Topic: SME 5.6 not resolving lan hostnames

[Gary]

5.6 set up in server and gateway mode in a lan with Windows servers and clients. External interface to a router with internal to a lan. I can access the server manager, vpn externally into the lan etc but when connected via SSH, I can't ping any hostname on the lan (but ip works) - this is causing major problems on the network as I have the pri dns on each win2k / xp client set to the SME server but it can't resolve internal names?

I tried using the address of a windows dns server as the forwarding server in setup but that doesn't work at all. I've checked the log files and there's nothing obvious happening there, ditto with the Win2k dns event viewer.

If someone has a solution I'd be most grateful, I assume I've overlooked something very simple?

[Graeme Fleming]

Check out http://cnswww.cns.cwru.edu/net/netinfo/WINS/Samba.html for some basic info on using an external WINS server.

This should work!

If you run a command like /sbin/e-smith/db configuration setprop WINSServer then Samba will configure itself to be a WINS client and refer WINS request to the nominated external server (such as a Netbios based ping; ping george instead of ping george.company.com).  In order  to enable this feature you would need to /sbin/e-smith/expand-template /etc/smb.conf.

You may also need to create a template fragment to replace 11nameResolveOrder and make the fragment in the same place in templates-custom that match the info in the URL above; expand-template will be neccessary.

Please confirm the db command before running it as I am not 100% sure that the syntax is correct.

Good luck

[Gary]

Thanks Graeme,

Tried that - followed a howto by Bill Talcott on contribs.org after I read your message - problem still there - sme can't resolve internal hostnames

[Steve]

I have the same problem... If I am logged in at the console, or ssh'd in I can ping any hostname on the network and it will resolve. If I am logged in via MS pptp vpn, then I can ping ip addresses, but no longer the hostname. Even with the domain suffix added it won't resolve. It is like the pptp dameon is not using the same config to resolve as the main system.

[Graeme Fleming]

Well something REALLY crude but could work

Use a hosts file!

AND/OR

Give all the important systems on the lan a static IP (locked down in DHCP by nominating a hostname/IP/MAC address in the Hostnames panel).

Give it a whirl.

HTH

[Gary]

Well the above will work, but sort of defies the point of having DHCP in the first place.
I fiddled around with resolv.conf and swopped the order of nameservers around - i.e. put local dns server first, 127.0.0.1 second - restarted named and it would now resolve fully qualified names soooooo added a 'search mydomain.com' to resolv.conf and it works a treat!

[Jon Bradley]

Well since you had success with a similar problem I'm gonna ask you foo help.
I have sme routing for my home network and I have 2 windows xp sp1 computers on the network. I can ping google by using the actual number address through my xp computers so I know I can reach the net, but I cant get internet explorer to browse the internet. All I can do is ping outside addresses and browse my lan. WHAT GIVES??
I NEED HELP...hehhe..Badly.
Thanks,
Jon Bradley

[THE DON]

Jon,
      I know this is very simple but is your squid turned on (on the SME Server) ?

You can check this by

service squid status

to turn in on type

service squid start

Maybe that will fix your problem.......you won't need any other settings in your IE because the transparent proxy in the SME will take care of this for you.

Hope this helps

[Jon Bradley]

Actually I never checked that and after I did I found this:
 service squid status
squid dead but subsys locked
squid: ERROR: No running copy

so then i tried your adivce:

[root@clayrouter /root]# service squid start
Starting squid:                                            [   OK   ]
Then I tried to surf the net, but still to no avail...
Do I need to monkey around with IE internet options and specify stuff???
Thanks for the help,
Jon Bradley

[THE DON]

Cool Jon, it sounds like we are getting somewhere.

First type the following command

netstat -na | grep 3128

The netstat command will show you what ports your server is listening on and if 3128 does not get returned then Squid is not running.

Try the following commands

service squid restart
service squid reload

If that does not do you any good then you will have find out why it is not working and the answer may lie in the Servers database config files

So here is a suggestion to type

/etc/rc.d/rc7.d/S*squid start

then

/sbin/e-smith/db configuration setprop squid Transparent yes

If you are using any version above 5.1 then type the following command

/sbin/e-smith/signal-event remoteaccess-update

otherwise issue this one

/sbin/e-smith/signal-event console-save

By the way you did not say what version of SME you are using because i am curious.

NOTE:  After this try issueing the command

netstat -na | grep 3128

or just

netstat -na

and look for port 3128.  If you see 0.0.0.0:3128 in there then your squid is running.  Let me know how you go and we can take this further

Also i think that the following command may also help you if the others did not, but i am not sure......i don't think that it will hurt to try just in case

/sbin/e-smith/db configuration setprop squid status enabled

[Jon Bradley]

THE DON, THANKS !!!
I appreciate the step-by-step help as I am a new SME user.
I basically cut and pasted what you told me to do and here are the results:


