I’ve recently tried setting up Samba sharing on my Asus RT-N18U Wireless Router with latest available official ASUSWRT software (3.0.0.4.378_9545-ge20f0c3). In order to achieve this, I followed what seemed a logical menu path:
USB Application -> Media Services -> “Network Place (Samba) Share / Cloud Disk”
No big deal so far, and then no issues either in creating and assigning permissions to users:
Unfortunately, what seemed (and should have been) a simple operation didn’t bring expected results. In fact, whenever I was attempting to access samba shares from my PC running Linux Mint (v. 17.2 Rafaela), I was either repeatedly re-asked for a password, or facing connection timed out errors. Samba sharing simply seemed not to be working.
A quick lookup on the Internet helped me not, as no other seemed to be facing the same issue. Or – at least – I have been unable to find a solution. So I have started to investigate a bit myself, using my old time friend, the powerful Linux command line. What I have discovered using smbclient is that there were some configuration issues:
/usr/bin/smbclient -L jerk WARNING: The "syslog" option is deprecated Enter root's password:
Server does not support EXTENDED_SECURITY but 'client use spnego = yes and 'cli
Note: jerk is the name of my router; replace it with your own router name, if you wish to reproduce the above
In order to fix this, I have added the following two lines:
client NTLMv2 auth = no client use spnego = no
within the global section (look for a [global] entry) of my local samba configuration file – which is /etc/samba/smb.conf on my PC. Then I also added the following to a newly created smb.conf file within a – newly created – .smb directory within my user’s home: That means the /home/MY_USER/.smb/smb.conf file now contains the following:
[global] client NTLMv2 auth = no client use spnego = no
I then reloaded my local samba server (I don’t know/think this was necessary) with the following:
service samba restart
The trick allowed me to get Samba sharing working.
I’m afraid others might face the same problem, so here it is what I did in order to make my Asus RT-N18U router Samba share work with my Linux Mint PC. If this helps you, let me know. Surely getting some feedback would encourage me to write other similar posts in the future.
Unless otherwise specified, all content of this website has been created by me,
Stefano (Steve) Maraspin
and is licensed under a creative commons share-alike license.
You can use stuff freely, but I ask you to link to this website.
Read more about this at 
Thanks a lot, this worked also for me
Cheers!
Thank you a lot!!!
works for me with Asus RT-N56UB1, Ubuntu 16.04
The problem is that Asus router firmware is still using Samba v3.0.33, released Nov 2008. The current version of Samba is 4.7.5, released Feb 2018. Yep… code that is a decade old, and incredibly insecure. PLEASE join me in contacting ASUS and requiring them to include a current version of Samba.
The solution contained in this article does work, and I’ve had to implement it w/ current builds of Libreelec on my system, too, in order to utilize the USB HD server option of the Asus RT-AC56u. What the solution does, however, is to FURTHER reduce the security of what is already an insecure protocol, and that is not acceptable.
If you ARE disabling spnego and ntlmv2, then please make sure you don’t have anything on your attached drive that you’re not willing to share with the world.
You’re making a good point here. And sure, it’d be great if Asus were to update Samba on their routers. I also agree about what you say on security. At the same time, I take for granted that a similar device is to be used in a home environment, and without sensitive data on it. That’s how and why I made it to work this way. No matter how secure a newer version of Samba (or any other file sharing protocol) might become, I’d still go with a firewall ahead of everything else.
Your post helped me to solve my broken Samba shares after updateing Libreelec to the latest version. Thanks a lot!
I can’t thank you enough!
Brilliant , this solved my issue with usb disk connected to my RT-AC68U Asus router and Linux Mint 18.1
Thank you so much! This solved my problem in Ubuntu 16.04 accessing my Asus RT-AC56U! Very much appreciate the solution!
Godly amazing!! Your solution solves my SMB connection problem between RT-N18U and my LibreELEC box(mxq pro 4k). Good job!!
Awesome. Worked a treat on Ubuntu 16.04.
Hi,
Thx for your brain u did it smartly.
Work also for RT-AC68U & Ubuntu.
Wizardry that works. Thank you. I think this is a problem – a Mint problem? An Asus problem – that should be fixed, i.e. we should not need this hack.
Had the same issue with ASUS RT-AC68P wireless router. Using LMDE version. Was pulling my hair out, glad you posted this work around. Even got Gigalo working like it should. Thanks
Same issue here with same router, Linux 18 Sarah. You’re the man !! (for me the change did not require to restart samba server )
Worked for me. Thanks.