Four computers: one desktop running Ubuntu 13.04 (which I don’t like, BTW), one desktop running Win 7 Pro, one laptop running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (which I only sorta like…fuck Unity), and one little pink netbook running Win XP Pro. All had been networked in the past because the bulk of the household music lives on my Ubuntu desktop. I had upgraded from 12.04 (which I liked with Gnome Shell) to 13.04…and the last time P. tried to access my music, he couldn’t. We were both drinking, and that’s not a good time to try to troubleshoot networking issues, so after poking around a bit and finding nothing obvious, I gave up. This evening, I was trying to figure out why I can’t make my Bluetooth earphones work on 13.04; they just lock up the whole system even though they work just fine on my Android phone. P. came to the door and asked whether I’d ever fixed the music issue. I was in the process of upgrading the laptop, and testing the BT dongle on the netbook (and it wouldn’t work…I think it’s the dongle itself), so I wasn’t doing anything that needed immediate attention, and I went after the networking issue. After much poking and prodding Samba and even more cursing and swearing at Windows and fucking Ubuntu Unity, I discovered that when I’d upgraded, it hadn’t installed winbind along with Samba, so even though I’d set the right network name and permissions in smb.conf, it couldn’t use WINS. Okay, so winbind it is, and let’s install it!
Happily “winbound”, I can see the netbook, and should see the laptop when it’s finished its upgrade because Ubuntu/Ubuntu doesn’t even need Samba, let alone winbind. XP netbook sees both desktops and can access the files just fine. Post-winbind, Ubuntu 13.04 desktop can see the XP netbook and the Win 7 desktop, but can’t access any files on the Win 7 machine, only on the XP netbook. Well, fuckity-fuck. That doesn’t make any sense; the problem has got to be with the Win 7 box. Made sure Homegroups was dead on the Win 7, made sure that I’d made the appropriate changes in Local Security Policy…still no joy. Getting really fucking pissed off! The Win 7 box doesn’t see a goddamned thing except itself, which it cannot browse. Wait…it can’t browse ITSELF? Hmmm…something’s fucked up. Then, I remembered that I’d recently got him a new NIC because he didn’t want a wired connection like he’d had for years, but the old wireless NIC kept dropping connections. Let’s take a look in the properties; it should at least be able to browse its own shared files on the goddamned network!
Properties, properties…protocols…services. Wait just a goddamned minute! I’ve poked around in enough NIC properties to know what I should expect to see, and I don’t see it all this time. Where is “Client for Microsoft Networks”? It’s not there, but it ought to be! I checked the box for it, rebooted, gave it a few minutes to bring up the network, and…lo and fucking BEHOLD, there are all four computers showing. Cringe…click…and there are the shared files. Different computer…cringe…click…and there are its shared files! Last two are doing just what they should, too. PERFECT!
Client for Microsoft Networks has been installed by default with every goddamned network interface device I’ve ever installed, and that’s been a few of them. Why in Christ’s name it didn’t this time, I don’t know, but good ol’ OC2 is up and running again, so if I decide I want to listen to my music on his computer, I can! Now, I need a shower and sleep because I’m going to give the Bluetooth issue one more go, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll just buy a new dongle because ATM, I’m fucking sick of computers!
