Unable to connect to SMB server

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Level 2

332 points

Unable to connect to SMB server

Hi,

I am trying to access a Samba shared folder, but my attempts have been unsuccessful. Here is what I do:

In the Finder, I navigate to the server in Network > [appropriate workgroup]. I click on "Connect", but I get the message "The alias [name of the server] could not be opened, because the original item cannot be found."

I've been browsing the forum and the web in general to try to understand the cause of this. Here are a few indications that you might find usefull, following the thread "Browsing Network on Tiger...":

My firewall is set to NOT block UDP traffic, and stealth mode is disabled (in case this is relevant).

ps -aux | grep -i automount

returns:

root 151 0.0 0.2 30492 2516 ?? Ss 11:10AM 0:02.14 /usr/sbin/automount -f -m /Network -nsl -mnt /private/var/automount
root 169 0.0 0.1 29420 1092 ?? Ss 11:10AM 0:00.03 /usr/sbin/automount -f -m /automount/Servers -fstab -mnt /private/Network/Servers -m /automount/static -static -mnt /private/var/automount
[as well as the grep line]

In Directory Access, SMB/CIFS is enabled, and the workgroup is set to that of the machine I am trying to connect to (even though I believe this is not necessary).

Finally, if I execute the following command:

smbtree -N -b

I get the list of servers I can already see in the Network window in the Finder, but most of them (although not all) throw the following error:

cli fullconnection: failed to connect to [name of the server]<20> (0.0.0.0)

Thanks a lot in advance for your help

MacBook Pro Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Posted on Oct 31, 2006 4:13 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Rick Van Vliet

Level 5

6,372 points

Oct 31, 2006 4:52 AM in response to Allamistakeo

What about Cmd+K, connect to server:
SMB://[IP_Address/folder]

Skip the GUI icon-browse method for a moment.

Is this samba folder on another Mac?Windows?Linux?

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Answer 2

Allamistakeo Author

Level 2

332 points

Oct 31, 2006 5:00 AM in response to Rick Van Vliet

Hi,

Thanks for your quick answer!

I don't know the IP address of the server, and I don't know the underlying OS either (although it is probably not a Mac).

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Answer 3

Oct 31, 2006 5:21 AM in response to Allamistakeo

I am having the same problem for the past few days. Cmd-K and typing in smb://ipaddress doesn't work - I still get the same error message.

I can go to the Windows XP machine and connect to the Mac from there, but every time I try to connect to the Windows machine from a Macintosh (I have a couple on the network), I get the same error message described above.

All machines are in the same Workgroup, and the network works fine going from the PC to the Mac. But it won't work at all the other way.

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Answer 4

Oct 31, 2006 7:06 AM in response to Allamistakeo

Ping the remote computer by name. The IP number "should" show up.

If you don't know the OS, or the IP address....do you know the network admin-person for your network? Perhaps they can help you faster...

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Answer 5

Oct 31, 2006 7:09 AM in response to William Damon

Hi William.
And you're saying that it used to work?
try smb://[ip_address]/foldername

So what, if anything that you can think of....changed at the time you began having these problems?

(xp home or xp pro?)
Is this a home network, small business?
details, details...;)

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Answer 6

Allamistakeo Author

Level 2

332 points

Oct 31, 2006 7:24 AM in response to Rick Van Vliet

OK! It works now.

Pinging the machine by name wouldn't be of much help (it would return "ping: cannot resolve [name of server]: Unknown host").

However, I used a windoze machine to get some more info on the server. It's a Windoze 2000 Server. I even got the IP address, and now I can SMB into it by IP.

I guess this partly resolves my question, so I was going to mark it as answered, but I see that William's problem is still open...

Thanks a lot for your help, Rick!

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Answer 7

Oct 31, 2006 7:29 AM in response to Allamistakeo

Mark it answered.
And thanks for any points.

William hijacked this thread.

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Answer 8

Oct 31, 2006 12:40 PM in response to Rick Van Vliet

Yes it used to work fine both ways.

I can ping the Windows XP Home box from the mac. I can access the mac files across the network fine from the Windows box. I just can't connect to the Windows box using smb://ipaddress

All I can think of that has changed was the upgrade to 10.4.8, and I am not sure if the problem started then or before, because I didn't need to share files with Windows for a while...

Interestingly enough, I can also print to a shared printer on the Windows box...

So again, about all I cannot seem to do is connect from the mac using smb

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Answer 9

Oct 31, 2006 4:06 PM in response to William Damon

Hi again.
Check that the password prompt is popping up. Anyhing?
Find the entry for the XP box in keychain, delete it.
Keychain first aid...

Firewall software?
Is there a file/folder being shared out on the XP box besides the printer?

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Answer 10

Nov 1, 2006 5:28 AM in response to Rick Van Vliet

The password prompt wasn't coming up. I deleted the keychain entry for that PC and now the password prompt comes up.

But after I enter a valid username/password for the PC I still get the "Sorry cannot connect due to an unknown error (-50)" message

Until I double-checked the PC and found that somehow the folder that had been shared on the PC was not being shared anymore.

I fixed that and it works now!

GRRR

thanks

consider this closed...

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Answer 11

Nov 1, 2006 9:21 AM in response to William Damon

Thanks for your update, and for the points, if any.

Thanks for working through the troubleshooting, too.

Windows will not drop a shared folder, unless the user drops it. Let's not blame EVERYTHING on microsoft.
<smile>

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