Failure to detect server from PC or Mac

[Frank1940]

First, are you running Windows 10 or Windows 11?

 

In either case, go to the    SHARES    tab on the GUI,  click on the    photos  sharename.  This should open up the settings page for the 'photos' share.  Scroll down to SMB settings.  Make that the following settings are as shown:

Click on 'APPLY' as required.

 

Next, let's try something new---  A replacement for Network Neighborhood.   (You are a tiny bit of guinea pig from this point forward...)

 

    1---  Open up Windows File Explorer.

    2---  In the Address Bar, type either:

                     \\ENGTRIAL                 or           \\192.168.1.66

               (Which one works will depend on which one you set up with a 'Windows Credential' in Windows Credential Manager)

    3---  You should now see a folder icon labeled  "photos".  You should be able to explore it.

 

Report back on your results. And we will go on from there with our trial...

 

EDIT:    Reboot your Windows computer before you start.  You will also have to reboot Windows if you change any settings on your Windows machine.  (Windows network settings are rather persistent and a reboot is the only easy way to guarantee that Windows is in the configuration that you think it is!)

 

Edited March 9 by Frank1940

[Frank1940]

12 hours ago, LRBP said:

Here it goes:

 

One minor item, you are exporting the share   appdata     and that share is an internal share used by Unraid.  You should not be attempting to save any data in it.  

 

The same is true of the shares   domains     isos     and   system  

 

Second minor item.  If you install (or have installed)  the   Dynamix File Manager    plugin (using the APPS tab), you can upload and download files to Shares using the GUI from your PC.  This will work even if you don't have SMB access.

[LRBP]

2 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

 

One minor item, you are exporting the share   appdata     and that share is an internal share used by Unraid.  You should not be attempting to save any data in it.  

 

The same is true of the shares   domains     isos     and   system  

 

Second minor item.  If you install (or have installed)  the   Dynamix File Manager    plugin (using the APPS tab), you can upload and download files to Shares using the GUI from your PC.  This will work even if you don't have SMB access.

Ok, took care of the first item by switching "Export" to "No" for the appdata share. Correct?

 

Regarding the second item. I do have Dynamix File Manager, but not really sure what you meant. Do you mean I don't need to have the File Explorer visibility? If so, how do I go about accessing server files from other devices in the network?

[Frank1940]

That second post were both minor items and intended more as information.   The second item was provided as a possible method for creating a directories on the server uploading a few files from your PC to the server.  (Doing so will give you a few directories and files to look when things are finally working properly.)

 

This first post is the one that you should be concerned about preforming:

9 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

First, are you running Windows 10 or Windows 11?

 

In either case, go to the    SHARES    tab on the GUI,  click on the    photos  sharename.  This should open up the settings page for the 'photos' share.  Scroll down to SMB settings.  Make that the following settings are as shown:

Click on 'APPLY' as required.

 

Next, let's try something new---  A replacement for Network Neighborhood.   (You are a tiny bit of guinea pig from this point forward...)

 

    1---  Open up Windows File Explorer.

    2---  In the Address Bar, type either:

                     \\ENGTRIAL                 or           \\192.168.1.66

               (Which one works will depend on which one you set up with a 'Windows Credential' in Windows Credential Manager)

    3---  You should now see a folder icon labeled  "photos".  You should be able to explore it.

 

Report back on your results. And we will go on from there with our trial...

 

EDIT:    Reboot your Windows computer before you start.  You will also have to reboot Windows if you change any settings on your Windows machine.  (Windows network settings are rather persistent and a reboot is the only easy way to guarantee that Windows is in the configuration that you think it is!)

 

 

Once you report back on what you find as you go through these procedures, I will have some thoughts about where we go from here.  It is especially important that there is a SMB user listed and that you have turned on read/write privileges for that user.  (You should also have already set up a Windows Credential for that user on your Windows PC!) 

 

 

 

Edited March 9 by Frank1940

[LRBP]

8 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

Once you report back on what you find as you go through these procedures, I will have some thoughts about where we go from here.  It is especially important that there is a SMB user listed and that you have turned on read/write privileges for that user.  (You should also have already set up a Windows Credential for that user on your Windows PC!) 

 

 

 

Reporting back:

 

I used the IP address in the file explorer address bar (as you suggested) and I was able to get to the photo file. Once I try to open it, it asks for the user and password. So, I guess we are getting somewhere now!!! I'm excited. Looking forward to the next suggestions.

[Frank1940]

First thing, In that PDF file,  "Unraid & Windows 10 SMB Setup.PDF"**, read the section on "Setting Up the Unraid Server and the Windows 10 Client" and use the instructions in Case1, "Case 1– Setting up Unraid and Windows 10 without Using Insecure Guest Access" and use those instructions to set up both your server and Windows PC client.

