[SOLVED] Network tab shewing shares that do not exist

[bigal]

When I open the ‘Network’ tab on my machine I see two of these entries

NETCLIENT015 (File Sharing)

The machine in question has the netbios name of ‘netclient015 so that part is correct. However, there are no shares set up. There used to a shared directory but since a fresh install over a month ago I have not had the need for a share so not set it up.

This same entry appears twice in the network tab of each of the other machines on my LAN. None of the links lead anywhere. If I try I get a message saying

Unable to mount location.
Failed to retrieve share list from server: Invalid argument

All of the machines in question have been shut down each night and booted up again in the morning .

Some questions.
Why do these entries appear twice. There was only ever one share?
Why do the other machines in my LAN each shew the same two entries?

Has anyone got any ideas please?

All machines are running 64 bit Mint Cinnamon. Two are 20.1 the other 18.3 Sambas is installed on all three machines. None of the machines have any version of Windows installed (Ugh!). Here is the output of testparm -s on the machine netclient015.

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$ testparm -s
Load smb config files from /etc/samba/smb.conf
Loaded services file OK.
Server role: ROLE_STANDALONE

# Global parameters
[global]
	log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
	logging = file
	map to guest = Bad User
	max log size = 1000
	obey pam restrictions = Yes
	pam password change = Yes
	panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
	passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
	passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
	server role = standalone server
	server string = %h server (Samba, Ubuntu)
	unix password sync = Yes
	usershare allow guests = Yes
	idmap config * : backend = tdb
	force user = alan


[printers]
	browseable = No
	comment = All Printers
	create mask = 0700
	path = /var/spool/samba
	printable = Yes


[print$]
	comment = Printer Drivers
	path = /var/lib/samba/printers

[altair4]

*** Once you install the samba server package it will broadcast its presence to the rest of the network. Doesn't matter if you created any shares.

*** Samba will announce itself using two different protocols: NetBIOS and Avahi ( mDNS ) which is why you see two entries. You can turn one or the other or both off if you want by editing /etc/samba/smb.conf on the server:

This will turn off the NetBIOS broadcast:

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disable netbios = yes

This will turn off Avahi:

Code: Select all

multicast dns register = no

Put either / or all of those in the [global] section of smb.conf on the server then reboot.

*** The Invalid argument error is brought to you by the good people at Gnome High Command when they created a bug in gvfsd-smb-browse. The client is attempting to access a server with the SMB1 dialect of samba when no such dialect exits on the server.

Given my age I do not think this will be fixed in my lifetime. There are ways around this problem but since you have no shares it doesn't matter in your case.

[bigal]

Thank you for answering my query altair4 and I apologise for not coming back sooner. I have been reading more about samba but don’t think that I will ever aspire to your level of knowledge. You have succinctly explained what my problem is and so enabled me to understand it. A quick reinstall of Mint, something I would not have done prior to your post, and my problem has gone away. I shall therefore mark this post as solved.