Windows 7 and problem with samba shares

[flyingflatfour]

Good evening,


I've been trying for a week to get a Windows 7 Home Premium equipped laptop to be able to access samba shares on my home network.

The network is setup as follows:

1) "master" modem/router connected to Internet (192.168.1.1)
2) "slave" router connected to master router (192.168.2.1)
3) NAS physically connected to slave router via Gigabit LAN / static IP address 192.168.2.2
4) Laptop n°1 running WXP (192.168.2.10) and Laptop n°2 running W7 (192.168.2.7) connected to slave router via WLAN and DHCP using "reserved IP address by MAC address" feature of the router (802.11g with WPA/WPA2)


The problem is that the Windows 7 machine won't see either of the NAS or WXP machine shares.

The WXP machine can see and access the W7 machine shares.


The W7 machine is setup as follows:

- windows firewall OFF
- network connection configured as a Home/Work network, HomeGroup feature not used
- no domain, workgroup named WORKGROUP, same as WXP and NAS.
- in advanced network settings, file and printer sharing enabled, network discovery enabled, public folders enabled
- Server service running.

In the File Explorer in the Network folder the W7 machine sees itself as well as DLNA/UPnP devices (Twonky Media Server running on NAS, the NAS itself (but not it's shares), the slave router), but no SMB shares.

The NAS user accounts is configured with a user account using the same credentials as the W7 administrator account.

Using the NAS finder program (QNAP finder) sees the NAS on the network but cannot map a drive or see the shares. Error message saying that the server cannot be found on the network. Trying to map a share as a drive in File Explorer doesn't work, even when using NAS IP address or name.

However, access to NAS' web interface works OK by HTTP...


After having tried to find a solution on QNAP's forums, I'm now turning to you hoping that you can help me out

Thanks in advance.

 

[chev65]

Good evening,


I've been trying for a week to get a Windows 7 Home Premium equipped laptop to be able to access samba shares on my home network.

The network is setup as follows:

1) "master" modem/router connected to Internet (192.168.1.1)
2) "slave" router connected to master router (192.168.2.1)
3) NAS physically connected to slave router via Gigabit LAN / static IP address 192.168.2.2
4) Laptop n°1 running WXP (192.168.2.10) and Laptop n°2 running W7 (192.168.2.7) connected to slave router via WLAN and DHCP using "reserved IP address by MAC address" feature of the router (802.11g with WPA/WPA2)


The problem is that the Windows 7 machine won't see either of the NAS or WXP machine shares.

The WXP machine can see and access the W7 machine shares.


The W7 machine is setup as follows:

- windows firewall OFF
- network connection configured as a Home/Work network, HomeGroup feature not used
- no domain, workgroup named WORKGROUP, same as WXP ans NAS.
- in advanced network settings, file and printer sharing enabled, network discovery enabled, public folders enabled
- Server service running.

In the File Explorer in the Network folder the W7 machine sees itself as well as DLNA/UPnP devices (Twonky Media Server running on NAS, the NAS itself (but not it's shares), the slave router), but no SMB shares.

The NAS user accounts is configured with a user account using the same credentials as the W7 administrator account.

Using the NAS finder program (QNAP finder) sees the NAS on the network but cannot map a drive or see the shares. Error message saying that the server cannot be found on the network. Trying to map a share as a drive in File Explorer doesn't work, even when using NAS IP address or name.

However, access to NAS' web interface works OK by HTTP...


After having tried to find a solution on QNAP's forums, I'm now turning to you hoping that you can help me out

Thanks in advance.

For Home Premium you don't have the local security policy in order to adjust the LM and NTLM authentication levels so you will need to do that in the registry.

If the key doesn't exist you need to create it. Back up the registry first just in case.

There needs to be a DWORD named LmCompatibilityLevel set to value of 2 " at
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa

So open regedit and navigate to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa then choose to create DWORD named LmCompatibilityLevel then set the value to 2 although value 1 may work.

Also according to the Samba site you may need to make another adjustment. I'm not entirely sure if this pertains to Windows 7 Home Premium or not.

Windows 7 Registry settings
There are currently two registry settings required to be added on the Windows 7 client prior to joining a Samba Domain. These are:
HKLM\System\CCS\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters DWORD DomainCompatibilityMode = 1 DWORD DNSNameResolutionRequired = 0More about the Samba share and there is an update. http://wiki.samba.org/index.php/Windows7

This link explains what the different values do.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc960646.aspx

One of the LM values should allow you to connect to those Samba shares and this is about all I can find on this.

 

[flyingflatfour]

Hi,

Thanks for replying. Before I try this, are you sure that this applies to my case since I'm reading that this is to be able to join a Samba domain, whereas I have no domain, just a regular Microsoft Networking Workgroup.

My usage of the term "samba" comes from reading about the QNAP NAS: this is how they call Microsoft Networking service. I'm not quite sure of what is the difference between the two.

Thanks!

 

[flyingflatfour]

From what I understand Samba is a freeware SMB server, and that's what QNAP is running in their firmware.

Apparently only poeple who can see the shares but have sluggish file explorer behaviours do those registry hacks...

BTW, it doesn't explain why I cannot see the native WXP SMB shares whereas the WXP can see and access the W7 SMB shares?

I'll try them nevertheless, and perhaps look into NOD32 see if it's blocking anything?

Thanks again,


André

 

[Khestra]

Try changing these settings in Control Panel>Administrator Tools>Local Security Policy:

* Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security
Microsoft network client: Digitally sign communications (always): Disabled

* Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security
Network security: LAN Manager authentication level: Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated

Restart the system after making changes.

 

[chev65]

Try changing these settings in Control Panel>Administrator Tools>Local Security Policy:

* Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security
Microsoft network client: Digitally sign communications (always): Disabled

* Computer Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local Policies\Security
Network security: LAN Manager authentication level: Send LM & NTLM - use NTLMv2 session security if negotiated

Restart the system after making changes.

That would be impossible on his system because he is using Windows 7 Home Premium which does not have the Local Security Policy. This is why I posted adjustments that are required in the registry.

 

[flyingflatfour]

Ok I'll try these settings soon and let you know

I also think I'm going to upgrade her computer to Windows 8 Pro in the next weeks, don't know if the problem will be the same but I guess it will.

Cheers

 

[flyingflatfour]

Good evening,

I actually opted for directly installing Windows 8 Pro on her computer which turned out to be a good decision since everything is now working fine Sorry for those who were expecting a solution for Windows 7, but I guess following the advice given above would have solved your issue.

Thanks everyone.

 

[chev65]

Good evening,

I actually opted for directly installing Windows 8 Pro on her computer which turned out to be a good decision since everything is now working fine Sorry for those who were expecting a solution for Windows 7, but I guess following the advice given above would have solved your issue.

Thanks everyone.

Yes I've been using Windows 8 for months now. With Windows 8 Pro you will have access to the Local Security Policy so you can adjust those settings without having to mess with the registry.

The registry adjustments I posted for Windows 7 Home Premium have been proven to work so other's may find this thread useful.

Most likely the problem was that the Win 7 machine was just hosed with the usual missing files or virus's and other typical long term usage problems. The machine probably would have failed the sfc/scannow file check test as well.