 

You will have to reboot the Windows client when you are finished to test that it works. That should allow Windows and Unraid to handshake and log you into the Unraid server automatically the first time you access the server after each client reboot.  (This operation will be completely transparent to you!) 

 

When this is working, the next issue to be addressed will be to integrate it into Windows File Manager.   I have some thoughts on how to do that.  But let's get this step working first...

==========================================================

 

**  Link in this post:

        https://forums.unraid.net/topic/155588-failure-to-detect-server-from-pc-or-mac/#comment-1378295

 

I would suggest actually printing out the file so you have a paper copy in front of you as you perform each step.

 

 

[LRBP]

On 3/10/2024 at 7:03 AM, Frank1940 said:

First thing, In that PDF file,  "Unraid & Windows 10 SMB Setup.PDF"**, read the section on "Setting Up the Unraid Server and the Windows 10 Client" and use the instructions in Case1, "Case 1– Setting up Unraid and Windows 10 without Using Insecure Guest Access" and use those instructions to set up both your server and Windows PC client.

 

You will have to reboot the Windows client when you are finished to test that it works. That should allow Windows and Unraid to handshake and log you into the Unraid server automatically the first time you access the server after each client reboot.  (This operation will be completely transparent to you!) 

 

When this is working, the next issue to be addressed will be to integrate it into Windows File Manager.   I have some thoughts on how to do that.  But let's get this step working first...

==========================================================

 

**  Link in this post:

        https://forums.unraid.net/topic/155588-failure-to-detect-server-from-pc-or-mac/#comment-1378295

 

I would suggest actually printing out the file so you have a paper copy in front of you as you perform each step.

 

 

 

Most of the directions suggested by the PDFs were previously done. Nonetheless, the major difference is that now I find a link to the server (not it's name, but IP address) under "This PC" on the  extreme left column when I open Windows File Explorer.  The "handshake" you mentioned is not happening as I need to manually sign into Unraid everytime, but it seems like we are making strides!!

Edited March 11 by LRBP

[Frank1940]

1 hour ago, LRBP said:

The "handshake" you mentioned is not happening as I need to manually sign into Unraid everytime, but it seems like we are making strides!!

Let's work on this.   Below is a section of a page (pg14) in that PDF file.  Read and note that I marked that you should try the IP address for the server name.  It might require \\ in front of it.  (I am having a bit of difficulty here as there are millions of Windows clients worldwide that use Windows credential manager to log into servers.  Make sure that the passwords are identical on both the server and client.  You typing blind on the Windows side so try to use cut-and-paste.)

 

Make sure that you have only one Windows Credential that points to your server.  And remember that you have to reboot the Windows client every time you make a change to the SMB on Windows. 

 

NOTE:  I also found this Windows command to close all connections to other computers (You can use it rather than rebooting):

net use * /delete

 

You run it from a Windows terminal which you can find by searching for "command prompt".    By the way, leave that terminal open.  The if you push the <UP-ARROW> key, the previous command will be reloaded and a push of the <ENTER> key will involve it. 

 

 

 

[LRBP]

8 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

Let's work on this.   Below is a section of a page (pg14) in that PDF file.  Read and note that I marked that you should try the IP address for the server name.  It might require \\ in front of it.  (I am having a bit of difficulty here as there are millions of Windows clients worldwide that use Windows credential manager to log into servers.  Make sure that the passwords are identical on both the server and client.  You typing blind on the Windows side so try to use cut-and-paste.)

 

Make sure that you have only one Windows Credential that points to your server.  And remember that you have to reboot the Windows client every time you make a change to the SMB on Windows. 

 

NOTE:  I also found this Windows command to close all connections to other computers (You can use it rather than rebooting):

net use * /delete

 

You run it from a Windows terminal which you can find by searching for "command prompt".    By the way, leave that terminal open.  The if you push the <UP-ARROW> key, the previous command will be reloaded and a push of the <ENTER> key will involve it. 

 

 

 

 

 

Did it already, as per your instructions, but no "handshake"

[Frank1940]

And yet when you are prompted for a user name and password, you use the same ones as you entered into the Credential Manager?

 

Try the 'net use' command and open up the server again.

 

I looked again at your Diagnostic file.  It appears that you have the security on your exported shares set to 'Public'.  Try setting all of them to 'Private'.  (You will have to give 'smbuser' read-write access after you make this change.) 

 

It might be a good idea to post up a new set of diagnostics generated at the time you make your tests so that we know what the settings were. 

