Accessing share without using IP address

[ohlin5]

Hey guys, just had a quick question that hopefully someone here would be able to enlighten me on. I got FreeNAS installed and up and running yesterday, and I really wanted to simply be able to access the share I created by typing something like "\\server" into windows explorer. Through much tinkering, I found out that I could access the share successfully by typing "\\freenas" into windows explorer.

Digging further, I found the CIFS netbios name setting, and by changing that to "server", I was able to then access the share successfully by typing the "\\server" that I just mentioned. However, I am still able to access it by typing "\\freenas" (I can access it both ways).

So, this isn't an issue or anything, I'm simply wondering why I am still able to access it using the old (default?) "\\freenas", even after changing the netbios name. I tried changing the main name under global settings, but that didn't seem to have any real effect on anything related to this. Is there another setting that I'm missing or something?

Like I said, not an issue or anything, but I love this stuff and enjoy learning all about the inner settings/workings of it, so if anyone has any pointers or insight here they would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[BoogaBooga]

because freenas is the host name and it resolves to an IP, so \\freenas is the same as \\10.100.1.1.

\\server is accessing it via the netbios name. Either freenas is acting as a WINS server (so it keeps track of all netbios names and addresses on the network) or freenas is broadcasting the netbios name resolution to the windows clients on the network.

netbios is old and clunky. I suggest using the a hostname method or IP. Sometimes the netbios names don't resolve correctly and windows won't be able to access the machine via the netbios name while it would still work using the hostname/ip method.

 

[ohlin5]

Thanks for the suggestions! I feel a little stupid now lol...I used ipconfig /flushdns to reset the dns cache, as I think that's what was causing my issue :/ After rebooting (both the freenas server & my system to be 100% sure) everything worked as expected. //freenas no longer accesses the share. Thanks again for the help, I really appreciate it!