How to configure Samba Share on RT-N66U...

[chinese_ys]

Update, in case anyone fancy to help out

I have upgraded to merlin firmware 42 and factory reset the router but still not able to mapped the samba share with built-in admin account. Stuck with inconvenient FTP...

Hi, there

How should I configure the samba share on RT-N66U with the latest merlin firmware? I was running the RT-N66U with 2 usb harddrives for simply in-house fileshare. Since I upgraded the firmware last night, webui keep blinking a yellow exclamatory mark everytime I login...

I had to disable the Guest samba access to get rid of the exclamatory mark...But now the issue is: I can not login either with the admin account or my newly created account... I tested on my work windows 8.1 laptop (on corp domain) and a home windows 7 PC (workgroup) and none of them can connect to the share with either account...I do not remember if user account accessing samba worked with previous merlin firmware though...If I enable Guest access on samba configuration page, shares can be connected no issue...

I do have the folder permission configured to R/W for all my shares.

Please advise.

 

[jlake]

Hi, there

How should I configure the samba share on RT-N66U with the latest merlin firmware? I was running the RT-N66U with 2 usb harddrives for simply in-house fileshare. Since I upgraded the firmware last night, webui keep blinking a yellow exclamatory mark everytime I login...

I had to disable the Guest samba access to get rid of the exclamatory mark...But now the issue is: I can not login either with the admin account or my newly created account... I tested on my work windows 8.1 laptop (on corp domain) and a home windows 7 PC (workgroup) and none of them can connect to the share with either account...I do not remember if user account accessing samba worked with previous merlin firmware though...If I enable Guest access on samba configuration page, shares can be connected no issue...

I do have the folder permission configured to R/W for all my shares.

Please advise.

I flashed Merlin's .41 last night on RT-N66U. After I flashed it, I reset to factory defaults because I was coming from a different wireless driver. I plugged one of my Seagate 1TB USB drives in to the USB port on the N66U. I didn't get any flashing yellow exclamation......so I didn't have to do anything.

I was able to access all my files/videos on the USB drive on an iPAD mini (Filebrowser App and Gplayer app) and also on a Windows 8.1 desktop. I didn't have any problems. I just entered my router username and password. I don't believe I had to do anything else. On the Windows 8.1, I use Pokki, so I just clicked on "Computer", then clicked on "Network" and then clicked on "RT-N66U". And all my files were there. I've only had this 8.1 machine for less than a month, so I'm sure there's a faster way.......but I haven't had time to play with it yet. Anyway, I didn't have any problems.........I didn't really configure anything. I just punched some buttons on the computer and ipad and entered my username and password when it told me to.

I only have Samba enabled......not FTP.

 

[enanolex]

if you have QoS

If you have QoS enabled, disable it.

 

[ColinTaylor]

How should I configure the samba share on RT-N66U with the latest merlin firmware? I was running the RT-N66U with 2 usb harddrives for simply in-house fileshare. Since I upgraded the firmware last night, webui keep blinking a yellow exclamatory mark everytime I login...

If you want it set up the way you had it before you'll have to turn on the guest login and just accept the risk. That's what the exclamation mark is telling you - that anyone connected to your home network can access the share. That's a perfectly valid option.

If you want to be more secure you can turn off guest login, in which case you will no longer be able to share the whole drive. Instead you will have to grant access to individual users for each (top level) folder on the disk. Each user would then need a user account and password to access the shared folders.

NB If you create accounts on the RT-N66U with exactly the same name and password as your Windows accounts then it will connect to the share without asking them for a user ID and password.

PS Obviously, both the RT-N66U and your PC's will have to be part of the same workgroup.

 

[kibosh]

Ya, don't worry about the exclamation point. Just turn the guest access back on and you won't have to worry about logging into the share.

I had seen the warning before but in merlin .40 final it was gone. It seems to have been re-implemented by Asus in this latest build.

 

[chinese_ys]

If you have QoS enabled, disable it.

No, I do not have QoS enabled.

 

[chinese_ys]

If you want it set up the way you had it before you'll have to turn on the guest login and just accept the risk. That's what the exclamation mark is telling you - that anyone connected to your home network can access the share. That's a perfectly valid option.

If you want to be more secure you can turn off guest login, in which case you will no longer be able to share the whole drive. Instead you will have to grant access to individual users for each (top level) folder on the disk. Each user would then need a user account and password to access the shared folders.

