Cant seem to connect to smb shares.

[Muji]

Cant seem to figure out why I cant connect to a simple windows share. Fresh install and was able to connect to the GUI fine and set up an array fine. I try to make a simple share called storage with default settings and public security. I can see TOWER in my network when smb is enabled. When I try to open, I get a failure popup. It says "\\TOWER is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have permissions. This user can't sign in because this account is currently disabled". This error message also pops up before any credentials can be entered. Also tried making user account with same name as my windows account. Also made sure, inside computer management, that my user wasn't disabled. I was even able to manage installing jellyfin and remotely accessing it, but without setting up media. Not really sure what else I can try. I've never seen this type of error with account being disabled, and I'm switching over from truenas and dealing with ACL. My server knowledge is limited to what tutorials I can find to help install things with step by steps. If anyone has any ideas. Same error on 2 different gaming pcs.

[dlandon]

Post your diagnostics zip file.

[Muji]

tower-diagnostics-20221126-2238.zip

[Muji]

Still cannot find a way to get past that error. After many hours of trying, I took a spare drive and installed Ubuntu and connected to the share fine. Both windows 10 gaming machines will not connect. Same error of account is disabled. No clue what else to try, feels like im going to be forced back to truenas since its not compatible with my machines.

[Frank1940]

Have you set up a Windows Credential to auto log you into your Unraid server?   Windows by default will prevent access to a server using the Guest provision.  See here for how to set one up:

 

          https://forums.unraid.net/topic/110580-security-is-not-a-dirty-word-unraid-windows-10-smb-setup/#comment-1009109

 

[Muji]

I did try to make a windows credential following some post but not sure if I did it right, or it didnt effect anything. Also tryed messing with that lamen workstation settings. Turned on smb1.0 stuff in windows programs. Its always that same error of account is disabled.

[Frank1940]

58 minutes ago, Muji said:

I did try to make a windows credential following some post but not sure if I did it right

 

Not much time at the present moment.  Set up a user using the instructions (in the PDF file in the first post of that earlier link) for Case 1.

[JorgeB]

10 hours ago, Muji said:

since its not compatible with my machines.

If Ubuntu connects it suggests an issue with your Windows installs, use the Ubuntu spare drive to do a clean Windows install to test.

[Muji]

Good idea that got me a lot farther. Fresh install of windows and initially had the same problem of account disabled. When I install windows I just use a single local account named Michael. Somehow something got me to switch off my local account named Michael, that has admin privileges, to an account named Administrator. This finally let me connect to the share but I dont quite understand why. Then I tried on my normal windows install and worked as well. And not exactly sure if theres a way that I can make my local account like my admin account that would let me connect.

[JorgeB]

3 hours ago, Muji said:

but I dont quite understand why.

Me neither, any account should work, does Unraid ask for credentials or just refuses the connection?

[Frank1940]

7 hours ago, Muji said:

Good idea that got me a lot farther. Fresh install of windows and initially had the same problem of account disabled. When I install windows I just use a single local account named Michael. Somehow something got me to switch off my local account named Michael, that has admin privileges, to an account named Administrator. This finally let me connect to the share but I dont quite understand why. Then I tried on my normal windows install and worked as well. And not exactly sure if theres a way that I can make my local account like my admin account that would let me connect.

 

Question.  Did you use the same password for the 'Michael' account on both the PC and the server?   See here for what happens behind the scenes---

 

         https://forums.unraid.net/topic/25064-user-share-problem/?tab=comments#comment-228392

 

Many people would think that passwords should not be reused (for security reasons) but I think in this case it may well be necessary...

 

Also try adding this login info for your Local Account in Windows Credentials.   If this works, remember that you can't change the password on your Local Account without changing the password on the Unraid server side.   (That is the reason why I think it is a bad idea to use the Local Account login credentials for server access with Unraid because only the Unraid Administrator (root) can do that on the server-- not a normal user which is normally the case.)

Edited November 29, 2022 by Frank1940

[Muji]

Does having no passwords mess things up? Seems like it works correctly now, but seemed like I had to use a password where normally I dont. Thanks for all the help.

[Frank1940]

Windows 10 and Windows 11 SMB have a setting which prevents a Windows client from connecting to a server using a insecure 'Guest' (no password) SMB account.   It has been turned "on" in recent updates for security reasons.    (It started out as the default in Enterprise and Education but  it seems to have been extended to Pro and Home recently.)  Yes, it could be turn off but it is much simpler to embrace some security than fighting MS to remain insecure.  

 

While MS's idea was to protect the client (a Windows 10 PC) from accessing a rouge server, you should also be considering your Unraid server.  I would strongly recommend setting all of your shares to "Private"!  Then setup users and passwords for those persons/groups who have a reason to access the shares.  If you still have some old device from before (say) 2010 that can only use SMBv1, then use the "Secure" setting to provide read-only access.  

 

Remember, virtually everyone who enters your home (or passes by on the street or sidewalk) has a device in their procession that can access your server via WiFi.  My security friends tell me is a simple task to hack most WiFi passwords these days.  Don't serve up the files on your server on a platter by allowing 'Guest' connections to it unless you can't avoid it.

Edited December 2, 2022 by Frank1940

[brisa117]

Chiming in here in case anyone else has this issue, I found a solution that seems to work in at least my scenario. It seems that my issue was Windows side (surprise!) and that Windows was likely using some kind of cached credentials to connect to the network share.

 

What I needed to do was go into command prompt (as admin, else I got an error) and use the following code:

 

net stop workstation /y

 

followed by:

 

net start workstation

 

This allowed me to enter my credentials and connect to my otherwise inaccessible network share.

 

I hope this helps some lost soul in the future.

[itimpi]

3 hours ago, brisa117 said:

and that Windows was likely using some kind of cached credentials to connect to the network share.

This is not atypical, and the error messages from Windows can be misleading.   You can also use Windows Credentials Manager to examine and/or change any cached credentials.

[Frank1940]

Use the Windows Credential manager to setup a credential for your client computer to a valid Unraid 'Share Access' user on your Unraid sever and you should avoid this problem entirely.  (Windows allows one-and-only-one login from the client to a server.  If you establish a Guest connection to any user server, any attempt to log on with a valid user name and password to that server will always fail!)

Edited January 9 by Frank1940