How to make MBL unvisible for other computers?

Hi all,

For streaming media, it is possible in the TwonkeyServer settings to exclude devices from the Media Receivers list in order to manage which devices may (and may not) connect to the MBL for streaming media. This works fine.

But how to make the MBL (public + other created shares) unvisible for other computers in my network > except for my own computer? (as example in Windows XP: under network locations)

You can configure the Samba service on the MBL not to broadcast it’s presence.

For details go to: http://www.rtr.com/winpak/Documentation/smb_conf.htm

Search for:  browseable (S)

Rememeber to re-start the Samba service or re-boot the MBL after you make this change. After you make this change it will not announce it’s presense on the network but if you know the full path to the share(s) you need then, well, happy days! :smiley:

Thanks for your answer. I found the smb.conf file in /etc/samba but there’s nothing about browseable. But two other files in the same dir contain browseable. Which file (or both) should I edit?

overall_share:

[SmartWare]

  path = /DataVolume/backup/SmartWare

  comment = SmartWare share

  public = yes

  browseable = no

  writable = yes

  guest ok = yes

  map read only = no

 

## BEGIN ## sharename = Public #

[Public]

  path = /DataVolume/shares/Public

  comment = Public Share

  public = yes

  browseable = yes

  writable = yes

  guest ok = yes

  map read only = no

## END ##

 

## BEGIN ## sharename = Private #

[Private]

  path = /shares/Private

  comment = Private share

  invalid users =

  valid users = admin

  read list =

  write list = admin

  map read only = no

## END ##

overall_share-devl:

[SmartWare]

  path = /DataVolume/backup/SmartWare

  comment = SmartWare share

  browseable = no

  invalid users =

  valid users = smartware

  read list =

  write list = smartware

  map read only = no

 

[www]

  path = /var/www

  comment = www share

  public = yes

  browseable = yes

  writable = yes

  guest ok = yes

  map read only = no

  force user = www-data

## BEGIN ## sharename = Public #

[Public]

  path = /DataVolume/shares/Public

  comment = Public Share

  public = yes

  browseable = yes

  writable = yes

  guest ok = yes

  map read only = no

## END ##

Wrong ones. Those are conserned with shares and if you wish to change them then be very careful because the wrong change will break the UI dashboard. Easy to mitigate this problem my taking a copy of the working configuration file and keeping an exact journal of changes so you can rewind changes to get everything 100% working again.

Also…  Messing with this file could break the MBL’s ability to take an official update.

Try this…  In the file /etc/samba/smb.conf put in the following line. Check to see if it exists first then restart the Samba server using /etc/init.d/samba restart

lm announce = no

 The specific man entry is:

lm announce (G)

This parameter determines if nmbd(8) will produce Lanman announce broadcasts that are needed by OS/2 clients in order for them to see the Samba server in their browse list. This parameter can have three values, yes, no, or auto. The default is auto. If set to no Samba will never produce these broadcasts. If set to yes Samba will produce Lanman announce broadcasts at a frequency set by the parameter lm interval. If set to auto Samba will not send Lanman announce broadcasts by default but will listen for them. If it hears such a broadcast on the wire it will then start sending them at a frequency set by the parameter lm interval.

Default: lm announce = auto

Example: lm announce = yes

If the Samba server is not sending lan manager announcements that it should not show up on any browse lists.

Hope that helps.

Thanks again Myron. I haven’t tried anything by far. So you say now it’s not browseable I need to change? Because from this description I thought that would be it:

browseable (S)
       This controls whether this share is seen in the list of
       available shares in a net view and in the browse list.

       Default: browseable = Yes

       Example: browseable = No

Do you really understand what I want? Let me explain to be sure… I want to exclude the My Book Live under  My Network Locations from all computers in the network so that the MBL is not visible in the network anymore. Except for my own PC, where I want it to be visible under My Network Locations (this can be done by referring to the IP of the MBL).

I don’t want the MBL visible in the network, because nobody else in the network uses the MBL. And I don’t want the MBL to startup unnecessary because one is accessing for example the network locations in Windows Explorer.

Next to that, I want the TV to be the only device that can access Twonky. But I already found a solution to that as posted above. Devices can be blocked in the Twonky settings.

Myron is correct.

BROWSABLE = NO      basically hides the SHARE, but the SERVER will still show in the list of servers.

LM ANNOUNCE = NO basically hides the SERVER as a whole.

Initially I misunderstood your issue but the browsable parameter is correct if you wish shares to be visible within Network Locations or not. You change this within the file overall_share and this will not break the Dashboard UI.  In a matter of fact I have made the Public share on my MBL read-only which the Dashboard UI does not allow you to do simply by changing the parameter writable from yes to no under the section [Public].  So, on that one, I don’t understand why Western Digital is forcing everyone to have the Public share forcefully public.

