Intermittent access to NAS from PC via hostname, IP works

[Norlig]

Hi,

I am running "FreeNAS-9.2.1.6-RELEASE-x64 (ddd1e39)" and am having some issues from my gaming PC where I have my cifs share mapped up as a network drive.

I have it mapped us as \\freenas-hostname\sharename , but I am unable to connect to it when my PC starts up.
If I browse to \\freenas-hostname\ I can see the share, but not access it.

If I browse to \\Freenas-IPaddress\sharename then I can browse it and access the files, but getting windows prompts that files might not be safe if I try to move or copy anything.

Suddenly the \\freenas-hostname\sharename will work from the get go, other times it works after a while.

On one of my other PC's that runs 24/7 I can access \\freenas-hostname\sharename all the time, even though I have issues with my gaming pc, it uses the same access account.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

[anodos]

Welcome to the joys of NetBIOS name resolution. I'd try the following:
1) make sure freenas is master browser
2) if it is, try adding following auxiliary parameter to cifs config
"os level = 65"
3) if that doesn't work then add proper entries in you DNS for your freenas server (may move this to step zero)
4) if you don't have local dns, then create entry for freenas in client's hosts file.

 

[Ericloewe]

I believe @DrKK has a DNS tutorial that might be of interest. Beats messing around with NetBIOS.

My NetBIOS discovery hasn't worked in many months, across Windows versions, FreeNAS versions and network hardware. Name resolution works fine, though.