NB If you create accounts on the RT-N66U with exactly the same name and password as your Windows accounts then it will connect to the share without asking them for a user ID and password.

PS Obviously, both the RT-N66U and your PC's will have to be part of the same workgroup.

It might be me confusing you here. I was trying to get a properly created user account access samba shares with Guest Access turned off. But it just keep prompting me for username and password...I tried on windows computers that joined domain or stay in workgroup and none of them worked...

I have not tried on my mac yet though.

Now I have FTP enabled. I can access the content with user account when guest access disabled. It also works when Guest access enabled.

I personally do not think this is configuration issue might be firmware but seems like only affects me...

BTW, all my harddrives are NTFS if that makes any difference.

 

[chinese_ys]

Ya, don't worry about the exclamation point. Just turn the guest access back on and you won't have to worry about logging into the share.

I had seen the warning before but in merlin .40 final it was gone. It seems to have been re-implemented by Asus in this latest build.

I live in a busy neighborhood...there might be too much people wardriving around...Do not want to expose my dirty stuffs to my neighbor...

 

[kibosh]

How would your neighbours get on your network? Don't you have wifi security enabled?

 

[chinese_ys]

How would your neighbours get on your network? Don't you have wifi security enabled?

Yes, there is but who knows if someone could crack or guess my key? There is no absolute security if someone can reach/grab/sniff it.

 

[kibosh]

If that is the case, I would have bigger worries than a shared USB drive

 

[chinese_ys]

If that is the case, I would have bigger worries than a shared USB drive

Totally agree with you but there has to be a balance between convenience and security.

 

[ColinTaylor]

It might be me confusing you here. I was trying to get a properly created user account access samba shares with Guest Access turned off. But it just keep prompting me for username and password...I tried on windows computers that joined domain or stay in workgroup and none of them worked...

OK I think I might understand your problem now. As an experiment...

1. On the ASUS create a new user account called "test" with a password of "password" and give it R/W access to a folder.

2. Reboot you windows PC.

3. Browse to the shared folder. You can see the folder can't you?

4. Click on the folder and it will ask you for a user ID and password. Enter:

<your_device_name>\test
password

your_device_name is the name of the RT-N66U as it appears when you browse your workgroup. Mine is called RT-N66U so I would enter:

RT-N66U\test
password

 

[chinese_ys]

...

4. Click on the folder and it will ask you for a user ID and password. Enter:

<your_device_name>\test
password

your_device_name is the name of the RT-N66U as it appears when you browse your workgroup. Mine is called RT-N66U so I would enter:

RT-N66U\test
password

Thanks, I could see the share but just cannot login to share.

My router is configured to use name HomeNetGW under Miscellaneous setting. So I tried HomeNetGW\admin. I also tried RT-N66U\admin and .\admin, none of them give me login to the samba share. The same applies to the newly created account.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Can you try deleting all the user accounts (apart from admin which you can't). Then restart your PC and try again.

If that works add the user accounts back in.

 

[chinese_ys]

Can you try deleting all the user accounts (apart from admin which you can't). Then restart your PC and try again.

If that works add the user accounts back in.

Did that as well and rebooted twice if that makes any difference...

 

[ColinTaylor]

Well then I'm stumped. Maybe it is something weird with your drive. NTFS permissions? Although I can't think of any logical reason why that would be.

Have you got another USB device that you could plug in for testing? Maybe a flash drive, it doesn't have to be big. Try formatting as FAT32 if you can.

 

[chinese_ys]

Well then I'm stumped. Maybe it is something weird with your drive. NTFS permissions? Although I can't think of any logical reason why that would be.

Have you got another USB device that you could plug in for testing? Maybe a flash drive, it doesn't have to be big. Try formatting as FAT32 if you can.

Now u know what I feel about this... I was thinking about NTFS permission issue but I was only testing it on windows plus samba with guest enabled and FTP with user account or guest enabled are both working just fine... The other funny thing is I do not see any log related to authentication failure either

I do not have enough drive for now to format. I might try that during vacation sometime

Thanks anyway.

 

[ColinTaylor]

OK Keep us posted. It's definitely worth trying it with your mac when you have time.

 

[chinese_ys]

Tried on Mac running maverick and samba with user login does not work either

I kinda give up on this unless some experts saw this thread and I will use FTP for now.