How to add new Windows share folder on FreeNAS

On this tutorial, I am going to show you how to enable the CIFS service and add new Windows share folder on FreeNAS server. Before we can create a new share, we need to add new hard disk to FreeNAS. Please read my previous tutorial to add new hard disk to FreeNAS.

Next, we need to enable the CIFS service on FreeNAS. Login to FreeNAS web interface and go to Service tab. Click on the setting button near the CIFS service. The new floating window will opened. Type the NetBIOS name, workgroup and description for your CIFS server.

cifs-service-freenas Once finished, click on the CIFS button to enable this service. The button will turned to ON and CIFS service is now running on FreeNAS.

cifs-service-freenas-1

Now Click Sharing button and go to Windows (CIFS) tab. Click Add Windows (CIFS) Share. On the opened window, specify the name for the new share. On this example I put ShareNAS. Enter the share comment and specify the path. Use browse button to select the path to store the files for the shared folder.

cifs-service-freenas-2

Next, is to create new user. This user will be able to access the shared directory from other computer. Go to Account|User|Add User to add new user. Enter the username, full name, password. Click OK when done.

add user freenas

Once finished, click OK and now try to open the shared folder from another Windows PC. Open Windows Explorer and type the server IP address with this format:

//192.168.2.200

Change the IP address with your own FreeNAS server IP. You should see the shared folder listed.

windows freenas

Your user now can save files on the shared folder on FreeNAS server. Its pretty easy to create new shared folder on FreeNAS server. Thank you for reading this post. Cheers.

Admin

One Comment

  1. Thank You for this. But the only thing that threw me off. Is that you must put \\ instead of // in front of your IP in file explorer. Again Thank you!

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