Windows computers can not access smb-shares in Lion

I'm having almost the exact same problem as Mista2

.

I have an external HDD connected to my iMac that's split into partitions, one of them FAT32, and that's the only share that I can't access from a Win 7 notebook. It 'sees' the share just fine, but when I try to open it, the network path is suddenly not found. It worked in Snow Leopard, and if I boot camp my iMac into Windows 7 it works fine. Unfortunately, an Apple Support rep tried to pass me off to Microsoft when the only time it doesn't work is with Lion.

I might be rolling back as well.

I have to echo this sentiment and declare that after all of the reading, learning, configuring, money, time, and just plain faith I put into apple's server products since 10.4 I am completely dissolusioned. As a technician in a dual platform school environment the recent changes by apple have left us all enraged. If anyone figures out how to connect to a server share from windows I would be happy to hear how.

Thank you.

Try these instructions. Unfortunately I have only tried them with a Linux - Samba machine (as you probably know now Apple no longer uses SAMBA :-)))).

The shell scripts (CLI) which use the mount_smbfs seem to work better. The SAMBA software which used to respond to these commands as well as the GUI UI commands was replaced by a completely "New" Apple software server. Why Apple could not understand the value in SAMBA is beyond me.

The below commands seem to work well for me at rhe "terminal" window or you can put them in a file and make that file executable.

Edit a file (mountmovies) and add this line:

mkdir /Volumes/movies; mount_smbfs //pcooper:xxxxx@qnap/movies /Volumes/movies

Where "movies" is the name of the remote share and "pcooper" is the user on the remote server

and xxxxx is the password on the remote server for pcooper. The server name with the files is "qnap".

then in utilities/terminal

$ chmod +x mountmovies

You can put this on your Desktop folder and double click it. I would reccommend making sure the terminal app in the utilities folder has it's preferences set to close upon normal exit. You can add multiple lines in this file for more shares. They get mounted in order. I keep one username on the remote device since Apple broke the OS by removing SAMBA. SMB shares on OSX are also problematic.

PS if you are good with UNIX scripts all of these things can be passed into this script. Unfortunately, I would be called antiquated by thinking to use the best CLI ever created; so therefore I will say that the UNIX command line interface is far beyond the scope of this post. Of course no one knows how to do many things anymore.

It is worth a try. The Windows authentication may be the issue. If you can setup a simple network in Windows the older style plain old WORKGROUP. If not your administration gets significantly more complex. The workgroup will work better if your network is behind it's own firewall and windows may need to know in the hosts file (i forget specifically where) in System->"Somewhere"->...->hosts.

Good luck.

I think your reply is referring to connecting TO an SMB share FROM Mac OS X. This thread is about connecting TO a Lion Server SMB share FROM Windows.

Yes, no problems with od shared folder access on lion server.... just cannot access any of my shared communities from windows...

The converse side is you mounting an smb share from windows. I will be working on either getting Windows 7 to mount a share first with WORKGROUP. This will be with apple software first and them possibly replacing the listener on the Netbios ports with Samba. I believe Apple may be in a lawsuit but each and everyone of us would be a giant Class action suit which I am pretty sure the Samba team would not pursue if there is a real legal issue and not just infighting..

Quite frankly I don't understand the replacement of 25 Years worth of expert servers by the Samba team which I have personally bought Pizzas for years ago. The Samba team were always incredibly nice to me years ago and I can't really understanf why this has happenred. OSX with Samba has been the primo setup until Lion and I am lucky that I do not have to regularly mount shares on Lion with Windows 7 very often.

Sorry if this side is the one you seem to need. I hope the next release helps as well. I hope that the Apple Technology management is listening to these discussions.

The Samba software is very time tested and that may be fot the only way to get the shares right. Hasn't Apple or someone working for apple responded to any of these discussions? I was attacked for saying anything and tried to stay out of it fo a few days but I keep getting emails which tell me that:

1) there is a serious problem

2) many people use Apple computers as SMB servers.

3) seems as if Apple is not listening

OH well. I'll take stab at it although I am not the best at it anymore since I became a paraplegic with Central Pain. So no promises. I love the Samba product znd the Samba team -- have for years.

@pvpcooper, and anyone else blaming Apple for dropping Samba:

First of all, the issue being discussed is connecting to Lion from Windows.

But: Apple never did use Samba for the *client components in Mac OS X that make a connection to a Windows server* so please base your frustrations in factual knowledge. :-)

Please let me reiterate: Apple did not have a clear path to upgrading to or using newer builds of Samba.
The version in 10.6 was in fact quite dated and not at all current !

