SMB client URL works in 10.4.10, breaks in 10.5 -- password not accepted

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Level 4

1,516 points

SMB client URL works in 10.4.10, breaks in 10.5 -- password not accepted

Hi,

The SMB client URL (Finder Command-K) that was working under 10.4.10 breaks under 10.5:

smb://DOMAIN-name;userid@Fully-qualified-DN-for-WinServer/Private Sharename$

The symptom is that the Mac does connect to the WinServer, as I do get the userid/password prompt, with the userid already prefilled as DOMAIN-name\userid. But when I add my Windows password and submit, I get a delay and then a message my userid or password is invalid.

I know my userid and password are valid as they work from my PC, as well as from my Mac as far as establishing a Mac to PC screensharing session using MS Remote Desktop Connection.

I know that it's not a network, DNS, or WINS name resolution problem as I do get as far as the initial connection to the PC -- i.e. the userid/password prompt. As well I've tried using the Windows Server's IP address directly in the URL.

I've read the threads here and tried these variants of the URL:
smb://DOMAIN-name;userid@IP-of-WinServer/Private Sharename$
smb://DOMAIN-name;userid:win-password@IP-of-WinServer/Private Sharename$

I've tried the Ruby script to escape any funny characters in my win-password; but there are none anyways, and the output from the Ruby script mentioned in another thread are the same as my inputted password.

I've also gone into /etc/smb.conf and added the line suggested in another thread:
client NTLMv2 auth = Yes
...and rebooted. But that line is for Windows clients trying to connect to a samba server running on the Mac. I'm doing the opposite: trying to run a Samba client connection to a PC server.

Bottom line:
OS X 10.4.10 : no problem connecting to Windows server

OS X 10.5 : cannot

suggestions welcome,
...b

PB G4 15 1.67 GHz, 2GB, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Oct 31, 2007 10:34 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

gbrickl

Level 1

5 points

Oct 31, 2007 10:52 AM in response to Ben Schmidt

Same issues here. Since 10.5 install I cannot connect to any of the SMB shares I normally connect to no matter what I try. Click on an SMB share and it tries to connect on its own, fails, I click on "connect as" and fill in the proper user and pass, finder just grinds away and never connects.

The list of servers in the "shared" section of the finder window does not always show the entire list of servers, either, nothing I try seems to have any effect on this.

This is a show stopping issue for me.

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Answer 2

Ben Schmidt Author

Level 4

1,516 points

Nov 2, 2007 4:33 PM in response to Ben Schmidt

OK, so this SMB client URL (in the Finder, press Command-K) that was working under 10.4.10 breaks under 10.5:

smb://domain;userid@server.domain.company.com/share

so I added my domain name and WINS servers into the WINS tab of the Networking Preference Pane, and I was then able to browse our windows network in the Finder, find the above Win2003 PC server name, and connect! Yay!

So I went back and tried variations on the SMB URL above. Until finally this variation worked:

smb://domain;userid@server/share

Hmm. So server.domain.company.com which does resolve to the PC server's IP, no longer works under OS X 10.5 -- even though the same SMB URL worked in OS X 10.4.

Worse, while smb://domain;userid@server/share now works on the company LAN, smb://domain;userid@server/share fails over the company (cisco) VPN.

I speculate it's because OS X 10.5 is using the PC servers NetBIOS name above and therefore relying on various PC WINS server ports, whose packets can flow unimpeded over my LAN. But when I'm VPN'ing, the company LAN I land on blocks these packets and ports.

So after much tinkering, I returned to the Terminal.app and started reading the man pages about Samba, the open source Windows networking software used by OS X:

man -k smb <-- to look up all the terminal commands for samba

one of the entries this returned was:

nsmb.conf(5) - configuration file for SMB requests

Hmm, that sounds promising.

man nsmb.conf

returned a sample configuration file. I edited the sample file to include our windows "domain" name, and to map our "server" name to it's fully-qualified DNS name: "server.domain.company.com", and put this updated file, as per the man pages, in ~/Library/Preferences/nsmb.conf, and volia:

smb://domain;userid@server/share

now works for me to connect from OS X 10.5 to the "server" over our LAN and over our VPN!

This was a lot of work and not a general solution. OS X 10.4 was definitely better, but this is the only PC server I need to connect to, so I'm very happy that I don't have to uninstall Leopard and re-install Tiger.

...b

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Answer 3

Nov 3, 2007 7:22 PM in response to gbrickl

It's a proven fact (by many on these discussion boards) that networking is broken in Leopard.

Please submit a formal bug report to Apple here:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html/

And please, I urge you to digg up this article because the major Apple sites are ignoring this known issue:

http://www.digg.com/apple/OSXLeopard_Another_Serious_BUG_Unable_to_Browse_SMB_WindowsShares

There are workarounds available that might work for you, but the simple fact is that network shares that worked fine with Tiger, don't work with Leopard!

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Answer 4

Nov 3, 2007 7:29 PM in response to Sebastian-Miami

Ugh, this is exactly me ... once perfect and reliable network now shot...

I may be back on Tiger soon... this is really sad and another black eye for Apple

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Answer 5

KurtF

Level 1

29 points

Nov 3, 2007 7:54 PM in response to Ben Schmidt

Ben,

Thanks for taking the time to post your testing and results!

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