Now that we have completed all of the boring initial setup of our FreeNAS server, we can get on to the fun stuff. (For those of you who have not done the boring initial setup, I would suggest that you quickly catch up!)
If you are new to non-Windows operating systems, you may think it rather odd that we are using a FreeBSD based system (FreeNAS) to store files from a Windows system. In fact, this is a rather common practice and it is all thanks to a wonderful little thing called Samba. Samba basically lets you share files between Windows and non-Windows systems by implementing an open source version of the SMB/CIFS networking protocol.
Activating and Configuring the CIFS Service
The first thing that we need to do is activate the CIFS service.
Under the Services menu, click on the CIFS option. This will present you with the CIFS service options.
Check off the 
check box to activate the CIFS service. You will notice that all of the options below become available.
There are three fields that should be set in order to work properly with your network:
- Authentication - This is how the FreeNAS server determines who has access to it. I am setting this to Anonymous because it is the quickest way to get the server up and running. I will change this later because this is definitely not the best setting in the long term.
- NetBiosName - Older operating systems relied on NetBIOS to determine computer names on the network. This option helps with backward compatibility and even makes the newer versions of Windows work better. I suggest setting this option to the same as the host name.
- Workgroup - The workgroup is the name given to the collection of computers that you want to communicate with on the network. Common workgroup names are workgroup and mshome. If you are on a corporate network, this will be your NetBIOS domain name. To determine your domain or workgroup name, simply use this little VBScript code:
Set WshNetwork = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Network")
WScript.Echo "Domain/Workgroup = " & WshNetwork.UserDomain
Once you have entered this information, click on the 
button.
Now, if you click on Start -> Run… and then enter in the name of your server, you should see all of your shares:
If you are getting errors stating that the system cannot find your FreeNAS server, add an entry to your HOSTS file or your DNS server and away you go!
Conclusion
There are a number of different tweaks and configuration changes that you can perform to change how the shares look and how you access them, but this is the basis of all that. Good luck with your testing!
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March 7th, 2009 at 8:10 pm
I have tried this and it doesn’t work. Part could be in nor resolving NAME = IP_ADDRESS.
Anywat I put in the asigned IP address and it comes back with an error that it can’t be found.
I am thinking that if I use the assigned IP such as:
\\192.168.0.250\
This should show me something as a share resource directory, My XP bos takling to my storage NAS (bought as such) does this exactly. Clearly your instructions are leaving things out. I know what you may thing in terms of the connecting machine, but again that has no issue connecting to my other NAS box.
Simplify this, I take a fresh installation, voiding any set-up issues that I may have introduced, aside from the DNS litteral, (use ip address instaed) what you indicate is that it should work.
It doesn’t, doesn’t pleas go back and review the dependentcies you may have overlooked.
Advis is much appreciated, certailnly I’ll share my experience with others when I get this going and I will, for sure.
Thank You kindly,
Earl
April 3rd, 2009 at 9:50 pm
I believe he’s missing the information that he’s indicated in the title… namely “Creating Windows Shares on FreeNAS” .. this post should be entitled “How to enable your shares to be visible to Windows”.
There is no information above as to how to setup the shares… (Hint: It’s that second tab in his screenshot). I’m still messing with it myself and having a few minor problems… if I figure it out soon I’ll try to edit this with the actual info.
April 27th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Because i can’t set the security for mi shared files from windows set for every folder one user of the active directory. In one previus instalation the only thin that do was desactive the check box “Enable permission inheritance” but now doesn’t work. Please help me.
April 27th, 2009 at 5:33 pm
Sorry¡
Why i can’t set the security of my shared files above windows for set for every folder one user of the active directory. In one previus instalation the only thin that i do, was desactive the check box “Enable permission inheritance” but now doesn’t work. Please help me.
June 12th, 2009 at 3:21 pm
I found enabling NETBIOS in the tcpip settings helped now i get a guest logon prompt. I just need to find out the password???
August 5th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Anybody ever get this to work? I can see my shares but can’t login to them.
August 18th, 2009 at 7:13 am
Got this working. First you need to create the shares..
Services, CIFS/SMB, then click on the “shares” tab. Set one up with the little blue add button on the right and APPLY THE CHANGES!!! then click on the settings tab. On the right hand side there is the all important “Enable” checkbox. Click that, save the changes at the bottom, REBOOT THE UNIT then you should be able to go to \\youriphere\ and it should be there.
Make sure on your settings page that the workgroup is the same as the network you’re using. The rest you should be able to use strait off.
October 12th, 2009 at 9:44 am
I have a built a few of these before but this was my first with a software raid..
building is straight forward and a snap. configured CIFS, and bang there was the share… but when i tried to add to the share it said FULL what the hell is up with that???
October 13th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
I can see the shares in windows xp but cannot read/write the files. They are NOT set to ‘read only’. Hence not much use!
December 8th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Just what I came across - Using the Web interface to create the folders doesn’t set the permissions on the share folders for FreeNAS correctly in the version I’m using (0.7). I had to use Quixplorer under Advanced/File Manager to set the permissions of the folders and files that I was accessing to rwxrwxrwx in order to access them from Windows. That finally did the trick for me after following all the instructions in the various guides available.