Can see, but cannot connect FreeNAS box via CIFS share to Windows PCs on home network

[BeatCollider]

Can see but cannot connect FreeNAS box via CIFS share to Windows PCs on home network

Totally stuck – I recently installed FreeNAS onto a new NAS build, and having great difficulty connecting to the FreeNAS box from my other two windows (7) PCs on my home network. After a successful install, I have followed all the guides on the Freenas documentation site [http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Main_Page], and have set-up my (RAID-Z2) ZFS volume (7.1Tib).

Next, (as per the guides) I added a Windows CIFS share (Using all the default/suggested settings) first trying guest access, and then setting up a user & group and changing permissions to the CIFS share, plus several permutations/variations on this...
Frustratingly I can see the FreeNAS device on my home network on the other windows computers – If I go to Windows Explorer > Network, the FreeNAS box is there, and is called “FREENAS”. However, if I double-click on it I get the following error message:
“Windows cannot access //FREENAS” Check the spelling of the name . Otherwise there might be a problem with your network. To try to identify and resolve network problems, click Diagnose.”
If I click Diagnose, I get the following message:
“The remote device or resource won’t accept the connection Detected”

This is really odd as I can connect to the FreeNAS box via the webGUI just fine. I can also ping the IP address from the command prompt successfully from both windows 7 PCs.

I have also logged into the IP address of my router, and I can see the device is recognised there just fine.
I have do have DHCP enabled on my router, but I have reserved a fixed IP address for my FreeNAS box, just like I have set-up for my other 2 PCs on the home network.

I have also tried setting up port forwarding (on the router) for the CIFS relevant ports listed here (http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/CIFS), but the that didn’t work either!

So far, I’ve been trying to solve this for the past 5-6 hours, and have run out of ideas on what else to do to fix it. ((

I have tried to list as much information as possible to help with the troubleshooting - Any suggestions from the community or FreeNAS support moderators would be hugely appreciated, as at the moment I have quite an expensive box of 6 useless hard-drives – lol !


FreeNas Build
Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2100 CPU @ 3.10GHz
16GB RAM
6x 2TB HDDs in RAID-Z2
FreeNAS-8.3.1-RELEASE-p2-x64 (r12686+b770da6_dirty)

Home PC Build (Main Computer)
i7-Haswell
8GB RAM
Win 7 64x Home Premium

Laptop
Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB Ram
Win 7 64x Home Premium

 

[BeatCollider]

So since this afternoon update...
Been playing around for another couple of hours trying to make this work, and had some partial success...
Basically I am finally able to view the volume inside my "FREENAS" box on my home network - Yay!

I was able to achieve this by doing the following:
-Deleted/Removed all users & groups I had created (such that there were no users/groups other than the default system ones)
-Deleted the CIFS share I had set-up
-Rebooted both my PC and my FreeNAS box
-Added a new CIFS share with the name "freenas" (lower case), checked box "Allow Guest Access", mapped the path to my main 7.1TiB volume
-Accepted the prompts to switch on the CIFS service
-Went to windows and opened the "FREENAS" network connection, and ta-da! I am able to read/write/execute in the network location. :)

After I had finished celebrating this monumental achievement [lol], I then spent the next couple of hours trying to configure this to actually work with a simple 1x single-user (Jay), 1x group (Jay), 1x password (1234), but without success...

I switch off "Allow Guest Access" in the FreeNAS web GUI, and attempt to access the folders in the "FREENAS" network location from my Windows PCs, which works fine... Then when I click on the "freenas" folder, and I get a Windows Security dialogue pop-up box to "Enter Network Password"... So I go ahead and enter Username (Jay), Password (1234), but it will not accept it, and therefore will not allow me access to the "FREENAS" location folders.

This is getting very frustrating, and time consuming to set-up what should be very simple. I am following the documentation, but still having no luck...

Before I posted this I thought I would have one final try to set this up, and follow the Local User Access instructions verbatim:
http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/CIFS_Shares#Configuring_Local_User_Access
After following all these steps, I went back to my Windows PC and tried to open the network location called "FREENAS", and it's no longer there!
Going to reboot both machines and revert back to the settings I had before, but at this point, I'm feeling like throwing the whole thing out the window.

 

[BeatCollider]

Update 3.

OMG this is so difficult to make work for the average home user!

