Force Finder to log in as Guest to a SMB share

Question

I have a QNAP NAS that offers a few SMB shares. As I'm in a trusted environment, my shares are accessible as guest rather than with a combination of username and password.

Problem

Now, when I click the name of the device in Finder's sidebar, I get the black "Connection failed" bar, with the option "Connect as...". When I click that, I receive:

I can however press ⌘ + K and enter the server's name manually, which gets me to this window:

Here, I have to select "guest". Now, I can select one of the shares to connect to, and I'm finally connected to the server. If I select it in the sidebar, I get a list of all shares available, because I'm connected as "guest", obviously:

What I need

Well, as soon as I unmount all shares, I have to go through the same procedure of manually logging in as "guest" again, which I find quite annoying.

Is there any way I could get Finder (or the underlying SMB client) to know which credentials to use?

Or should I look for the solution rather on the server side? (I know that other SMB shares seem to work fine in my network)

Diagnostics

The only thing I can get out of Console.app is:

5/15/11 7:36:40 PM  /System/Library/CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/MacOS/Finder[200]  SharePointBrowser::handleOpenCallBack returned 64

This message occurs when I click the name of the SMB server in the Finder sidebar.

Here's the output of `smbclient -L meredith -U guest -d=2

charon:~ werner$ smbclient -L meredith -U guest -d=2
added interface ip=192.168.100.11 bcast=192.168.100.255 nmask=255.255.255.0
tdb(unnamed): tdb_open_ex: could not open file /private/var/samba/gencache.tdb: Permission denied
Got a positive name query response from 192.168.100.100 ( 192.168.100.100 )
Password: 
Domain=[MEREDITH] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 3.5.2]

    Sharename       Type      Comment
    ---------       ----      -------
    music           Disk      
    movies          Disk      
    photos          Disk      
    software        Disk      
    archive         Disk      
    backups         Disk      
    IPC$            IPC       IPC Service (NAS Server)
Got a positive name query response from 192.168.100.100 ( 192.168.100.100 )
Domain=[MEREDITH] OS=[Unix] Server=[Samba 3.5.2]

    Server               Comment
    ---------            -------

    Workgroup            Master
    ---------            -------
    WORKGROUP            MEREDITH

Also, things I've tried:

• There is no relevant entry in the Keychain (but why would it, I'm only connecting as guest)
• Connecting with user name "Guest" and empty password logs me in but still after ejecting the last share, I get the same "Connection failed" error as before. The appropriate entry is made in the Keychain but obviously has no effect.

Answer 1

Create a file called ~/Library/Preferences/nsmb.conf and add to it:

[default]
minauth=none

Disconnect from your server, reconnect and try again. This worked for me (I had the same problem).

Found it at http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-917156.html

Answer 2

In Mac OS X 10.7.3, I used the following string in Finder's "Connect To Server..." (Command-K) for a similar server in my office:

smb://Guest:@serverAddress/volume

You need both the ':' and "@". I believe it works out as UserName:Password@address .

After the volume appeared, I tried to put it in my shortcut bar, but it wouldn't stay.

I made an alias, and tested it after disconnecting. It worked fine. No window appeared to choose "Guest".

Answer 3

Here's an article from Apple that should fix this.