I recently upgraded from v4.7 to v5-rc8a and I have noticed that my unraid server does not always show up in the Network Explorer (Windows Explorer Network section) on my Win7 boxes.  In the past, when the unraid server did not appear in the Network Explorer, I could just hit "refresh" and it would show up. However, now most times it will not show up, but then maybe an hour or so later it will be there...very strange. Now when it is not showing up in Network Explorer I know that I have network connectivity to it, because:

• I can telnet to it
  
• Access the Web GUI
  
• Mounted Shares have full access
  
• I can type in the path manually into Network Explorer and access the server
  

 

So it is not really an issue...more of an annoyance. I'm not sure how windows decides to add a server to the network map. I'm guessing that unraid is not responding to some network query that windows is making.

 

 

Under Settings, SMB, try setting 'Local Master' to "Yes". 

 

EDIT:  By the way, this has always been an issue with Windows.  If you have several Windows computers on a peer-to-peer Network, there will often be problems with a newly initialized computer not appearing on the network for a several minutes.  I have never found an explanation for why or how to fix it. 

It has 100% to do with the way the local master is decided. It is an election between all devices in your network deciding on the master based on different factors. The main factors are uptime and protocol. Smb servers tend to win the election.

 

My guess is your server use to be the master, when you upgraded it reset the clock and another pc became master. But the other pc doesn't have a full list of clients.

 

The biggest issue here is when a pc becomes master but doesn't have full access to the shares, it may not get added to the list. My sons computer had a very sporatic connection because of a faulty network card so its client list would usually be wrong(old ips, missing clients) but he never turns his pc off, whereas occasionally me or my wife would turn our laptops off.

 

This caused his pc to win the election and become master. My network never showed up right because of this. I replaced the nic (which of course meant I rebooted) and haven't had an issue since.