After an additional 2 hours I have managed to restore the FREENAS location on my windows PC.
I thought it would benefit other users to post the steps taken that achieved this, since my last post.

- Reboot both PC and Freenas box (from web GUI)
-Deleted/Removed all users & groups I had created (such that there were no users/groups other than the default system ones)
-Deleted the CIFS share I had set-up
-Rebooted both my PC and my Freenas box again
-Added a new CIFS share with the name "freenas" (lower case), checked box "Allow Guest Access", mapped the path to my main 7.1TiB volume
(*Note, I have note set-up any users or groups, as this just seems to cause problems, I'm just using the guest access)
-Accepted the prompts to switch on the CIFS service
-Attempted to find Freenas location on windows PC in explorer > Fail

Now the key steps to actually make this work (I found this in another forum post after a lot of hunting around)!
-Go into Windows Explorer, and type the IP address (e.g. 192.161.0.14)of your Freenas server in the following exact format: \\192.161.0.14
Now you have forced Windows to actually "see" your Freenas server -If you click on it, you should see your folders.

Next step is to actually be able to write to your Freenas server location...
-Go back into the web Gui, and go to View Volumes > Change Permissions
-The default setting is Owner (user)=root, and Owner(group)=wheel
-Change this to Owner(user)=nobody, and Ownder(group)=nobody

Last step...
-Go to Services > CIFS
-Check the boxes for "Enable home directories", and "Enable home directories browsing"
-Finally go back to your Windows PC in explorer, and you should now be able to read/write/execute as normal.

I can't believe it's taken me the best part of 10hrs to figure all this out, but I'm not surprised given how many possible combinations of settings/variables there are to configure to actually make this work!

Can anyone point me towards how to set-up users/groups properly, now I have a better understanding of the fundamental basics - Would appreciate some guidance/comment from more experienced users/staff/moderators.
:D

 

[BeatCollider]

Update 4 - Getting better...

So I've managed to set-up a single user (Jay), and actually be able to login from my other Windows PC using the username/password credentials correctly - Result!

Firstly I would recommend to anyone reading this to follow these two stickies I found in another section of the forum for useful background information
http://forums.freenas.org/threads/freenas-8-2-permissions-set-up-example-for-dummies.8894/
http://forums.freenas.org/threads/f...-set-up-example-for-dummies-visual-map.10163/

For other's benefit > The steps I took to get this working (since my last post) were as follows:
-Deleted/Removed all users & groups I had created (such that there were no users/groups other than the default system ones)
-Deleted the CIFS share I had set-up
-Rebooted both my PC and my Freenas box again
-Add a new user with following fields: name ("Jay"), Create new primary group for user box checked, browse to my previously created 7.1TiB volume*, check all 9 boxes for read/write/execute for Owner & Group & Other, enter Full Name(Jay), enter Password (Same as my FreeNas webGUI details, e.g. 1234)
[*Nb I am not using ZFS datasets for my set-up as I just want one large pool of data for everyone to use - i.e. I don't need separate folders for each user on my home account]
-Click OK

I next went back to the “Storage” tab to configure my permissions. I clicked the “Change Permissions” tab for my volume and selected “nobody” for Owner (user) and “nogroup” for Owner (group). I checked all nine Mode (permission) boxes (“read,” “write,” and “execute” for “User,” “Group” and “Other”) and selected “Windows” for the ACL setting. I left the “Set Permissions Recursively” box unchecked and clicked the “Change” button.

Lastly, I clicked the “Sharing” button in order to create shares. I clicked the “Windows (CIFS) option
-Added a new CIFS share with the name "freenas" (lower case), this time did not select "Allow Guest Access", then mapped the path to my main 7.1TiB volume
-Accepted the prompts to switch on the CIFS service
-Next I clicked on the “Services” button and, in the list on the page, clicked on the wrench icon associated with the CIFS “Core” button. I verified that Authentication Model is "local user" (rather than anonymous previously), that the boxes for "Enable home directories", and "Enable home directories browsing" were checked, and that “nobody” was listed under “Guest Account”, and left the other settings unchanged.
-I clicked “O.K.” and exited the configuration screen.

