Connecting to usb share from Macbook

[Davidfitz]

Hi there,

I have a problem where my Macbook refuses to connect to the USB share on my Vodafone Router. When attempting SMB, both to Vodafone.router and the IP address it just says it can't connect

There was a problem connecting to the server “192.168.100.1”.

I can see the drive from windows, typing \\192.168.100.1\ into the explorer window, but nothing at all from my Macbook., not even a username/password challenge

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It works fine on Windows, which is the thing I don't get. This is an issue for me as I mainly use my Mac for everything.

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[Gemma]

@Davidfitz - thanks for explaining what's happening. I can understand why you need to get this resolved with mainly using your MAC. Please contact Apple Support to see if they can help further. 

[LaShrew]

@Davidfitz I'm having the same problem however, I have managed to pinpoint the issue as such, well at least where to investigate that is.  For a good hour or so I kept trying different things via the connect to server on my MBP(M1) and every time I had the same message "There was a problem connecting to the server “192.168.*.*”.  I woke up this morning and thought I would fire up my old, 2011, iMac... went to connect to server punched in the IP address and got the login option as guest or user, clicked guest and instantly could see the shared USB drive.

So far my thoughts are it's either something to do with Apple's M1 silicone chip or the macOS which is Monterery on the MPP(M1) and High Sierra on the iMac... I'm leaning towards macOS Monterey and maybe a setting that need to be ticked.  If/when I find a solution I will post back.

[Davidfitz]

That was a great steer, thanks.  It looks like Monterey messed around with the smb settings, and netbios got in the way as well.  I now have it working, it's incredibly slow though so I'm not sure it is optimal.  I found quite a lot of stuff on the internet about this macos - smb problem.

Basically, you need to create or add to the /etc/nsmb.conf file the following, to force it to use smb 2 protocol and switch off netbios. 

[default]

protocol_vers_map=2

port445=both

port445=no_netbios

signing_required=no

[Davidfitz]

Something in that solution seems to be preventing Time Machine from working now, so I've backed it out until i work out which bit it is objecting to.  TM just reported it couldn't connect to the backup disk.