I guess. It’s for WDC’s convenience and lazyness as it measn their own software will work with least hassle.  There is actually a hidden public share named SmartWare which their back-up software uses. It does also mean that ANY program or user can manipulate files within the SmattWare share without offering any form of authentication.  Not good.

Now…  lm announce = no within `/etc/samba/smb.conf’ will make sure neither of the computers on your network will see the MBL.  It’s not more of seeing the MBL on the network.  It’s more of the MBL will stop telling the devices on your network that using NetBIOS it is there.

Usual disclaimer…  Messing with these settings could break the MBL’s ability to pick-up updates.  Make copies of the configuration files you changes and keep an exact time and dated journal of any changes you make.  Before applying an official WDC update it would be a good idea to revert the configuration back to what it was, apply the official update and then put back your configuration changes.  Just to be safe…

Unless someone from WDC can confirm that changes to /etc/vsftpd.conf,/etc/samba/smb.conf and /etc/samba/overall_share will not break the up-and-coming major update to the MBL’s Linux operating system?

Thanks both! But it doesn’t work so far.

What I’ve done:

  1. Connect to the MBL with Winscp

  2. Browse to the /etc/samba/smb.conf file

  3. Make a backup of this file

  4. Edit smb.conf by adding the line: “lm announce = no” (this command didn’t exist yet in the config file)

  5. Shutdown the MBL

  6. Boot up the MBL (I have followed steps 5 + 6 because I don’t know how to restart Samba)

Why was the command not already present in the config file btw? Shouldn’t this be with the value ‘auto’ behind it?

My smb.conf now looks like this:

[global]
  workgroup = WORKGROUP
  realm = WORKGROUP
  netbios name = MyBookLive
  server string = Network Storage
  load printers = no
  printing = bsd
  printcap name = /dev/null
  disable spoolss = yes
  log file = /var/log/samba/log.smbd
  max log size = 50
  dead time = 15
  security = user
# auth methods = guest, sam_ignoredomain, winbind:ntdomain
  encrypt passwords = yes
  passdb backend = smbpasswd:/etc/samba/smbpasswd  
  create mask = 0664
  directory mask = 0775
  local master = no
  domain master = no
  preferred master = no
  socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=65536 SO_SNDBUF=65536
  min receivefile size = 128k
  use sendfile = yes
  dns proxy = no
  idmap uid = 10000-65000
  idmap gid = 10000-65000
  dont descend = /proc,/dev,/etc
  admin users =
  null passwords = yes
  map to guest = bad user
  guest account = nobody
  unix extensions = no
  lm announce = no

  include = /etc/samba/overall_share

Just a small point…  Windows PC’s cache that they get from NetBIOS broadcasts.  It can take a while for cached NetBIOS entries to expire.  Did you reboot your computer and before doing that shutting down any other computers can can take over as a computer browser?

Yes I did that. The MBL still shows up in the Windows Explorer under the workgroup…

Any other suggestions? I’m still looking for a solution.

Going to look into this. There are two components to the samba seever. The file and printer sharing is one and the other is the NetBIOS stuff and the rest. I now for sure hiding shares works. Will try hiding the NAS from the browsers and see what hapens,

Does anyone onow if the Bonjour service work with Samba?  Al I know is what with a Bonjour client installed on a computer you can refer to the My MyBook live with the domain MyBookLive.local.  (If the name of the MBL had not been changed. As i my case it’s nas.local.)

Hi Myron. Thanks for looking into this. I hope you can find a proper solution :slight_smile:

I also experimented something. I added “browseable = no” to smb.conf, to find out that the Private share is not visible anymore in Windows explorer. However the public share is still visibile. So don’t know what it exactly does…

Hmmm… Defo gonna look in to this…

lm announce (G)

    This parameter determines if nmbd(8) will produce Lanman announce broadcasts that are needed by OS/2 clients in order for them to see the Samba server in their browse list. This parameter can have three values, yes, no, or auto. The default is auto. If set to no Samba will never produce these broadcasts. If set to yes Samba will produce Lanman announce broadcasts at a frequency set by the parameter lm interval. If set to auto Samba will not send Lanman announce broadcasts by default but will listen for them. If it hears such a broadcast on the wire it will then start sending them at a frequency set by the parameter lm interval.

    Default: lm announce = auto

    Example: lm announce = yes 

lm interval (G)

    If Samba is set to produce Lanman announce broadcasts needed by OS/2 clients (see the lm announce parameter) then this parameter defines the frequency in seconds with which they will be made. If this is set to zero then no Lanman announcements will be made despite the setting of the lm announce parameter.

    Default: lm interval = 60

    Example: lm interval = 120

Looks good. Have you already tried it out / looked more into it? :slight_smile: