Implementing CIFS: The Common Internet File System

The Remote Announce feature allows a Samba server to announce itself to Local and Domain Master Browsers anywhere across the internetwork. The format of the REMOTE ANNOUNCE parameter is:

remote announce = [ IP [/ workgroup ]{" " IP [/ workgroup ]}]

That is, a list of zero or more entries, separated by spaces, in which each entry consists of an IP address and an optional workgroup name . The IP and workgroup are separated by a slash. The Samba server will send HostAnnouncement Browser Frames to the specified IP address (which could be either a host or a broadcast address). If the workgroup name is specified, the Samba server will announce itself as a member of that workgroup, otherwise it will use the name specified by the smb.conf WORKGROUP parameter.

As a result of using this feature...

• An isolated server can send a directed broadcast to a subnet, where an LMB might pick it up.

• An isolated server can announce itself directly to the DMB.

• A single server can show up as a member of many workgroups.

  Be careful, though, a misconfiguration can really mess things up.