Win10 file explorer eternal green bar share not connecting

[guermantes]

Sometimes it's like my Freenas 11.3 U1 goes to sleep and needs time to wake up, although I do not spin down disks. Shares mapped to a drive letter in win10 always respond, but my more seldom used shares don't show up at first try when clicking the Network icon in file explorer. I get the green bar searching for an eternity and then failing. But if I then close file explorer and try again I get instant connection.

Is this a quirk of samba/netbios (I see people saying the network icon has always been untrustworthy) or have I likely missed some freenas config option? Or is it just

 

[Basil Hendroff]

This is likely a 'feature' of network neighbourhood browsing and the master browser election process. This is almost certainly the case if you still have SMB1 enabled in your network and you don't have a reliable master browser. This will be the case if your browse master is a Windows PC. If so, a quick fix might be to make your FreeNAS server the master browser instead. Unlike a PC, it is designed to stay up 24/7, which is what makes it a reliable browse master.

First, check to see if your FreeNAS server has SMB1 enabled (Services > SMB > Configure > Enable SMB1 support: Checked). If it is, try the following:
Make sure the FreeNAS server participates in the election process (Local Master: Checked). To make it the master browser, add the following Auxiliary parameters to the SMB service:

Code:

os level = 255
preferred master = yes

The first parameter ensures that the FreeNAS server wins in any election process; the second forces a browser election whenever the SMB service is restarted such as during server reboot.

In the longer term, you will want to migrate away from SMB1. This resource will help you plan this How to kill off SMB1, NetBIOS, WINS and *still* have Windows' Network Neighbourhood better than ever

 

[guermantes]

This is likely a 'feature' of network neighbourhood browsing and the master browser election process. This is almost certainly the case if you still have SMB1 enabled in your network and you don't have a reliable master browser. This will be the case if your browse master is a Windows PC. If so, a quick fix might be to make your FreeNAS server the master browser instead. Unlike a PC, it is designed to stay up 24/7, which is what makes it a reliable browse master.

First, check to see if your FreeNAS server has SMB1 enabled (Services > SMB > Configure > Enable SMB1 support: Checked). If it is, try the following:
Make sure the FreeNAS server participates in the election process (Local Master: Checked). To make it the master browser, add the following Auxiliary parameters to the SMB service:

Code:

os level = 255
preferred master = yes

The first parameter ensures that the FreeNAS server wins in any election process; the second forces a browser election whenever the SMB service is restarted such as during server reboot.

In the longer term, you will want to migrate away from SMB1. This resource will help you plan this How to kill off SMB1, NetBIOS, WINS and *still* have Windows' Network Neighbourhood better than ever

I actually tried to follow the steps in the "How to kill off SMB1..." resource quite some time ago, but when it came to manually installing wsdd.py I decided to wait until FN11.3 which would have it built-in. In short, SMB1 is already off in both Freenas and Windows. Discovery method is WSD. WINS is disabled in Windows. But somehow ipconfig /all still says says Netbios over tcpip enabled even though I have no WINS tab under Network adapter - IPv4 Properties - advanced.

Should I try with your master settings just the same? Also, should I tick the Local Master box in the SMB services config?

 

[Samuel Tai]

Even with no WINS servers, you have to actively disable NetBIOS over TCP:

And yes, it's a good idea to make the FreeNAS server the master browser, unless you already have an existing Windows master browser.

 

[guermantes]

Stupid me... my WINS tab with one level deeper. Now I have disabled Netbios as well.
I realize cannot tick the Local master box in Freenas' SMB config, because doing so I must also select IP-addresses "to listen for" but none are available for selecting and I cannot type in an address.

I'll go like this for a few days, the NEtbios change being the only one for so long, and see if this alleviates the green bar delay problem.

 

[Samuel Tai]

I must also select IP-addresses "to listen for" but none are available for selecting and I cannot type in an address.

That address selector only recognizes static addresses. If you use DHCP to address your server, you'll need to convert to static addressing for the address selector to work.