I suspect that your ISP is verizon. I started having this very problem around the same time that you made your initial post. Anyway, I have identified part of the problem and have begun to work on a resolution.
It seems as though Samba and friends utilize DNS first when attempting to resolve the name of the SMB computer to which you wish to connect. If your Linux box is configured to use your ISP's DNS servers, Linux will attempt to use those servers, which obviously will produce erroneous results. This is where verizon becomes significant. Previously, if one were to look up a non-existent name through verizon's DNS, an error would be returned. Samba would then use other means to obtain the necessary IP address. Recently, though, verizon has begun to implement a "feature" so that if you provide an invalid name, verizon will forward you to a customized search page rather than returning a DNS error. For a crude demonstration, enter a random, but non-existent, web address into your browser. Then, ping the domain of the search page to which you were redirected. (In my case, it is wwwwz.websearch.verizon.net.) You should notice that the IP address for this search page is identical to the IP address that Samba has been trying to use. This appears to be a flaw in the design of Samba, as Windows does not appear to have this issue. However, there seems to be a workaround. Add the following line to the [Global] section of your smb.conf: name resolve order = bcast This directs Samba to resolve IP address only by broadcasting requests across your subnet and should resolve your issue. Let me know if you have success. -J -- View this message in context: http://www.nabble.com/weird-samba-error-tf4622475.html#a13558154 Sent from the Debian User mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]