FreeNAS box not displaying when network browsing

[ghostlobster]

OK, first, thank a bunch to paleoN for helping me get things back on their feet over here from a data perspective. I've now got my FreeNAS 8.3 x64 RC1 box up and working great. Now, there are a few little annoyances that I need to hammer out here. The first is the fact that when browsing the network from any Windows 7 box here at home, the FreeNAS box does not show up. I can get to it by typing \\freenas, but it's not visible when you select Network within the explorer. Now, to most of us on the forums, that's no big deal...we just go ahead and get to it by entering the server name or IP address. However, to the wife, it's horrible. She's used to selecting network and seeing it there. I've mapped network drives for her to the frequently used shares as a stopgap, but I need to get this showing up in the network browser.

I have my FreeNAS box set to DHCP, using my router as the DNS. The network settings are all using the same DNS and default gateway as the rest of the systems on my network. All Win7 boxes can see one another. Additionally, my MiniDLNA server on my FreeNAS box shows up in WMP perfectly and works great on all Win7 boxes here, so I think that the network settings are all good. I've got to just be missing something in CIFS.

Here are the CIFS settings:
Authtication Model: Local User
NetBIOS Name: FREENAS
Workgroup: GHOSTLOBSTER (the exact same as all of the PCs on the network)
DOS Charset: CP850
Unix Charset: UTF8
Log Level: Minimum
Local Master: (checked)
Time Server for Domain: (checked)
Guest Account: ray (user in the wheel group. It's not facing the outside world at all)
File Mask: (Blank...it was the default, so it sets it to 0666 I believe)
Directory Mask: (Blank)
Large RW Support: (Unchecked)
EA Support: (Unchecked)
Support DOS Attributes: (unchecked)
Allow Empty Passwords: (Checked)
No Aux parameters. Nothing else checked until Unix Extensions, which is checked.
Enable AIO: (Unchecked)
Zero Conf Share Discovery: (checked)
Hostname Lookups: (Checked)

Here is an example of one of my CIFS share settings:
Name: data
Comment: (blank)
Path: /mnt/RAID/data
Export Read Only: (Unchecked)
Browsable to Network Clients: Checked
Inherit Owner: (Unchecked)
Inherit Permissions: (Unchecked)
Export Recycle Bin: (unchecked)
Show Hidden Files: (Unchecked)
Allow Guest Access: (Checked)
Only Allow Guest Access: (unchecked)

Any ideas? Thanks!

 

[ghostlobster]

Wow...Hello weirdness! FREENAS is now showing up in my network browser. I swear, this is all I did, and it suddenly started working:

• Stopped CIFS
• Went into the CIFS service settings.
• Changed Authentication Model to Anonymous
• Started CIFS.
• Tried to get to one of the mapped drives, it failed throwing an authentication error...understandable as the auth settings don't match anymore. FreeNAS was not yet visible in thje network browser.
• Stopped CIFS
• Changed the Authentication model back to Local User
• Started CIFS.
• There it was...right in the network browser! A machine called FREENAS.

OK...must have a beer to celebrate this bit of weirdness.

 

[Stephens]

When you make changes to the CIFS settings, make sure to stop the service and restart it as the changes aren't reflected immediately.

 

[marcevan]

Since 9.3.1 I cannot find the freenas name in my Windows Network lists.. Was always in the 'Computers' section.

 

[Ericloewe]

Since 9.3.1 I cannot find the freenas name in my Windows Network lists.. Was always in the 'Computers' section.

NetBIOS. Not much you can do, so you'll have to live with it and just type \\servername or \\serverip whenever you need to access the server.

 

[marcevan]

Yep.. it's just that pre-9.3 it was consistently showing.

 

[Scharbag]

NetBIOS. Not much you can do, so you'll have to live with it and just type \\servername or \\serverip whenever you need to access the server.

I know this is a bit old, but is there any progress on this NetBIOS thing?

 

[Ericloewe]

I know this is a bit old, but is there any progress on this NetBIOS thing?

Not really. NetBIOS discovery is still hit and miss.

 

[Scharbag]

Ight. Gunna try what Jailer said in this thread: https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...sibility-in-windows-network-menu.22986/page-2

Good times.

 

[Scharbag]

And still does not show up...

 

[anodos]

And still does not show up...

A few thoughts:

• It can sometimes take 10-15 minutes for netbios dust to settle / master browser elections.
• Check /var/log/samba4/log.nmbd for error logs.
• Verify that all computers are in same workgroup and subnet.
• Verify that you don't have other samba servers on your network configured to be master browser.
• For troubleshooting purposes disable windows firewall.
• Try increasing OS level. Maximum value is 255. Jailer's example was 65. Maybe up it to 128.
• NetBIOS really sucks. I personally don't bother with it.
• Worst case scenario, just manually edit the lmhosts file on your workstations. It is typically located under %systemroot%\System32\Drivers\Etc

You can read up more on NetBIOS here: http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...orkstation/reskit/en-us/rktcp03.mspx?mfr=true

 

[Jailer]

Not really. NetBIOS discovery is still hit and miss.

Yup. Mine shows up consistently on my desktop in the network section and never on my laptop.

 

[ChiknNutz]

Same here. I just found out about this as I had so far only accessed the FreeNAS box from my desktop. I went to try it all out on the laptop and it's not found, though I can of course access the WebGUI via the IP address. At least I can access the shares via \\[servername] but it refuses to show up otherwise.