CIFS sharing problems...

[kundalinikid]

so i have put together a 9TB RAIDZ for use as a media server that will be accessed in a multiple platform environment (specifically, multiple Macs, a HTPC, a Linux-based media player, and two gaming consoles). putting together the RAIDZ array was easy, as was creating the necessary shared datasets. i was able to create an AFP share that is accessible by my Macs with little problem (it's not working perfectly, but i can at least read from and write to it), but can't seem to get a CIFS share up and running. the CIFS share i have created can be seen by my HTPC (a Win7-based machine), but my HTPC cannot access it (i keep getting an error message stating that "Windows cannot access \\SHARENAME").

there is obviously a problem with my settings for the shared dataset and/or the CIFS share, but in the absence of detailed instructions, i can't be sure where my settings have gone wrong (i've tried some of the suggestions in both this forum and the "FreeNAS 4 N00bs" forum, but can't seem to get any of them to work). ideally, i would like to be able to have my HTPC read and write to the CIFS share, with the media player and game consoles being limited to reading from it (i am trying to put together a similar arrangement for the AFP share as we speak).

it seems like there are a number of users who are able to access their FreeNAS servers, so if you are one of those users and would be willing to provide details and how you managed to get your shares up and running, i would greatly appreciate any help you could provide!

thanks in advance!

 

[Tekkie]

The problem is most likely on both the Windows 7 box and FreeNAS :(

I am in the same position as you, I've got 2 laptop's with different user credentials that can access all my CIFS shares on my FreeNAS system however my HTPC with its own 'htpc' user can't for the love of god connect to any share, however if I use anyone of the accounts from the laptops on the HTPC connecting is not a problem.

Still digging and will let you know as soon as I crack this one.

 

[kundalinikid]

Tekkie,

thanks for your input... it's nice to hear i'm not the only one with these problems! also, thanks for your willingness to help... i'm still experimenting myself, so if i manage to get things working, i will of course post my findings.

kk

 

[kundalinikid]

some progress...

so, after fiddling with the settings in FreeNAS a bit, i'm finally able to connect to my FreeNAS server from my HTPC! what appeared to be necessary was to make sure that 1) i created an account in FreeNAS that matched that of the HTPC; 2) the account had the appropriate privileges for the share; 3) the authentication model in the CIFS settings was set to "local user;" 4) guest access is disabled in both the CIFS and Windows Shares settings; 5) the "Host Allow" option in the Windows Share settings is left blank; and 6) all changes to CIFS settings were made while the service was turned off.

as a result, i am now able to reliably see the FreeNAS server on my network, double-click on the server in Windows Explorer to see the share, and then to map the share as a drive without entering any login info.

of course, in accomplishing this, i have discovered another problem... when attempting to transfer large amounts of data to the server the connection inevitably drops, stopping the transfer and forcing the need to reboot the server. i will do some more testing to get a better idea of what is causing this, but i have a feeling it has something to do with the server itself (as it occurs when accessing both AFP and CIFS shares).

has anybody else had problems with large file transfers? if so, has anyone figured out how to deal with that problem?

 

[Tekkie]

CIFS now work for user

I am in business as well now :) but I had to reboot my FreeNAS system to make it work!

Having to reboot the storage system to make permissions work must be a serious bug somewhere along the chain of UI -> Samba -> File System.

 

[karfam]

hello
i have the same problems too.

i see the freenas in the network page
i click and go up a level to my share but cant get past there.
somethin with the permision of the share or the hard disk i think

 

[matthewowen01]

I am in business as well now :) but I had to reboot my FreeNAS system to make it work!

Having to reboot the storage system to make permissions work must be a serious bug somewhere along the chain of UI -> Samba -> File System.

you don't need to reboot. i haven't rebooted my freenas box in quite some time but add new shares, users and other changes without issue. you probably just had to reboot the cifs service, or your win7 box was still trying to connect using the old connection it had.

 

[Tekkie]

you don't need to reboot. i haven't rebooted my freenas box in quite some time but add new shares, users and other changes without issue. you probably just had to reboot the cifs service, or your win7 box was still trying to connect using the old connection it had.

I actually rebooted the htpc several times as I had to make suer that I erased all the data from the credentials manager, which is a known issue in Windows 7 that it at times will hang-on to entries which it shouldn't and the only way of fixing that is to delete them, reboot the PC, create them by hand and reboot again.

As for the CIFS service that is very well possible, probably that was the only thing that needed restarting, still a bug in my book that I need to restart a service so that new users can access shares or not?