Cannot Access Network Drive Via Samba

[HapaxLegomenon]

Hello,

Thanks to the excellent advice I received on the SNB Forums, I purchased an RT-AC66U_B1 and have been very happy with it. I received it two days ago and the first thing I did was flash the latest Merlin release. Currently I'm trying to set up network drive access via Samba, and I'm running into a strange issue where the router is detectable by Windows, but cannot be accessed. My router named "Samba" is detectable in my local network, but this is the error I get when I try to access it:

These are currently the settings of my router:

The problem remains after enabling "Allow guest login" as well as "Simpler share naming", "force as Master Browser", and "Set as WINS server". I also tried a factory reset with minimal setup but that didn't solve things. What's extremely strange is that even with "Allow guest login" enabled I could not access the "Samba" directory to see my hard drive: I'm not even prompted to enter my login credentials. It just returns the same error of "Windows cannot access \\Samba".

This doesn't change when I enter my router's IP address directly into Windows Explorer, when I map my router + hard drive as a network drive, or when I add my router as a network location.

After diagnosing the error with Windows, I am returned with "The device or resource is not set up to accept connections on port "The File and printer sharing (SMB)" which is leading me to think that this may be a Windows issue or perhaps a firewall issue. However, my network is set to private and file sharing is enabled. I also used to be able to map a network drive via SMB using my old router, and everything worked fine: I was prompted to enter my credentials and it was smooth sailing from there on out.

I'm honestly stumped at what should be an extremely simple thing to set up without hiccups. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[ColinTaylor]

Same problem reported here.

This should be really straight forward so perhaps it's a bug. It's almost as if the Samba name server isn't running. Can you SSH into router and post the output of these commands please:

netstat -nlp
ps w | grep -E "smbd|nmbd|wsdd2"

It shouldn't be necessary but if you're running Windows 10 try turning on SMB v1 client support in the "Windows Features".

Also bear in mind that when you change the Samba Device Name you are changing the name of the entire router, i.e. its host name.

 

[bbunge]

Hello,

Thanks to the excellent advice I received on the SNB Forums, I purchased an RT-AC66U_B1 and have been very happy with it. I received it two days ago and the first thing I did was flash the latest Merlin release. Currently I'm trying to set up network drive access via Samba, and I'm running into a strange issue where the router is detectable by Windows, but cannot be accessed. My router named "Samba" is detectable in my local network, but his is the error I get when I try to access it:

View attachment 23544


These are currently the settings of my router:

View attachment 23545

The problem remains after enabling "Allow guest login" as well as "Simpler share naming", "force as Master Browser", and "Set as WINS server". I also tried a factory reset with minimal setup but that didn't solve things. What's extremely strange is that even with "Allow guest login" enabled I could not access the "Samba" directory to see my hard drive: I'm not even prompted to enter my login credentials. It just returns the same error of "Windows cannot access \\Samba".

This doesn't change when I enter my router's IP address directly into Windows Explorer, when I map my router + hard drive as a network drive, or when I add my router as a network location.

After diagnosing the error with Windows, I am returned with "The device or resource is not set up to accept connections on port "The File and printer sharing (SMB)" which is leading me to think that this may be a Windows issue or perhaps a firewall issue. However, my network is set to private and fire sharing is enabled. I also used to be able to map a network drive via SMB using my old router, and everything worked fine: I was prompted to enter my credentials and it was smooth sailing from there on out.

I'm honestly stumped at what should be an extremely simple thing to set up without hiccups. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

Did you create a folder on your USB drive? Can you see the router in Windows Explorer if you use the IP address? IE: \\192.168.50.1
Also recommend setting the USB3 port to USB2 operation.

 

[HapaxLegomenon]

Same problem reported here.

Can you SSH into router and post the output of these commands please:

netstat -nlp
ps w | grep -E "smbd|nmbd|wsdd2"

Certainly, I've attached the output files.

I'm indeed running Windows 10 and SMB v1 client support was already enabled.

Thanks for the prompt reply!

(Edit: the post was too messy so I've attached the outputs as files instead; apologies for the prior huge wall of text)

 

[HapaxLegomenon]

Did you create a folder on your USB drive? Can you see the router in Windows Explorer if you use the IP address? IE: \\192.168.50.1
Also recommend setting the USB3 port to USB2 operation.