*PLEASE DO NOTE: See my earlier reply above. Namely,

http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=121142

Key point being: "the Samba team has moved active development of the project to the more strict GPLv3 license, which prevents Apple from realistically using the software commercially"

Samba adopted GPLv3 which specifically forbids something precisely like what Apple does with Samba: make private modifications to fit in with the proprietary components of their operating system, not the least of which is Open Directory, without making some or all of Apple's private code (for OD), publicly available. Which they're not going to do any more than MS is making key parts of their server code openly available to the public. Much of Samba is based on reverse-engineering of MS's CIFS in order to emulate it, and building from there. Great job, good stuff, but - because of Samba's change in the GPL licensing they use/require, Apple cannot use the versions covered by that GPL - it's really very most likely that they wish they could.

Unless you're also a crack lawyer ready to prove Apple's legal team wrong, (and can get an audience with them in order to make your case), accept that there are licensing issues for newer (latest) Samba that Apple took a good look at long *before Lion* (!!) and decided precluded them (Apple) from using it.

I wish they could and did include Samba. But they can't and they haven't. Time to accept that and start looking at alternative options. Hopefully now, the Samba team will work actively on a full port for Lion and we can install it ourselves. Don't expect any Open Directory integration, however.

As for the issue this thread is about, if you have a confirmable bug, please do report it.
Go to https://bugreport.apple.com but please be sure to read http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=20051102133234150

prior to filing your first bug report (ie: if you haven't filed a BR before).

This forum is quite specifcally *not intended and should not ever be confused with, a channel for reporting issues to Apple. In no way is is any such thing.

This forum is intended specifically for end-user to end-user support. Period, the end :-)
So, one should not expect nor imply nor believe that anyone with the power to effect change to the issue, will see - let alone reply - to anything anywhere in this forum.

File a bug report if you have a repeatable bug and please file a BR.

Best wishes to all, and here's hoping for a fix ! Bug reporting is important.

Thank you very much for that. I had been scratching my head for the last 24 hours trying to get our new mini server to share to the one windows machine. Now the Windows 7 laptop can access all share points as it could under 10.5 server.

@Christoph

Is this what worked for you?

Edit a file (mountmovies) and add this line:

mkdir /Volumes/movies; mount_smbfs //pcooper:xxxxx@qnap/movies /Volumes/movies

Where "movies" is the name of the remote share and "pcooper" is the user on the remote server

and xxxxx is the password on the remote server for pcooper. The server name with the files is "qnap".

then in utilities/terminal

$ chmod +x mountmovies

Is this thread about connecting to Windows from Mac OSX - or is it about (as the first post is entitled), "Windows computers can not access smb-shares in Lion" ?

Which direction are you talking about ?

@Christoph, @techgal, you're talking about connecting from Mac OS X to Windows, are you not ?

There is no mount_smbfs binary in a default install of Windows and Windows doesn't use "/Volumes" for it's drive-mounting process/mechanisms/mount-point(s).

As the post title suggests.. windows cannot access smb shares in lion is my problem. When Christoph piped up that "Now the Windows 7 laptop can access all share points as it could under 10.5 server." I became quite excited however could not for the life of me see who he was thanking or what he may have done to accomplish that feat.. hence my following post assuming that he had altered the permissions via chmod and terminal somehow on his lion server...

Alas.. I have thrown in the towel for now... shut the new Lion server off and gone back to using the old 10.5.8 xserver that I was using where all of my machines (windows or macs) access what they need to. Don't have time for this insanity. Rolling back to 10.6? Not an option on the mac mini. Tried to access shared files by FTP but no surprise.. that is gone too. Maybe use a wiki interface for file access from both platforms? Forget it as the main landing page could not even display its images correctly.

@techgal:

I don't have access to Win 7 and Lion Server currently, but I'll see if I can't have a quick look later today :-)

Thanks davidh. Much appreciated. 🙂

Looking at the log on the Mac side:

/private/var/log/krb5kdc/kdc.log

...and seeing the "od failed with 22 proto=ntlmv2" reminded me of a problem I'd seen in the past with LAN Manager version 2.

Here is what worked for me today coming from a Win 7 Home Premium SP1 laptop connecting to Lion (non-server version) serving up SMB:

Registry editing for LAN manager authentication level (in Home edition this can be configured through registry)

How to do it:
1. Open registry editor ( Start search – regedit)
2. Browse to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
3. Create a new DWORD value with the following properties:

NAME: LmCompatibilityLevel
VALUE: 1

4. Restart your PC and try the connection again

I can't take the credit here... it was a comment posted in THIS thread:

http://www.windowsreference.com/windows-7/unable-to-access-network-share-on-maco s-x-from-windows-7/

I have in the past also used his original method of secpol.msc with non-home versions of Win 7 (ex. Ultimate).

🙂