[root@clayrouter /root]# netstat -na | grep 3128
[root@clayrouter /root]# service squid restart
Stopping squid:                                            [ FAILED ]
Starting squid:                                            [   OK   ]
[root@clayrouter /root]# service squid reload
squid: ERROR: No running copy
[root@clayrouter /root]# /etc/rc.d/rc7.d/S*squid start
Starting squid:                                            [   OK   ]
[root@clayrouter /root]# /sbin/e-smith/db configuration setprop squid Transparent yes
[root@clayrouter /root]# /sbin/e-smith/signal-event console-save
[root@clayrouter /root]# netstat -na | grep 3128
[root@clayrouter /root]# netstat -na
Active Internet connections (servers and established)
Proto Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address           Foreign Address         State
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:548             0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:80            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 68.112.172.169:80       0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 10.0.0.1:80             0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:443           0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 68.112.172.169:443      0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 10.0.0.1:443            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 10.0.0.1:22             0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0    348 10.0.0.1:22             10.0.0.125:1649         ESTABLISHED
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:1400            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 10.0.0.1:53             0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:53            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:139             0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:3306            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:980           0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 10.0.0.1:980            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 127.0.0.1:981           0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 10.0.0.1:981            0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:389             0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:25              0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:110             0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:143             0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
tcp        0      0 0.0.0.0:113             0.0.0.0:*               LISTEN
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:67              0.0.0.0:*
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:1024            0.0.0.0:*
udp        0      0 10.0.0.1:53             0.0.0.0:*
udp        0      0 127.0.0.1:53            0.0.0.0:*
udp        0      0 10.0.0.1:138            0.0.0.0:*
udp        0      0 10.0.0.1:137            0.0.0.0:*
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:138             0.0.0.0:*
udp        0      0 0.0.0.0:137             0.0.0.0:*
raw        0      0 0.0.0.0:1               0.0.0.0:*               7
raw        0      0 0.0.0.0:1               0.0.0.0:*               7
raw        0      0 0.0.0.0:6               0.0.0.0:*               7
Active UNIX domain sockets (servers and established)
Proto RefCnt Flags       Type       State         I-Node Path
unix  0      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     1796   /var/run/ndc
unix  10     [ ]         DGRAM                    369    /dev/log
unix  0      [ ACC ]     STREAM     LISTENING     1706   /var/lib/mysql/mysql.sock
unix  1      [ ]         DGRAM                    371    /home/dns/dev/log
unix  0      [ ]         DGRAM                    3343
unix  0      [ ]         DGRAM                    3336
unix  0      [ ]         DGRAM                    3266
unix  0      [ ]         DGRAM                    3101
unix  0      [ ]         DGRAM                    3078
unix  0      [ ]         DGRAM                    1794
unix  0      [ ]         DGRAM                    1272
unix  0      [ ]         DGRAM                    1094
unix  0      [ ]         DGRAM                    884
unix  0      [ ]         DGRAM                    719
unix  0      [ ]         DGRAM                    386
[root@clayrouter /root]# /sbin/e-smith/db configuration setprop squid status enabled
[root@clayrouter /root]## service squid status
squid dead but subsys locked
squid: ERROR: No running copy
[root@clayrouter /root]#
*********************************************************************************************

By the way Im using sme 5.12 because I cant get any newer versions to completely install-Perhaps a hardware conflict ...
But I dont need all the bells and whistles, just a server that routes and acts as a fileserver.
THanks for the help THE DON, I actually feel hopeful now!!!
Jon Bradley

[THE DON]

OK Jon, This is a long shot but what is the hostname of your computer ?

If it contains _*ç"+, try to change it in server manager and reboot your computer.

If you have AMD Hardware then you probably have install problems with E-smith.

ALRIGHT BACK TO FIXING THIS THING

Try to see if you have a file called squid.pid, search for it typing

find / -name squid.pid

If it finds it then you should remove the squid.pid file from

/var/run/squid.pid

do this by typing

rm /var/run/squid.pid

and when prompted if you want to delete it type y (yes)

Then type in

service squid start
service squid status

and hopefully that works

DON

[Steve Kelsay]

Ok.. I found my problem... didn't have anything to do with SME Server. I noticed some names would resolve while others wouldn't. The names that would not resolve had no WINS server specified in their properties and therefore were not broadcasting WINS records to the network.

Problem fixed.

[Jon Bradley]

Don,
The hostname doesn't contain any of the symbols you listed so thats good. Also,
SME is installed on an old P3850Mhz Hewlett Packard, but there appears to be some hardware conflict with any newer versions of linux...
So anyway,
When I typed the "find / -name squid.pid" command, I got simple permission denied response, so now I'm wondering if I haven't granted my self full access to SME. I was in root so I thought it was all good... perhaps I need to grant myself access via server manager????
I'll check it out tonight (server manager) and wait for another post.
Thanks,
Jon Bradley

[THE DON]

Jon,
      Here is the deal i think.

What you have to do is turn off squid.  Do this by typing

service squid stop

Then find the pid file we were talking about earlier in /var/run/squid.pid so make sure that you are root and then

rm -f /var/run/squid.pid

This should delete the squid.pid file.  If it doesn't then do this

cat /dev/null > /var/run/squid.pid

then after that try to delete the pid file again by

rm -f /var/run/squid.pid

if it deleted the file you should no longer have the pid file in your /var/run/ directory.  Once the file is deleted try running the

service squid start

This should solve your problem

Let me know how you go

Cheers

DON