-I rebooted FreeNAS via the GUI
-Then go to the "FREENAS" location in explorer on the windows PC, and double-click to get the security username/password entry dialogue pop-up appear
-Enter username(Jay)/password(1234)
-Ta Da - It works !!!
:D

 

[BeatCollider]

Ideally I would like to set-up additional (Approx 5-10) users who would only have read-only access to all the files in my main 7.1TiB volume. Problem is if I try to add another (1) user, and map the path for that user to my volume location, it overrides some of the above settings in the change permissions menu... In other words I can't see how to enable permissions for multiple users all onto the same single volume.

I don't really want to set-up separate ZFS datasets for each user as per this guide [http://forums.freenas.org/threads/freenas-8-2-permissions-set-up-example-for-dummies.8894/], as I just want one big data pool that everyone (in my house) can access.

Can anyone point me towards a guide/documentation on how to set-this up?
Contributions anyone ??

 

[cyberjock]

Ok.. I'm sick of your complaining.. You better get teamviewer and skype.. cause I'm about to skool you noob.

Yes, I'm joking. I just feel bad because you've made 5 posts and got no feedback. Permissions aren't easy. Get skype(or a phone with a number that is in the USA) and teamviewer and PM me your info. We're gonna have a little talk.....

 

[BeatCollider]

OK, so a huge massive thank you to Cyberjock, who gave up over an hour of his time to go through all this via Skype & Teamviewer until 3am (UK time). It's guys like this who volunteer their time and effort for free that make open-source free projects like this actually a reality - Huge respect !

I thought I would post a quick update for everyone in the community to give something back, in return.
Basically, ignore all/most of the instructions I have written above. I did not realise until last night, but this is much more complicated than I first thought. I am not able to explain all the steps that we did to make it work as I did not understand all of it entirely.
I would also like to point out that to set-up a sharing network for my/your FreeNAS box, requires understanding well beyond the FreeNAS GUI. Cyberjock installed a program called "Putty", (which looks similar to a DOS command prompt), and was coding FreeNAS to work using Linux/UNIX programming commands. Even Cyberjock got stuck several times, and we had to tweak many many different settings both across the GUI and in Putty, to figure out what was wrong by trial & error.

Fundamentally in my opinion Windows and Linux/UNIX don't play together that well, and it's often hard to tell whether the problem is in the FreeNAS configuration, or Windows not playing nicely, let alone figuring out how to fix it. [Cyberjock has also mentioned he is producing a presentation to help navigate all of the sharing/users/permissions issues, and will publish this soon to help more advanced users.]

In the end (After over 1 hour) we were able to set-up the simple group/user structure which was roughly as follows:
1 large 7.1TiB volume, with myself as the main/master user with full read/write access
2 users with read-only access to the whole volume
2 users (The same 2) with their own private folder with full read/write permissions

Cyberjock also noticed from the FreeNAS logs that there was a problem with one of my hard-drives (Even though they are brand-new), and showed me which one had a fault (Bad sectors), and how to test it. I would not have even noticed this, or knew where to look.

In conclusion, I have realised that even though FreeNAS is a very powerful tool, particularly with the ZFS and RAID ability, however being able to configure this on an ongoing basis is way too advanced for me as an average user.
I would like to point out, I am relatively competent with computers, having built 3 PCs from scratch, fixed friend & family (Windows) PCs, and generally been tinkering about for several years. However, I am not an IT professional, and I think in it's current form it would take me weeks/months to learn how to use Linux/Unix to a satisfactory level to have confidence that I could trust all my data to this server. It would also be a huge challenge to maintain my home network, adding/changing users/folders/permissions for example. This is just not realistic as I work full-time, and I am looking for a plug & play solution, that is able to play nicely with all my other PCs at home, without spending days/weeks learning each time I want to do something new.

With all this in mind I am choosing between four software options for the server box instead of FreeNAS:
1 Windows 8
2 Windows 7 Pro/Ultimate
3 Windows Home Server 2011
4 Windows Server Essentials 2012

I think I am going to go for Windows 8, as it's the most up to date, best value option for me, and at least I can learn something new in the relatively safe/familiar Windows environment.
Windows 7 is good, but more expensive, and less future proof.
Option 3 looks OK, is very cheap, but I've seen mixed reviews, and it is much less future proof.
Option 4 is way too expensive (£400+ in the UK), plus I can't imagine there is much of a home/forum/community for this as it's priced beyond the average home networking user.

Anyway, hope this was useful for anyone who is trying to do this themselves.

Thanks again Cyberjock - You rock!

