🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4h84pl$afk@news.xmission.com>, Christian Worley
<cworley@altatech.com> writes

>What's the "MSN Client" looking for?  After sending a few DNS packets,
>and recieving a few DNS replies, there is no further non-DNS TCP/IP
>traffic between the PC and anything else.  The DNS packets occur when 
>the system boots, and every few minutes after that if Pegasus Mail is 
>running (in a non SMTP/POP mode, MHS only!).  I could deal with the
>boot-time DNS packet... but not every few minutes.

You're getting confused between "Client for Microsoft Networks" and "The
Microsoft Network (MSN)", Client for Microsoft Networks really means SMB
client, because it can connect to Samba, IBM Lan Server etc. "The
Microsoft Network" is that online Service that Microsoft are trying to
push, but isn't proving too popular.

But you're right, even though it may not seem such, Windows 95 does fall
back to trying netbios name resolution via DNS.. which is a bodge.

Check out the registry key
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP\ServiceProvider\
DNSPriority REG_DWORD
HostsPriority REG_DWORD
LocalPriority REG_DWORD
NetBtPriotity REG_DWORD

these numbers are relative priorities as to how the SMB client on
Windows 95 resolved names. I *think* the lower the number the higher
priority, or it might be the other way around.

>My local network runs TCP/IP and IPX protocols.  No slip/ppp;
>everything is running on the LAN.  The internet gateway is a local unix box
>that dials up in response to outgoing packets, hence the problem:
>the "MSN Client" keeps causing costly dial-outs for no good reason.
>
>On the Win95 PC, I'm served files by Novell 3.x and various Unix
>servers running SAMBA.
>
>Without Win95's "MSN Client" DNS behaves rationally, but I can't access
>SAMBA servers without the "MSN Client".
>
>Any ideas would be appreciated.

Run a DNS server locally. That way your local DNS server will catch all
DNS requests for your own domain. DNS servers are available for all
major server platforms (and no doubt your unix box you're using as a
router). Define that DNS server as the primary DNS server for your
network, and your dial-up router won't be hit with DNS all the time.

-- 
Simon Hewison

Christian Worley <cworley@altatech.com> wrote:
>Is "LMHOSTS" the win95 equivalent to "/etc/hosts"?  Is there
>a resolv.conf for Win95 that says "look at your local hosts
>file first before consulting DNS"?
>

I've had two excellent replies with three ideas:

1) michal@gortel.phys.ualberta.ca said that "nmbd", which is
supplied with SAMBA on the unix side works as a WINS name
server -- so tell Win95 to use the SAMBA server as a WINS server.

2) simon@demon.net and my brother suggested making a DNS cacheing
server within my LAN -- not the total overhead of a DNS server, with
a lot time-saving local fetches.

3) Simon also showed that the Win95 registry can be modified to
change the host lookup priority:

>Check out the registry key
>HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VxD\MSTCP\ServiceProvider\
>DNSPriority REG_DWORD
>HostsPriority REG_DWORD
>LocalPriority REG_DWORD
>NetBtPriotity REG_DWORD
>
>these numbers are relative priorities as to how the SMB client on
>Windows 95 resolved names. I *think* the lower the number the higher
>priority, or it might be the other way around.

Thanks for your help... my internet connection is runnning smoothly
again.

Chris