvpn.fuchs.cc/ (gui) to create a vpn between the two machines. You should be able to use SMB over the vpn

Cyan~Fire - Mon Jan 15, 2007 10:29 pm
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Yeah, I was actually leaning towards the router idea. I'll be able to grab one of those the next time I go home.

I'll check out that VPN solution though, thanks Doc.

Cyan~Fire - Mon Jan 15, 2007 11:05 pm
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OK, the VPN worked fine, thanks a lot. I might eventually switch to a router, though, since he's not extremely technically astute and the simpler the better.

Mine GO BOOM - Mon Jan 15, 2007 11:11 pm
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I'd recommend getting a shitty router that you can put OpenWRT on. Not sure what it works on? Table of Hardware.

Since I have spare old computers laying around, I just use m0n0wall and any switches.

Solo Ace - Tue Jan 16, 2007 2:28 am
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Doesn't Windows have a VPN solution built-in?

Yesterday I grabbed a spare workstation, added a NIC and wrote m0n0wall to a USB stick.
I use my shitty router for a Site-to-Site VPN. I also have a Linksys WRT54G I wanted to put OpenWRT on, but mine's a v5, so I'll have to wait for that one.

I'm still wondering though if it might be better to just have a linux box as a router, or use m0n0wall, or have pfSense.

I think I'll get m0n0wall up today, I just hope it supports everything I'd want it to support.
I'm going to stay with my gf for a few weeks and I'd like to login remotely from there, I hope m0n0wall has the features to help me with that.

Doc Flabby - Tue Jan 16, 2007 4:41 am
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Solo Ace wrote:

Doesn't Windows have a VPN solution built-in?

It does but its a bitch to get working.

Which is why i recommened open vpn.

If you set up you room mates machine to be the server, and run open vpn as a service, he doesnt have to do anything. Then you just connect (using the gui - cos it makes it ez) when you need to print stuff.

Cyan~Fire - Tue Jan 16, 2007 10:52 am
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doc wrote:

If you set up you room mates machine to be the server, and run open vpn as a service, he doesnt have to do anything. Then you just connect (using the gui - cos it makes it ez) when you need to print stuff.

Well, it doesn't really matter which computer is the server, since you have to start up something on the client anyway. But it's alright, I think he can handle double-clicking the shortcut on his desktop when he needs to print something.