[clue-tech] Virtual machine networking problem with samba

[Michael Irons]

Jim, 

My apologies for earlier, I was on my way to class, and did not fully think 
about what "net use" had returned earlier when I had used it. Just that it had 
failed. It returned system error 53 for both the laptop host ip (babbage 
192.168.1.2), and for the tap interface (172.16.1.1). Which is that the system 
cannot be found. 

But, I am embarrassed to admit, it never crossed my mind to try to telnet to 
the ports. On port 139 it connected successfully, for both the host ip and the 
tap ip.  I was not aware of port 445 needing to be open, so it of course 
failed, as I was blocking that port. Earlier searches only stated 137, 138, 
139. I did a quick Google search to learn a bit more and rewrote my iptable 
rules to allow traffic to and from port 445 from the only the tap interface to 
the laptop. Now telnet works for:

telnet 192.168.1.2 139
telnet 192.168.1.2 445
telnet 172.16.1.1 139
telnet 172.16.1.1 445

(I get a blank screen, and I don't know the communication protocol for samba, 
so I cannot test a conversation, i.e. "ehlo server name"  such as I would do 
with a mail server.  But it is at least connecting).


So I tested the net use command again with both IP addresses and it connected 
correctly.  The samba shares are accessible.

I will weigh the pros and cons of setting the host name to the server ip or 
the tap through the hosts file.


Anyway thank you! It turns out it was my iptable rules, and not testing 
closely enough. But I was stuck and couldn't think how to test anymore, which 
is why I wrote the list. My problem is solved as samba connects!

I appreciate it.

Mike Irons