samba problems

I have successfully installed Samba on a Redhat Linux server and many
Windows XP/2000 PCs can access the network share when I run
\\192.xxx.xxx.xxx\sharedrive
However from two Windows 98 machines, when I run
\\192.xxx.xxx.xxx\sharedrive I get an error saying "The network name
cannot be found". Please let me know the steps I need to follow to fix
this.
Thanks,
Yasaswi

Are you using a long sharename? There is a limit of 15 (I think) characters
on the sharename on Windows 98. A quick google will point you in the right
direction.

Paul DS.

"yasaswi" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
> I have successfully installed Samba on a Redhat Linux server and many
> Windows XP/2000 PCs can access the network share when I run
> \\192.xxx.xxx.xxx\sharedrive
> However from two Windows 98 machines, when I run
> \\192.xxx.xxx.xxx\sharedrive I get an error saying "The network name
> cannot be found". Please let me know the steps I need to follow to fix
> this.
> Thanks,
> Yasaswi
>

Hi Paul:
sharedrive is only an example name, the actual name is only 6 letters.
Also on the Windows 98 machine "Client for network" is installed.
Please let me know.
Thanks,
Yasaswi

Are you using Netbeui or TCP/IP? I imagine Samba only supports TCP/IP and
that it what modern Windows uses.

Silly question, but I presume you can ping the Samba machine from the Win98
machine, and vice versa?

Paul DS.

Yes, I can ping. I am using TCP/IP.
I guess I have to make an entry in the lmhosts file on the Windows 98
client?
Is there any other thing I need to do?
Thanks,
Yasaswi

I'm not overly familiar with Windows 98, I just know the initial list of of
"things to try" I'm afraid. You might also want to see if there is a file
called "hosts" around. One most Windows platforms, this one is used by
TCPIP to map machine names to IP addresses if there is no DNS server
available. However most routers act as DNS servers these days so if you're
using DHCP, I would expect your Windows 98 box to have found a DNS server.

BTW, you may be able to identify the share using \\<ip-address>\sharename
such as \\192.168.0.5\myshare. This works on other Windows platforms and if
this works for you, it merely means you, as suspected, need to fix up a
hosts file. But if this were true, you should also find that...

ping 192.168.0.5 will work
ping server (server is the name of the machine at 192.168.0.5) will not.

Are you finding this? Failing that, there are some good networking sites on
the web that cover Windows 98 and the Microsoft site still has the Windows
98 section.

Paul DS.

"yasaswi" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
> Yes, I can ping. I am using TCP/IP.
> I guess I have to make an entry in the lmhosts file on the Windows 98
> client?
> Is there any other thing I need to do?
> Thanks,
> Yasaswi
>