:D :)

 

[awood4929]

I hear ya brother. I am an IT professional - a 15 yr Security Engineer + years before that, and I use Linux (not FreeBSD) EVERYDAY! .....but not Samba. This shit is driving me crazy. But I will make it work. After all, it's just CIFS.

 

[underpickled]

In the end (After over 1 hour) we were able to set-up the simple group/user structure which was roughly as follows:
1 large 7.1TiB volume, with myself as the main/master user with full read/write access
2 users with read-only access to the whole volume
2 users (The same 2) with their own private folder with full read/write permissions

I've having issues with permissions as well... the scheme I'd like to set up is similar to this. Since you did, in fact, seem to get it working (despite your decision to switch from FreeNAS), can you give any guidance on making that work?

 

[awood4929]

I've having issues with permissions as well... the scheme I'd like to set up is similar to this. Since you did, in fact, seem to get it working (despite your decision to switch from FreeNAS), can you give any guidance on making that work?

My issue was solved by adding .local to the hostname, in my case, from nas01\USERNAME to nas01.local\USERNAME and then password. However, afterword, I was interested in iSCSI, and as it turns out, iSCSI over 802.11N (5GHz) is at least 10x faster than CIFS. That kills a file "share"....but for a single host backup solution, iSCSI crushes CIFS.

 

[underpickled]

My issue was solved by adding .local to the hostname, in my case, from nas01\USERNAME to nas01.local\USERNAME and then password. However, afterword, I was interested in iSCSI, and as it turns out, iSCSI over 802.11N (5GHz) is at least 10x faster than CIFS. That kills a file "share"....but for a single host backup solution, iSCSI crushes CIFS.

I got it working since posting here... just had to get a better feel for permissions. Still might be some kinks, but the permissions are exactly how I want with FTP, so CIFS should follow smoothly. Also, I am able to saturate GigE with CIFS... a 10x improvement on a network with a theoretical max throughput of 450 Mbps... so if you were only getting 45 Mbps or less over CIFS, I feel like there must be another issue there. I only have an i3... nothing crazy.

 

[JimPhreak]

Well add me to the list of those scratching their heads over setting up CIFS share permissions. I've followed the steps in the guide to a T and I can not get a single authenticated user to login to the one share I've setup to test with. I can access it fine by turning on guest access but the moment I disable guest access therefor requiring login it will not take my login credentials.

I've setup a group named test and added the user "test" as a member of that group. In the volume permissions Owner (user) is set to nobody and Owner (group) is set to test and the permissions are the same for the dataset I've setup to be shared. I can see the share when I browse to my FreeNAS box in Windows Explorere but no matter how I try to login to the share itself (tried via hostname, hostname.local, IP address) nothing will get me in. Errrrrrrr.

 

[NMGMarques]

Has any of the previous users figured out a way to log in after disabling the "others" permissions? Tried a bunch of stuff (including freenas.clocal\username) but still can't get in to the shares.

 

[Body_Habitus]

Well add me to the list of those scratching their heads over setting up CIFS share permissions. I've followed the steps in the guide to a T and I can not get a single authenticated user to login to the one share I've setup to test with. I can access it fine by turning on guest access but the moment I disable guest access therefor requiring login it will not take my login credentials.

I've setup a group named test and added the user "test" as a member of that group. In the volume permissions Owner (user) is set to nobody and Owner (group) is set to test and the permissions are the same for the dataset I've setup to be shared. I can see the share when I browse to my FreeNAS box in Windows Explorere but no matter how I try to login to the share itself (tried via hostname, hostname.local, IP address) nothing will get me in. Errrrrrrr.

I've been having similar issues - did you ever get it working? I followed the guide for setting up and am able to get guest access, but can't for the life of me get user names functioning.

OK, so a huge massive thank you to Cyberjock, who gave up over an hour of his time to go through all this via Skype & Teamviewer until 3am (UK time). It's guys like this who volunteer their time and effort for free that make open-source free projects like this actually a reality - Huge respect !

I thought I would post a quick update for everyone in the community to give something back, in return.
Basically, ignore all/most of the instructions I have written above. I did not realise until last night, but this is much more complicated than I first thought. I am not able to explain all the steps that we did to make it work as I did not understand all of it entirely.
I would also like to point out that to set-up a sharing network for my/your FreeNAS box, requires understanding well beyond the FreeNAS GUI. Cyberjock installed a program called "Putty", (which looks similar to a DOS command prompt), and was coding FreeNAS to work using Linux/UNIX programming commands. Even Cyberjock got stuck several times, and we had to tweak many many different settings both across the GUI and in Putty, to figure out what was wrong by trial & error.
...