Yup, there were many folders created on the external hard drive already. When trying to access the router via its IP address in Windows Explorer, I'm returned with the same error message. I've also set the USB3 port to USB2 operation with no change.

 

[HapaxLegomenon]

Peculiar update: I tried to access the router using my work laptop, and after around 15 times of various time periods/sleep-wake cycles in between, I was prompted to enter my username and password and am able to successfully access the files on my external hard drive through my router. I changed no settings on my work laptop and was trying to access the router throughout the day. The only thing that changed was that my work laptop went to sleep and woke up several times, leading me to believe that this might be an IP address issue.

With my work and personal laptop right next to each other, I can access the router-attached external hard drive with the former but not the latter, despite identical Windows Features pertaining to SMB enabled in both.

 

[L&LD]

Isn't the network drive being named 'Samba' causing the issue too?

 

[HapaxLegomenon]

Isn't the network drive being named 'Samba' causing the issue too?

Just changed the name of the network drive and rebooted the router; the issue remains

 

[muffintastic]

@HapaxLegomenon

Those are my settings. I have a secure network so, allowing guest loging doesn't bother me and they work for me, also in Windows make sure this is installed;

 

[Jeffrey Young]

For what it is worth, I had this issue too when I first set up my share. I had to change the Samba protocol to just smbv1 from smbv1+smbv2. Worked after that.

My NAS is an older WD MyClould (vr 4 firmware) and only supports smbv1, so I am stuck for now with that protocol. Would love to know why windows does not cooperate with the router set to smbv1+smbv2. I have unticked the automatic removal of smbv1 and forced the smbv1 in windows to no avail. Setting the router to smbv1 was my only work around.

 

[Jeffrey Young]

Also, you can turn on the "force master browser" option on the router. That helps solve the issues of host names not resolving when a current master browser computer decides to leave your network (ie. Get turned off, goes to school or work).

 

[ColinTaylor]

Thanks for the files @HapaxLegomenon , that's helpful.

Can you make the following changes please:

1. Create a folder called "test" using the router's Samba interface (i.e. don't do it by plugging it into a PC).
2. Change the Samba Device Name to "RT-AC66U_B1"
3. Set Force as Master Browser to Yes.

Apply these changes and then reboot the router.

Once the router has come back up reboot the PC (I have found this is often necessary after making changes to Samba to persuade Windows to forget its previous session information) and try again with:

\\RT-AC66U_B1 and \\RT-AC66U_B1\test

If it still doesn't work try setting the Samba protocol to SMBv1 only as one of the other commenters said.

If it's still not working can you post the output of this command:

cat /etc/smb.conf

 

[adrenalize]

@HapaxLegomenon
Snip
Those are my settings. I have a secure network so, allowing guest loging doesn't bother me and they work for me, also in Windows make sure this is installed;

I had the same problem on an RT-AC88U a while back - I replied in the thread with the same issue as you https://www.snbforums.com/threads/rt-ax56u-cant-access-usb-drive-from-windows.64142/#post-584551
Looking at the network traffic the DNS for SMB seemed to be a bit weird but using the FQDN seemed to work.
The issue went away after I set a domain to anything other than blank in Advanced Settings > LAN > LAN IP page
Unfortunately I didn't have the time to extensively test and see if this really was the resolution or if I managed to tweak something else, but maybe worth a quick try.

 

[HapaxLegomenon]

Hi Everyone,

Thank you all for your helpful responses, and my apologies for the delayed response; things began to get hectic with work and I had to spend all of Memorial Day Weekend visiting family.

I'd like to provide some updates after toying around with my router for a bit. In short, the good news is that I finally got network drive access via Samba to work. The not so good news is that there is most likely a bug (or more) in the latest release of Merlin.

After trying pretty much every permutation of recommended settings described in this thread, and restarting both the router and my laptop every time, I found that none was the key to the issue I was experiencing (although they may still have been peripherally relevant).

In trying to solve the issue, I changed the Host Name (under LAN - LAN IP) to something other than the default. Initially, under Network in Windows Explorer, my router was discoverable via both its Host Name and Samba Device Name. I tried to access my router by double-clicking on both, to no avail: I received the same "Windows cannot access" error for both.

However, the next morning (approximately 12 hours later), I found that under my Network, the Samba Device Name had disappeared and only the Host Name was visible. I double-clicked the Host Name and lo and behold, I was able to access my network drive.

