5 ms·

Samba/SMB being so bad is the main reason I still often fire up ftpdmin and winscp to transfer files across machines. That and bad USB ports. And there being

Samba/SMB being so bad is the main reason I still often fire up ftpdmin and winscp to transfer files across machines. That and bad USB ports. And there being some decent FTP clients for android.

api 3y ago
Why aren’t there any great remote drive mounting protocols? NFS works in some cases but is ancient and really only suited to cluster backplanes. Samba/CIFS sucks. SSHfs is a hack. It’s a super common thing that just has no solution. I guess there’s way more money in solving it with a heavy cloud service that can charge rent for what should be a trivial core feature of every OS.
- convolvatron 3y ago
  plan9's protocol seemed like it might have some legs...but it seems to be being deprecated
  - pseudostem 3y ago
    WSL on windows uses plan 9 protocol(s) to mount my linux VM as a folder under windows. *As suggested by another HNer.
- tmpX7dMeXU 3y ago
  Because there hasn’t been enough of a need. The main use cases are covered by what we’ve already got.
- teddyh 3y ago
  > NFS works in some cases but is ancient and really only suited to cluster backplanes. I was given to understand that NFSv4 was made to be much better for these purposes?
- GoblinSlayer 3y ago
  What's the problem with sshfs?
Dalewyn 3y ago
SMB is great and Windows handles it perfectly fine (as it should), but outside of Windows is problematic because Samba is sincerely fucking terrible and the only reason I can see why anyone uses it is because there's nothing better. Seriously, I can even get my Windows 98 SE laptop to talk with the rest of my Windows machines (including Windows 11) via SMB perfectly fine. Meanwhile, Samba requires divine miracles just to get the bloody thing working for thirty seconds.
- dmz73 3y ago
  Counterpoint to SMB on Windows being great: SMB usually works well in a domain environment between client and server machines if they are all on the same domain. SMB often and randomly does not work between two client computers on a domain and in workgroup environment. I have to configure SSH server on Windows computers that I access often because of random inability of Windows to talk to another computer (sometimes sitting right next to it). Samba on the other hand takes some setting up but once it works, it keeps working...until the next OS/major version upgrade.
  - housemusicfan 3y ago
    Here's some terrible, unholy advice along the lines of violating "don't cross the streams": Setup a WINS server. WINS, ancient and depreciated, and "they" say it should never be needed anymore, will act as a "cat herder" in a workgroup environment. The nice part about WINS is the server requires no configuration. You start the service and point the clients to it and that's it. Configure your DHCP server to hand out the WINS address and you're done. There's a good chance your problems may disappear.

Samba/SMB being so bad is the main reason I still often fire up ftpdmin and winscp to transfer files across machines. That and bad USB ports. And there being some decent FTP clients for android.

api 3y ago

Why aren’t there any great remote drive mounting protocols? NFS works in some cases but is ancient and really only suited to cluster backplanes. Samba/CIFS sucks. SSHfs is a hack. It’s a super common thing that just has no solution. I guess there’s way more money in solving it with a heavy cloud service that can charge rent for what should be a trivial core feature of every OS.

convolvatron 3y ago
plan9's protocol seemed like it might have some legs...but it seems to be being deprecated
- pseudostem 3y ago
  WSL on windows uses plan 9 protocol(s) to mount my linux VM as a folder under windows. *As suggested by another HNer.
tmpX7dMeXU 3y ago
Because there hasn’t been enough of a need. The main use cases are covered by what we’ve already got.
teddyh 3y ago
> NFS works in some cases but is ancient and really only suited to cluster backplanes. I was given to understand that NFSv4 was made to be much better for these purposes?
GoblinSlayer 3y ago
What's the problem with sshfs?

Dalewyn 3y ago

SMB is great and Windows handles it perfectly fine (as it should), but outside of Windows is problematic because Samba is sincerely fucking terrible and the only reason I can see why anyone uses it is because there's nothing better. Seriously, I can even get my Windows 98 SE laptop to talk with the rest of my Windows machines (including Windows 11) via SMB perfectly fine. Meanwhile, Samba requires divine miracles just to get the bloody thing working for thirty seconds.

dmz73 3y ago
Counterpoint to SMB on Windows being great: SMB usually works well in a domain environment between client and server machines if they are all on the same domain. SMB often and randomly does not work between two client computers on a domain and in workgroup environment. I have to configure SSH server on Windows computers that I access often because of random inability of Windows to talk to another computer (sometimes sitting right next to it). Samba on the other hand takes some setting up but once it works, it keeps working...until the next OS/major version upgrade.
- housemusicfan 3y ago
  Here's some terrible, unholy advice along the lines of violating "don't cross the streams": Setup a WINS server. WINS, ancient and depreciated, and "they" say it should never be needed anymore, will act as a "cat herder" in a workgroup environment. The nice part about WINS is the server requires no configuration. You start the service and point the clients to it and that's it. Configure your DHCP server to hand out the WINS address and you're done. There's a good chance your problems may disappear.