Network Storage & Remote Shares Master Playbook

Cross-platform architectural reference for auditing hosted SMB/NFS shares, active remote mounts, and diagnosing access failures.

Overview

n shares audits both sides of the storage equation:

1. Hosted Shares: What folders this system makes available to the network (SMB, Samba, NFS).

2. Connected Remote Shares: What network drives, UNC paths, and CIFS/NFS mounts this system currently accesses.

Summary Matrix of Cross-Platform Storage Traps

| Operating System | The Silent Trap | The Root Cause | Actionable Fix |

| :--- | :--- | :--- | :--- |

| Windows | Drives mapped in Admin terminal disappear in Explorer | UAC isolates drive letters by Logon Session LUID | Enable EnableLinkedConnections = 1 in registry |

| Windows | 'Everyone: Full Control' on share still gives Access Denied | Windows enforces the most restrictive rule (Share ∩ NTFS) | Grant matching Modify/Write permissions in NTFS ACL via icacls |

| macOS | NAS / SMB transfer speed capped at 15-20 MB/s | Mandatory SMB packet signing (signing_req=yes) eats CPU | Add signing_req=no to /etc/nsmb.conf |

| macOS | Hidden .DS_Store and ._* files litter network shares | Finder automatically generates metadata files on all mounts | Set DSDontWriteNetworkStores -bool TRUE in defaults |

| Linux | Desktop user gets Permission Denied on mounted CIFS share | Kernel defaults to root:root (0755) ownership | Mount with uid=$(id -u),gid=$(id -g),file_mode=0775 |

| Linux | Client root files on NFS owned by nobody | NFS server defaults to root_squash for security | Use no_root_squash in /etc/exports if required |

Useful Netscrew Commands

• n shares: Full share audit with actionable advisories
• n sys: Hardware inventory including storage drives and shares
• n -h uac-shares: Deep-dive into Windows UAC mapped drives
• n -h ntfs-acls: Deep-dive into NTFS ACLs vs Share permissions
• n -h macos-smb: Deep-dive into macOS SMB speed optimization
• n -h linux-cifs: Deep-dive into Linux CIFS mount permissions