• Herein lies potential bug #1: It should not be the case that I am to access my network drive via the LAN Host Name instead of the Samba Device Name. Additionally, it should not be the case that Samba Device Name fails to show up under the Network section in Windows 10 when Samba Share is enabled. Both are contrary to what occurs when using stock ASUS firmware.

I am able to reproduce the above phenomenon: starting from the configuration with working network drive access via Samba, when I change a setting under "USB Application - Network Place" and then change it back to what it was set at (and reboot both my router and laptop), my network drive access breaks: I am thrown the same Windows error. However, after I wait for about 12 hours, network drive access via Samba works even when no setting was changed in the elapsed time, but only through LAN Host Name (Samba Device Name fails to even show up). It appears that @ColinTaylor was right - the most likely explanation for this phenomenon seems to be that the Samba server isn't even running until after the router is left on for ~12 hours, which brings me to:

• Potential bug #2: It should not be the case that network drive access via Samba fails to work, and then works after ~12 hours of router uptime when no settings are changed in the elapsed time.

To sum up, the most crucial thing I changed for my setup (and the only way I was able to get network drive access to work via Samba; no permutation of settings allowed network drive access to work without this) was to change LAN Host Name to something other than the default and to ensure that Samba Device Name was not the same as LAN Host Name. This causes Samba Device Name to disappear under "Network" and only LAN Host Name to show up. I then am able to access my network drive (after ~12 hours of router uptime) via LAN Host Name under Network in Windows 10, which is contrary to all documentation, official or otherwise, that points to Samba Device Name as the intended way to access network drives via Samba.

I greatly appreciate everyone's assistance on this thread, and I hope that what I've written above can help identify bugs to be fixed in the next release of Asuswrt-Merlin.

Best wishes,

HL

 

[ColinTaylor]

Thanks for the update. Can you verify a couple of things.

1. You talked about changing the host name vs. the Samba name as though they are different things. If that's true it would be a change from previous behaviour AFAIK. This can be easily tested. Change the Device Name at LAN > LAN IP. Then go to the Samba page and see if it has also changed the Device Name there.

2. You say that it takes ~12 hours for the shares to become accessible. As this appears to be reproducible I suggest that you make a change so that the share is not accessible and then log onto the router to verify the drive is mounted and that Samba is running.

df -h

ps w | grep -E "smbd|nmbd|wsdd2"

 

[index]

Hello,

Faced with same issue. Windows 10 refused to open shares from Asus RT-AC88U, however it was working fine with old Asus RT-N16.
Also I noticed that for example VLC (android app from cell phone) was still was able to access the shares and play video files.

Tried to open share using following method: windows+r and then type "//192.168.1.1/" (which should be IP of the Asus router)
Windows gave me following message:
You can't access this shared folder because your organization's security policies block unauthenticated guest access. This policies help protect your PC from unsafe or malicious devices on the network.

Then was able to google MS article explaining how to fix this:
Open regedit and edit following key:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters] "AllowInsecureGuestAuth"=dword:1

Then I was able to access shares without any issues.
I think the difference between old and new smb realization is that old router asked for credentials straight away, when you are trying to connect to it. The new version allows you to browse a list of shares and only when you are trying to access specific share it asks credentials.

Best regards.

 

[hal1000]

1st post, thanks for any help. I have a similar issue, it's not that important, but I thought I would share.
So I have an RT-AX86U running the latest merlin f/w 386.7_2 and I have 4 devices, 1 windows laptop / 1 windows PC, 1 IPAD, 1 android box and although 3 of them can see it:-

i.e. USBSTICK on the network, none of them can access the folders. The android box actually can't see the samba share at all. The android box has a samba share capability and I share multiple drives off it over my home network, with no issues. So it's something to do with some settings on the router IMHO, so even if I don't' get an answer, then maybe this will help track down any potential bugs.

I also have an old WD NAS on the network, that everything connects to and works fine. Weirdly I have had this all working with an old 64gb ssd, but it was unstable because, it was taking power direct from the router. But this is a 128gb sandisk usb stick, that works fine in every other device.

I have switched the firewalls off, I have done the things described above, multiple devices, different OS's, multiple reboots, all the usual nonsense, I'm out of ideas.

EDIT - And now - after touching no settings - and a couple of days, it all just magically works?????
Computers, networks, who knows why sometimes what's going on with them.