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I've tried the various tutorials and no success so far.

  • I can connect to the router and from there to the internet, but I cannot see any network shares.
  • I'm connecting through wlan0.
  • I would prefer to keep the dynamic IP address if possible.

In answer to heavyd, smbtree gives me:

cli_start_connection: failed to connect to COMPUTER1<20> ( Error    NT_STATUS_UNSUCCESSFUL
     \\MY-LAPTOP            my-laptop server (Samba, Ubuntu)
failed tcon_X with NT_STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED
 cli_start_connection: failed to connect to COMPUTER2<20> ( Error NT_STATUS_UNSUCCESSFUL

The data above has been anonymized for my protection.

Also I can ping them, I just can't see them via smb://.

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can you ping to the other computer IP through wlan0 ? –  Ye Lin Aung Apr 13 '10 at 3:21
If you run smbtree from the terminal, does it show anything? –  heavyd Apr 13 '10 at 3:26
There is a package in the repositories called 'winbind' that will allow you to browse by computer name. ( sudo apt-get install winbind ) –  Ye Lin Aung Apr 13 '10 at 3:32

2 Answers 2

up vote 3 down vote accepted

In Linux machine check /etc/samba/smb.conf.If you have in your shares option browseable = no this means that you can mount the share but you can't see it on your network ,it's like invisible share. You'll need to edit these..

Then try to run nmblookup \*

and do sudo gedit /etc/nsswitch.conf . Look for a line starts with hosts:. if the line doesnt contain the word "wins" change the line to: hosts: files wins dns

You may also need to grant share permissions on the Window machine. It works better when this is an intentionally shared folder and not a default share or a "Shared Documents" folder. In Vista and some XP you have to actually find the "Permissions" button on the Sharing tab and grant everyone permission. This is different than NTFS file permissions on the Security tab and can be a pain to figure out on the "Home" versions.

take a look at File and Printer Sharing in Windows.

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Thanks to your help, I now can see my main file server and the printer off of it! –  Axeman Apr 13 '10 at 5:37
glad to hear that :) –  Ye Lin Aung Apr 13 '10 at 6:07

I think that for most people, they have a local network and a router that connects them to the internet. Then they have various machines on their local network. If you're connected like that, then your dynamic IP is usually the one provided by your ISP and it is assigned to the router's internet side. Your local machines would usually have addresses in the 192.168.X.Y or 10.X.Y.Z or 172.something ranges and those IP addresses can be static or dynamic. If you are using "wlan0" as your network interface, then you are probably connecting wirelessly to a wireless router which usually, by default, will give you a dynamic IP address.

If you can "ping" the windows machines in your local network from the Ubuntu machine, then you should be able to share files on those windows machines with your Ubunty machine by using Samba. You can put your windows machines in the same workgroup and configure Samba to use the same workgroup. The Samba configuration file is usually in /etc/samba/smb.conf . If you don't have Samba, you should install it:

 $ sudo apt-get update
 $ sudo apt-get install samba

There are comments in the samba configuration file, but reading the docs may be necessary. Look in /usr/share/doc/samba for information and check the man pages for samba (man samba) and go from there. I hope that helps a little.

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