SMB Disconnects - Mac Mini Server to Windows 7 Client

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SMB Disconnects - Mac Mini Server to Windows 7 Client

Hey All,

I've been reading, googling, and researching for a solution to this problem for weeks now. I've recently purchased a windows laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium (x64).

I have a Mac Mini running 10.8.3 (Mountain Lion), that has like 3 of my external hard drives connected to it that I use to share files/videos locally on my network.

I've been doing this for YEARS with my Macbook Pro using AFP and it's worked flawlessly. Video streams perfectly without any disconnections/skipping.

Now that I've gotten this Windows 7 laptop, I wanted to do the same thing and connect to my Mac Mini to stream videos etc.

I setup the SMB Windows Server sharing ability on the Mini, and was able to find/map/browse through my external hard drives without ANY problems whatsoever.

The problem occurs when I try and stream video from my Windows 7. At first, I was using VLC and I literally couldn't watch more than 5-30 seconds of video without it resulting in an error.

I changed to PotPlayer, which was able to handle video streaming much better, however, I STILL encouner disconnections / playback suddenly halts. It seems RANDOM, however, most of the time the video will stop within 2-10 minutes of playback.

I've been trying to see if I could configure my Mac Mini's SMB protocol to keep connections alive ALWAYS, but nothing seems to do the trick.

Can anyone please offer some feedback/potential solutions to this issue? Does anyone else do this - - stream videos from a mac using SMB to a windows client? I am desperate, and would really appreciate any help whatsoever as it seems impossible to find another person having this same issue.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and I appreciate your help.

Joey

Mac mini, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on May 31, 2013 2:33 PM

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Answer 1

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gunverth

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19 points

Jun 11, 2013 1:54 PM in response to jvore

Its all about Win 7 having too short timeout on SMB/CIFS connections. You have to create a registry entry "SeesTimeout" of at least 36000. Read more about it here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/openspecification/archive/2013/03/19/cifs-and-smb-timeou ts-in-windows.aspx

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Answer 2

jvore Author

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Jun 30, 2013 11:56 AM in response to gunverth

Thanks for the response!

I've edited/added the reg values discussed in the article. I'll see if this helps, but I am hopefuly (at least some sort of answer!).

Do I need to edit anything on the MacMini server as well? Is there some value I can tweak so that the Mac will keep connections alive LONGER or something?

Thanks again.

Joey

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Answer 3

jvore Author

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Jul 1, 2013 7:19 PM in response to gunverth

Just wanted to leave an update. The changes that 'gunverth' suggested through that article have officially SOLVED my SMB issues.

I am so grateful! Never thought it was such an easy fix. I am still getting some 'lag/skipping' issues, but it is SO much better than having a video stop every 2 minutes and having to reload it.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.. never would've figured that out otherwise.

Thanks,

Joey

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Answer 4

Aug 10, 2013 10:25 AM in response to jvore

I've been having this issue for months. So glad to find this fix. However, I'm not familiar with how to change these registry values in Windows and was wondering if someone could point me to a step by step on how to change this SessTimeout value. Thanks in advance.

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Answer 5

jvore Author

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Aug 10, 2013 11:47 AM in response to Alan Cook2

I would be happy to help you Alan. I experienced this problem for SO long, and after this quick two minute fix haven't had a single issue since. Hope this helps you as well.

So I'm not GREAT at explaining things, but here is what I do on Windows 7 Ultimate x64.

1). Type 'regedit.exe' in to the 'start' searchbar and open up 'regedit'.

2). This will open Registry Editor. You'll see a few expandable folders in a sidebar all startin with "HKEY". Click on HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

3). The majority of changes will be done in "\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parame ters\".. so go ahead and navigate to this location.

4). When you click on Parameters you'll see a couple of different reg values to the RIGHT. If you follow the article linked here - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/openspecification/archive/2013/03/19/cifs-and-smb-timeou ts-in-windows.aspx - you will be able to create/edit the needed values.

5). When I first did this.. none of the values (except maybe one) existed. So I had to CREATE them myself. Do this by 'right-clicking' in the right window pane and going to 'New > DWORD (32-bit) Value'.

6). I hope you'll be able to do the rest. I used '36000' for EVERY single entry in that article. I think the most important ones for our issue would be 'SessTimeout' and 'ExtendedSessTimeout' and 'OffLineFileTimeoutInterval...'.

7). In order to 'modify' or when creating a new value you need to use a 'DECIMAL' base and put '36000' as the Value data.

Do this for all of the values in that article (well the first half.. the rest of that article isn't about editing reg anymore).

Let me know if you need any more explanation.

Joey

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Answer 6

Aug 10, 2013 2:04 PM in response to jvore

Thank you SO MUCH Joey! I was able to follow your instructions and edit those three timeout settings. I've not been able to test extensively yet, but in the short time I had available, it seemed to fix my issues.

I have another Windows 7 machine I need to do this to also, so this is a real blessing for me.

Thanks again.

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Answer 7

Aug 13, 2013 1:36 PM in response to jvore

Well, I've had time to test this more extensively, and unfortunately, I'm still getting the disconnects. So, I'm back to the drawing board.

Thanks for the help trying this out though.

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Answer 8

Aug 14, 2013 7:35 AM in response to jvore

Actually, scrap that last comment. I realized after I posted it that my Win 7 laptop had slept in between, and presumably this would have caused a temporary disconnect. When I went back to my open InDesign document, InDesign crashed. But that program is really picky about network connections.

So, I really think all is good.

Sorry for cluttering up your thread!

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