Thanks again Cyberjock - You rock!

:D :)

BeatCollider or Cyberjock, do you think you could provide a bit of summary as to what the issue was?

 

[cyberjock]

The issue was that he didn't have a full grasp of the complexity of FreeNAS. We did a little setup of his server, but then he wasn't particularly interested in using FreeNAS because he wasn't interested in spending the required time to learn how to get this stuff all working correctly.

 

[NMGMarques]

The issue was that he didn't have a full grasp of the complexity of FreeNAS. We did a little setup of his server, but then he wasn't particularly interested in using FreeNAS because he wasn't interested in spending the required time to learn how to get this stuff all working correctly.

Well I'm still interested in setting up a box that will work. So far I have set up some shares and have 2 disks working in software RAID (mirror). It's been working, but so far the shares are accessed by all. I can't set up the permissions for the shares. As soon as I disable the "other", the shares are no longer accessible. I swear to you I have tried almost every post out there, so I am pretty sure it's just my noobish mind that is doing something wrong. Anyhow, i'll keep at it because for all the rest, FreeNAS is great.

 

[Body_Habitus]

Thanks for the reply cyberjock, I guess its just a time=money issue for some.

Well I'm still interested in setting up a box that will work. So far I have set up some shares and have 2 disks working in software RAID (mirror). It's been working, but so far the shares are accessed by all. I can't set up the permissions for the shares. As soon as I disable the "other", the shares are no longer accessible. I swear to you I have tried almost every post out there, so I am pretty sure it's just my noobish mind that is doing something wrong. Anyhow, i'll keep at it because for all the rest, FreeNAS is great.

I actually had some success after changing the volume's "Type of ACL" from unix to windows, after hours of playing with settings. I'm still having some trouble changing over from my test user to real users but will update if I can.

 

[ECCfrenaslover]

This is kicking my ass! I had it running nicely on the first test run. I wiped and reloaded Freenas and now I am like the rest of you!!! This is starting to kill my brain. Cyber, did you ever get that presentation going?

 

[cyberjock]

Presentation on what? I have so many on the table right now. :P

 

[acem77]

I just setup my 1st freenas box last night from a pc I had laying around as a test.
specs
core 2 duo 2.90ghz 2GB ram and 2x80GB(big time!) hdds mirrored.
if all goes well ill upgrade it or build a new pc.

I am having the same noob CIFS headaches as other users.

I had the guest account working with no issues, I think I got one user account created but things seem odd like the credentials are now cached..

For the most part I cant get access with a password working.

Below are a list of questions I have and some from the 9.20 guide.

----
If changes are made its seems like I need to stop and start the CIFS service for them to be active on the client side.
Is there are good rule of thumb for changes that wont be instant?

----

When I try to access the share with a password how is it entered?
login: user
pass: 1234

login: freenas\user
pass: 1234

login: workgroup\user
pass: 1234

login: ?XX?\user
pass: 1234

----

7.3.1 Creating CIFS Shares
NOTE: hostname lookups add some time to accessing the CIFS share. If you only use IP addresses,
uncheck the “Hostnames lookups” box in Services → CIFS.

? Does this need to be done or is it just best practice? I tested using an IP.

----

7.3.3 Configuring Local User Access
"1. If you are not using Active Directory or LDAP, create a user account for each user in
Account → Users → Add User with the following attributes:
• Username and Password: matches the username and password on the client system"

? so is this just for aesthetics and to keep things less confusing for the user or does it really know if they don’t match.

----

3.1.6 Configure Permissions
"Once a share is available, the client operating system should be used to fine-tune
the permissions of the files and directories that are created by the client."

? So give one user full rights to the full CIFS share in the freenas web gui, then go to the windows client access that share as that account and start managing the rights as if everything was on a windows file server, create directories and set permissions?

----

Upgrading /changing hardware.
Can this be done with out the need to rebuilding the Raid?

As an example move all the raid hdds to an new pc and boot with same usb drive.
What happens if the usb drive goes bad?



Thanks