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

[ECCfrenaslover]

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

hahahaha!

I can't remember what presentation I am asking you about....Got a list somewhere? I might recognize it....lol

 

[ECCfrenaslover]

So is this an issue/bug on the latest release?

 

[John McC]

I'm glad to see I'm not alone in finding it almost impossible to get started with the simplest of configurations in FreeNAS. The permissions set up to get Windows CIFS shares working is so complex that I can't get it to work properly - as with the previous post, I eventually got one share to work, couldn't get homes to work at all, and can't Plex Media Server to see any music. Now it won't even start.

I used much earlier versions easily and simply. I have now wasted tens of hours trying and failing to get a simple share setup, and Plex Media Server working, in the latest v9 release. First few tens of hours came from trying to use a no-brand USB memory stick, one which works fine for storing files, but to which apparently FreeNAS can't write reliably. But even with a branded memory stick, I'm failing to get anything working properly, even carefully following the documentation.

I've decades of experience in DOS and Windows, and nearly ten years of working successfully with Linux server boxes.

FreeNAS has defeated me. I've just ordered a Synology DS214Play, having previously tried and sent back a NetGear NAS which basically just didn't work beyond the basics.

The Synology is well reviewed, and said to be easy for even an inexperienced home user to set up. Let's hope it lives up to its billing.

John McC

 

[cyberjock]

@ John McC,

You have my respect for admitting you are in over your head. You aren't alone. It's sad to see how many people won't admit that they can't do something and spend tons of money and time on projects they just don't understand.

Good luck to you with the Synology. Do keep backups! You never know when things might go bad.

 

[John McC]

While I'm sure the current version of FreeNAS is well suited to its current apparent intended audience - large corporates with experienced sysadmins - it seems to me a great pity that there isn't also a simple set up - at best a wizard, at least step by step documentation - for what I was trying to do as a fairly typical home user, though probably with more computer experience than most home users (mainly self taught but extensive in DOS, Windows from v3.1 to Win7, and Linux).

That was very simple (I thought, anyway, until I tried to do it)
- a separate, private, folder for each user in the homes/users tree, with a centralized backup routine to back up each user's documents and other personal files routinely and automatically
- a public media folder, with sub-folders for music, photos, videos, recorded TV, and movies, with the Plex Media Server providing network and streaming access.

FreeNAS has all the ingredients, but no simple recipes. That's a great pity, I think. It's still being recommended in consumer computer magazines, most recently in PC Pro April 2014 issue, in its review of NAS devices for home use. It does comment (inadequately in my view) that "it's fiddly to set up" which seems to me a massive understatement!

 

[cyberjock]

To be honest, I find FreeNAS rather trivial with basic setup. I won't lie. I did take a few days to figure out how to get it to work, then I spent almost a whole month experimenting with FreeNAS so I could understand their modus operandi.

There are plenty of people that want a system that "just works" and I offer services for business(but people on occasion). My fee for setup is less than a DS214 too! Of course, if you were a business with a very complex configuration I'll charge more.

 

[ECCfrenaslover]

@ John McC,

You have my respect for admitting you are in over your head. You aren't alone. It's sad to see how many people won't admit that they can't do something and spend tons of money and time on projects they just don't understand.

Good luck to you with the Synology. Do keep backups! You never know when things might go bad.

Very nice words Cyberjock. I feel like John McC at times but I do not let a free copy/version of FreeNas kick my rear that easily... I have not the experience you or John has in the computer field. I have been messing with FreeNas since this past November. Got everything going nicely on version 9.1 with a lot of data to test the set up... then somehow, my Mac OS X can no longer see my CIFs shares. I've reloaded 9.1 a few times and now is running 9.2... I have thought many times to get an 8 bay unit from Qnap since I already own a 4 bay that has been fantastic. Still, is not perfect since you must install the right type of drives in it.