Edited March 12 by Frank1940

[LRBP]

11 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

And yet when you are prompted for a user name and password, you use the same ones as you entered into the Credential Manager?

No, I use the original password used when I setup the server.

 

Try the 'net use' command and open up the server again.

Hmmm, I'm afraid you got me there. Is that a Windows command?

 

I looked again at your Diagnostic file.  It appears that you have the security on your exported shares set to 'Public'.  Try setting all of them to 'Private'.  (You will have to give 'smbuser' read-write access after you make this change.) 

You might be looking at an older Diagnostic file. I do know at one time I had them set to Public, but as per your instructions they were changed and then, appdata in particular, was changed altogether not to be exported.

 

11 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

It might be a good idea to post up a new set of diagnostics generated at the time you make your tests so that we know what the settings were. 

I can generate a new Diagnostic file, just let me know when you'd like it, as there doesn't seem to be a new test for me to run.

 

[JonathanM]

18 minutes ago, LRBP said:

No, I use the original password used when I setup the server.

Do you mean the user you set up to access the shares?

Does the user you are trying to log in have permissions to access that share?

[Frank1940]

1 hour ago, LRBP said:

13 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

It might be a good idea to post up a new set of diagnostics generated at the time you make your tests so that we know what the settings were. 

I can generate a new Diagnostic file, just let me know when you'd like it, as there doesn't seem to be a new test for me to run.

 

 

Now is a good time as any.  Remember to post it up in a new post in this thread so we know that you have done it and can easily find it. 

[Frank1940]

On 3/11/2024 at 2:22 PM, LRBP said:

The "handshake" you mentioned is not happening as I need to manually sign into Unraid everytime, but it seems like we are making strides!!

When presented with this manual login box, look for a check box where Windows offers to save the credentials.  Check it...

[LRBP]

19 hours ago, JonathanM said:

Do you mean the user you set up to access the shares?

 

No I mean "root" and then the password (as the original setup called for)

 

 

19 hours ago, JonathanM said:

Does the user you are trying to log in have permissions to access that share?

 

Yes, both users and now a third (with the inclusion of "smbuser") have permission to access and Read/Write the share.

 

[LRBP]

7 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

When presented with this manual login box, look for a check box where Windows offers to save the credentials.  Check it...

The login I'm referring to, does not have a check box (see below): 

 

 

[JonathanM]

5 minutes ago, LRBP said:

No I mean "root" and then the password (as the original setup called for)

root is specifically not allowed to access SMB shares. The only place root is used is the GUI or SSH to manage the server. If you enter root when trying to connect to the shares it will lock you out.

[JonathanM]

Just now, LRBP said:

The login I'm referring to, does not have a check box (see below): 

Frank was referring to the credential box that pops up when you connect to the share in windows.

[LRBP]

The following is the latest Diagnostics file:

 

Unconfirmed 385421.zip

[Frank1940]

@LRBP, I look at your diagnostics and I didn't see any reason why things are not working as they should. 

 

Only thing that I noticed is that you have two different users assigned to each of your two shares on this server as shown below:

(The Anonymizer does conceal the actual share names and Share Access user names!)    The point that I am trying to convoy is that you can only access one of these shares at a time as your Windows client computer will allow on one of these Share Access users to log into your server at a time.  So as soon as you login using one Share Access user to one share (say, T....g), attempting to access  the other share (In this case, p---s), you will get an error message.  There is no provision in Windows to logout of a server.  (Expect that command line command which I don't really consider a part of normal Windows...) 

 

I am not saying that what you are doing is wrong.  In fact in real situations, you often want to do exactly that--- Restricting what Shares each client computer is allowed to access!  But in a testing situation,  it is very restrictive in what types of tests you can perform.  Just be aware of the situation as you test. 

 

One more point of information.  Because we are dealing with Samba on the Unraid side and SMB on the Windows (with the error message being generated by Windows), when there is a failure to successfully complete a file sharing operation, An error code is generated by the the error message by one, or both processes, and sent to the other one.  The other then tries to figure out what went wrong to generate an English language version of the error code.   In our case, this is Windows and it does not have table of what codes Samba sends so that it can do this.  It typically makes a wild stab at the answer.  That result is usually meaningless and provides with us with little insight as to what is the problem truly is.  (Like asking your dog what is wrong when they have a problem.) 

 

Often solving these problems is a case of trying different approaches until we find one that works-- testing various combination of parameters one at a time until a set that works.  

