Re: weird samba error

[Anonomouse <email8845973@kinglibrary.net>]

I suspect that your ISP is verizon.  I started having this very problem
around the same time that you made your initial post.  Anyway, I have
identified part of the problem and have begun to work on a resolution.

It seems as though Samba and friends utilize DNS first when attempting to
resolve the name of the SMB computer to which you wish to connect.  If your
Linux box is configured to use your ISP's DNS servers, Linux will attempt to
use those servers, which obviously will produce erroneous results.  This is
where verizon becomes significant.  Previously, if one were to look up a
non-existent name through verizon's DNS, an error would be returned.  Samba
would then use other means to obtain the necessary IP address.  Recently,
though, verizon has begun to implement a "feature" so that if you provide an
invalid name, verizon will forward you to a customized search page rather
than returning a DNS error.  For a crude demonstration, enter a random, but
non-existent, web address into your browser.  Then, ping the domain of the
search page to which you were redirected.  (In my case, it is
wwwwz.websearch.verizon.net.)  You should notice that the IP address for
this search page is identical to the IP address that Samba has been trying
to use.

This appears to be a flaw in the design of Samba, as Windows does not appear
to have this issue.  However, there seems to be a workaround.  Add the
following line to the [Global] section of your smb.conf:

name resolve order = bcast

This directs Samba to resolve IP address only by broadcasting requests
across your subnet and should resolve your issue.

Let me know if you have success.

-J
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