RE: Vista/XP/Samba Networking Problems

> My old WinXP desktop machine finally died this morning and I decided to
> replace it rather than try to fix it. Of course you can't buy an XP machine
> anymore so I wound up with a shiny new Gateway desktop with Vista Home
> Premium installed. My home network consist of two desktop machines directly
> connected (wired) to a Belkin wireless G router, several laptops connected
> via wireless to the same router and a Linux box wired to the same router. The
> Linux box is file and print server via Samba. I have an HP 990c printer
> connected to one of the desktops, a Canon i960 connected to another and a
> Samsung ML-1210 laser printer connected to the Linux box. All of the disks on
> all of the machines and all of the printers are shared with the entire
> network. Nothing is password protected. Everything worked fine until this
> morning.
>
> Unfortunately replacing one of the desktops with the new Gateway Vista
> machine has caused nothing but trouble. I gave the Vista machine the same
> workgroup name as all the other machines. The Vista machine is able to see
> and manipulate the files on all of the other machines as well as print on the
> HP 990c printer attached to the other desktop.
>
> Problem #1: When I try to add the Samba printer on the Vista machine it is
> not detected. When I type the name directly (\\server\lp, the same name that
> works on all the other machines) I get an error message that says "Windows
> cannot connect to the printer. The server print spooler is not running.
> Please restart the spooler on the server or restart the server machine."
> Printing on this printer works fine on all the other machines. Windows
> Explorer shows the server under "Network" with the other machines on the
> network and I was able to map network drives (L: and M to the two Samba
> data shares. However, when I try to open the server to see the shares and,
> more important, the printer I get the error "\\SERVER is not accessible. You
> might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the
> administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. A
> remote procedure call (RPC) protocol error occurred."
>
> I went to the Network and Sharing Center on the new Vista machine and turned
> Network Discovery on, File sharing on, Public folder sharing on, Printer
> sharing on, Password protected sharing Off and Media sharing Off. I shared
> the C drive and the connected Canon i960 printer.
>
> Problem #2: All of the XP machines are able to see the new Vista machine
> under View Workgroup Computers, just like they see all the other XP machines.
> However, unlike the XP machines, any attempt to open the Vista machine to see
> the shared components results in the error message "\\MachineName is not
> accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource.
> Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access
> permissions. The network path was not found." Any attempt to access the Vista
> machine shares from any of the XP machines yields the same result.
>
> So, Vista can't see the Samba printer, but can see the Samba data shares.
> Vista can see all the file and printer shares on the XP machines. The XP
> machines can see the Samba printer and data shares. They can see the printers
> and data shares on the other XP machines, but they can't see the file or
> printer shares on the Vista machine. I've tried turning password protected
> sharing on and creating identical users and passwords on all the machines
> without any change. The only firewall running on any of the machines is the
> Windows firewall. I have turned it off on all machines without any change. I
> restarted the router to see if that would help, no change.
>
> Problem #3: After all this fooling around I restarted the machine and
> crashed to a "Blue Screen of Death". The machine restarted without any
> apparent problem.
>
> This machine is not going to be very useful to me if I can't get the network
> happening. Any suggestions? I've tried pretty much everything I can think of,
> or could find in the discussions.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Mike
>
>