I guess not everything is free. I have spent many hours like John and I am in all the way to get it to work. I will say that my time spent is the price I pay for trying to use FreeNAS. It is people like you Cyberjock that make this forum the great resource it is. You have helped me a few times and and I find your postings quite helpful when you address the issue. Although your avatar fits you perfect when you try to tell folks to keep the posts on topic....lol

This afternoon I made some progress with getting CIFs to work. On my Mac, under finder, I use the GO link from the top menu. From there I select CONNECT TO SERVER and then I see cifs and smb with the server's IP address. After several failed attempts, I went into FreeNAS via GUI and changed the share that is under CIFs to allow guests. This is the only way I can R/W/E permission for getting files onto this share. I am unable to connect to CIFs shares via my own log in user that I've created via the GUI. However, I am able to connect to AFP all day long. I am puzzled like the rest of the world. I will keep trying to work on it but I only get to it when time allows me to since I have other projects to get done.

I will agree that the documentation needs a lift because the basic setup is trivial like Cyberjock has said. I would be happy to see in future releases some of the suggestions made by John McC. Better yet, if I have invested this much money, I would not paying for a more easier version of FreeNAS. Where is the donation button....

 

[Eduardo Acosta Miguens]

Okey, so I've been dealing with this exact same issue for this entire week and I think I've found the problem (and solution).

The problem here is in the order we configure stuff, if I'm not mistaken if you follow the wiki example step by step the resulting share will not work.

So the problem is that, on a fresh install of FreeNAS, if you create users/groups BEFORE starting at least once the CIFS service, then the users are NOT synced across the system database and sambas database. You can check this by running the following command as root:

Code:

pdbedit -L

This command should show you every user that's in sambas database, in fact if you run this before starting at least once CIFS then it will print some errors.

After starting CIFS every user you create AFTER that will appear under sambas database. Every user created before will not.


The steps that I've followed and have worked flawlessly in the last 3 fresh test installs I did were:
1. Create new volume under storage
2. Go to "System > Settings > Advanced" and set "System dataset pool" to the volume you've just created
3. Go to "Services > CIFS", configure at will (I only changed NetBIOS name, WORKGROUP and Description).
4. Go to "Services > Control Services" and start CIFS service.
5. Now yes, you can start adding users and groups at will, you should see that if you run the command from above after each user is created it is synced across DBs.
6. Go to "Sharing > Windows (CIFS) Shares" and add as many as you like

So that's it, the problem is that if CIFS is not started at least once, some samba configuration files are not created, and the Web GUI cannot synced newly created users.

Hope this helps someone.

 

[thewiep]

Code:

pdbedit -L

Thanks a lot!!
This is what I needed! I've been struggling with CIFS ever since I installed a fresh copy of FreeNAS 9.2.1 and I just couldn't figure out what was going wrong.
I could only access my shares with root user.

when I issued the command

Code:

pdbedit -L

it only had an entry for root.
I followed your steps but after adding another user through the WebGUI, it didn't show with the command above.

I then added them manually

Code:

pdbedit -a -u myuser

and suddenly I could access my shares with the users from the system.

While my problem is now fixed there does seem to be an issue with not transferring the users.
I tested now on the latest 9.2.1.2-RC but the issue is the same (but worked around by manually adding).

 

[Eduardo Acosta Miguens]

Glad I could help!

It's funny that you could access them with the root user, in all my tests root was never in sambas user listing (and I think it should be this way, for security at least).

As I told you, I've been doing a lot of testing on VMs before installing FreeNAS on the actual server (which I will do next week), but those steps worked flawlessly on a fresh install.

 

[clarkmercer]

Okey, so I've been dealing with this exact same issue for this entire week and I think I've found the problem (and solution).

The problem here is in the order we configure stuff, if I'm not mistaken if you follow the wiki example step by step the resulting share will not work.

So the problem is that, on a fresh install of FreeNAS, if you create users/groups BEFORE starting at least once the CIFS service, then the users are NOT synced across the system database and sambas database. You can check this by running the following command as root:

Code:

pdbedit -L

This command should show you every user that's in sambas database, in fact if you run this before starting at least once CIFS then it will print some errors.