 

Personal observation:  I have setup six different Windows computers on my home network and two Unraid servers (the last one--  a brand new Windows 11 computer fresh-out-of-the-box  --over this past New Years weekend) using the method in the PDF file and never had a bit of problem outside of cockpit error.  To add to the complexity, the six Windows machine are setup to be peer-to-peer client/servers.  This portion is what required the Network Neighborhood approach.  If you have only a single Unraid server on your network, I think I have another approach to integrating your server into Windows File Explorer which will get around a potential problem with Network Neighborhood solution in Windows 11.

 

One thing that seems to becoming a factor is that the Windows Network Profile type must be set to 'Private'!  Apparently, MS has made some 'tweaks' to their default settings for the 'Public' type which is giving problems with connecting to servers.   (I don't know what the default is for Wired LANs but I would suspect that it is 'Public' for Wireless connections.)

 

[LRBP]

 

11 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

If you have only a single Unraid server on your network, I think I have another approach to integrating your server into Windows File Explorer which will get around a potential problem with Network Neighborhood solution in Windows 11.

 

I'm looking forward to your suggestion. I do only have one Unraid server, one Windows 11 client and another Mac client.

 

 

Edited March 14 by LRBP

[Frank1940]

3 hours ago, LRBP said:

I'm looking forward to your suggestion. I do only have one Unraid server, one Windows 11 client and another Mac client.

 

This will work for Windows 11.  (No explerience with Mac...)

 

1---  Right-click on a blank area of Desktop.  New   >>>   Shortcut

 

2--  On the next screen, type      \\server-name     or   \\IP-Address      Click Next.  (Obviously, you would not use "server-name" but the actual name of your server!)

 

3--  On this screen, you can either accept the proposed name for this Shortcut or change it to one that you would prefer.  Click Finish.

 

4-- Test by double clicking on the new Shortcut and it should open Windows File Explorer.  (You  might have to login first...)

 

 In the next step, you will add it to Windows File Explorer:

 

1-- Right click on your new shortcut.  Click on "Pin to Quick Access." 

 

You can find it here in Windows File Manager:

 

 

Your done with adding it to Windows File Manager.  However, you can edit the shortcut-- change its icon, name,  or a number of other things --by right-clicking on it and selecting Properties.

Edited March 14 by Frank1940

[LRBP]

10 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

 

This will work for Windows 11.  (No explerience with Mac...)

 

1---  Right-click on a blank area of Desktop.  New   >>>   Shortcut

 

2--  On the next screen, type      \\server-name     or   \\IP-Address      Click Next.  (Obviously, you would not use "server-name" but the actual name of your server!)

 

3--  On this screen, you can either accept the proposed name for this Shortcut or change it to one that you would prefer.  Click Finish.

 

4-- Test by double clicking on the new Shortcut and it should open Windows File Explorer.  (You  might have to login first...)

 

 In the next step, you will add it to Windows File Explorer:

 

1-- Right click on your new shortcut.  Click on "Pin to Quick Access." 

 

You can find it here in Windows File Manager:

 

 

Your done with adding it to Windows File Manager.  However, you can edit the shortcut-- change its icon, name,  or a number of other things --by right-clicking on it and selecting Properties.

 

That worked. I'm still wondering why it doesn't show under "Network" in Windows File Explorer after everything we've done, but hey, beggars can't be choosers, right? Frank, thank you so much for both, your help and patience. You got me to a workable spot with the server, THANKS!

 

I have an unrelated question for you. During this whole process, I also consulted with a friend who has more experience than I do with servers in general. He created a "Testing" share. I will like to delete that share. How do I delete shares?

[itimpi]

Just now, LRBP said:

I have an unrelated question for you. During this whole process, I also consulted with a friend who has more experience than I do with servers in general. He created a "Testing" share. I will like to delete that share. How do I delete shares?

If a share has no contents then it can be deleted from the Shares tab.    You can use Dynamix File Manager to delete any contents if needed.

[Frank1940]

16 minutes ago, itimpi said:

17 minutes ago, LRBP said:

I have an unrelated question for you. During this whole process, I also consulted with a friend who has more experience than I do with servers in general. He created a "Testing" share. I will like to delete that share. How do I delete shares?

If a share has no contents then it can be deleted from the Shares tab.    You can use Dynamix File Manager to delete any contents if needed.

 

You don't have to delete a Testing share that you create.  You can just turn off both the SMB and NFS export of the share.  Once you stop exporting it, you can't see it from any client computer.  The advantage to not deleting it is that is there should you want to do further/additional testing in the future.  (My Backup server has two or three of these 'test' shares that were created to test various different networking ideas.  I just stop exporting in case I ever need to use them again.)  The choice is yours-- delete or stop exporting. 

Edited March 14 by Frank1940