[TriLUG] Windows Dropping Mapped Samba Share

[Bill Weinel via TriLUG]

On 5/18/23 11:15, Brian via TriLUG wrote:
> My workstation is a Windows 10 Pro 21H2 laptop that is a member of an 
> Active Directory domain.
> The server is Debian 11.6 running Samba 2:4.13.13+dfsg-1~deb11u5, and 
> is NOT a domain member.  SMB authentication is handled locally with 
> the smbpasswd mechanism.
>
> If I access files from Windows using UNC paths, everything is copacetic.
>
> If I map a drive on Windows, some random period of time later, the 
> drive mapping is silently dropped.  Any application with files open on 
> that mapped drive just sees the file go away.  No events are generated 
> in the Windows Event Log when the disconnect occurs.

A couple of things have been known to cause this issue.

It has been previously reported that some anti-virus software programs 
(i.e.: Malwarebytes.. maybe others) will automatically disconnect samba 
shares after a certain period of time in order to provide better 
security. Supposedly this issue has been fixed (at least in 
Malwarebytes), but I don't use it, no clue whether it has been or not. 
You could try disabling any anti-virus programs and see if the issue clears.

Second, Windows has a default time out period in the LanmanServer which 
causes an automatic client disconnect after a certain period of time. It 
used to be 15 minutes in Windows7, but I don't know the current default 
value for Windows 10.
However, it should be settable using a registry parameter.

You can always try making the share is 'persistent' from the command line:

net use z: \\share\volume_name /persistent:Yes

cheers,
bill