After starting CIFS every user you create AFTER that will appear under sambas database. Every user created before will not.


The steps that I've followed and have worked flawlessly in the last 3 fresh test installs I did were:
1. Create new volume under storage
2. Go to "System > Settings > Advanced" and set "System dataset pool" to the volume you've just created
3. Go to "Services > CIFS", configure at will (I only changed NetBIOS name, WORKGROUP and Description).
4. Go to "Services > Control Services" and start CIFS service.
5. Now yes, you can start adding users and groups at will, you should see that if you run the command from above after each user is created it is synced across DBs.
6. Go to "Sharing > Windows (CIFS) Shares" and add as many as you like

So that's it, the problem is that if CIFS is not started at least once, some samba configuration files are not created, and the Web GUI cannot synced newly created users.

Hope this helps someone.

Thank you sir!!! this is exactly what I needed. Wrestled with this for hours until I found your post. Thanks for sharing!

 

[BYOGamingPC]

Grrr.... I've had my FreeNAS box running fine for quite some time but just in the last 24 hours my PC is having problems connecting. I keep getting silly errors that it cannot connect though I see it and can stream video from it.

 

[Zatmando]

Sorry to resurrect an old post but I'm not finding any other solutions.

I built a FreeNAS box almost a year ago and it has been running strong. In my old house, I had the FreeNAS and my main PC wired into the same router and connected with no problems at all. I just recently moved and had to change around my network and now its not working.

Currently my FreeNAS is wired into my main router, my PC is wired into a wireless bridge. I can ping the FreeNAS box, I can connect to the webgui, I can access the plex server inside and outside of my house, I just can't access it through the network explorer to move files.

I'm a noob when it comes to the FreeNAS. I have a limited knowledge of it. I didn't/don't need any crazy user permissions or anything just access for myself on my main pc.

I'm not sure what info will be pertinent to my situation but let me know what I can provide.

Thank you all,
Zatmando

 

[ECCfrenaslover]

Nothing wrong with resurrection. Zat, did you change anything? Upgrade your PC OS? The wise men here, love to see details of your setup---->MB brand, models, ECC RAM make/model and so on. Hopefully someone with more experience will come along. Hang in there.

 

[Zatmando]

Thanks for the reply, I did not change anything at first, once it wasn't working I have updated everything to its latest version.

FreeNas is running
9.3 stable - 201506292130
Intel core I-5 2500k 3.30 ghz
16 gb ram
Asus Z77-VPro Mobo
6 - 3Tb WD red drives

Main pc running
Windows 7 (planning on upgrading to 10 in the coming week)
Intel core I-7-4790k 4.00Ghz
32 gb ram
Asus Z97 pro mobo
geforce gtx 970

router is Asus TR-AC68U
wireless bridge d-link amplifi

Thanks

 

[SweetAndLow]

What permissions do your datasets that you have shared have? How many shares do you have? I suggest for your workflow that you go to services->cifs and see what your guest user is configured to be. Then go to your shares and enable guest access and guest access only. After that you can configure your datasets to be owned by the guest user. This will make it so you never need a password to access the data and should eliminate most permission issues.

 

[pirateghost]

Sounds to me like you just can't see it when you click on 'network' in Windows explorer. Nothing weird about that. It's just NETBIOS sucks.

Map a drive letter to your server and fuhget about it

 

[Zatmando]

SweetAndLow, I'm at work currently so I don't have the info in front of me. Once I get home I'll check to see how its configured.

pirateghost, Yea I've had problems in the past the NETBIOS, and its unreliability. I have tried maping the drive and it says it can't locate the device. I have also tried to use the path for the address. \\192.168.0.199\FREENAS with no luck.

I just can't figure out why, with the old setup I could connect but on the new setup, I can't, when nothing changed other then the network setup.

 

[pirateghost]

The correct path is \\ipaddress\sharename

Is your share name configured as FREENAS?

 

[Zatmando]

The correct path is \\ipaddress\sharename

Is your share name configured as FREENAS?

yes