So first question: Not mounting.

Are you using a domain controller?
Most likely not, and if that is the case: leave the "Domain" field empty and try again.

Second question: Name resolving.

Yep, I've seen that problem not just on Macs. That is why I prefer using IP addresses.
For proper resolving a local server, you'll need to type ".local" behind the server name.

So for your scenario, this will nog work (assuming "server" is the name of your Windows 10 machine):

ping server

But this will very likely work:

ping server.local

(I had to get used to that as well when I moved to macOS)

This is how I do it : For important devices (eg. your server) I make a DHCP reservation in my modem/router. So in the modem your ISP provided. Basically you're telling the DHCP to use a fixed IP address for the MAC address of your Windows machine. I always pick an easy to remember IP address, like 192.168.1.100 or something like that. So now, when you Windows 10 machine starts, it will ask for an IP address and always will get the same IP address.

Third question: SMB version support.

SMB version support of course depends 100% on what macOS offers.
From what I could find, SMB is supported as of MacOSX 10.7 (Lion) and by default enabled as of 10.9 (Mavericks).
Maybe not relevant, but here is a post by Apple to force SMB 3 on your Mac, but I have not found any confirmation that Monterey (I would assume it does support SMB 3).

ConnectMeNow 100% relies on macOS supporting the needed protocol.

Fourth question: Slash forward or backwards

Well, my Finder uses the slash forward when using Go->Connect to Server (eg. smb://192.168.1.100/Documents ) and so does ConnectMeNow. When using backslashes in Finder (eg. server\path) it will fail to mount. (tried it just now on Sonoma and Ventura)

Slash forward is the common directory separator under macOS and Linux. Only Windows (as far as I know) uses the backslash notation. 

I hope this help 😊  -- let me know how this worked out.

Many thanks Hans,

I have now got it working.

What did the trick was leaving out both the domain and user name and password. I dont quite understand the latter but it could be that as I have previously connected by Finder it has cached these credentials in keychain although i have no idea where to find them.

Regard slashes you are correct My Bad 🤐. I googled it yesterday and unix always used forward slashes it was Microsoft that screwed it up with MSDos by using backslashes.

I just need to work out how I can get ConnectMeNow to run the same time every morning. (Although the server shuts down every night my Mac does not and is permanently logged in, so the option to run at log-in is not available).

Can this be done with Automator? I've never used this application before but at first glance it doesn't list ConnectMeNow in the list of applications. Maybe I need to create a script? or a Chron Job!!! Have not ventured into this area at all.

Fozzie

Hi Fozzie,

glad you've got it to work. But you're right ... leaving out the username and password shouldn't even work haha! Windows 10/11 are notoriously know for cause problems and not allowing anonymous or guest logins. Now leaving out the domain: that is as expected. Is suspect folks tend to read this as "workgroup" instead of "domain". It happens - glad it works!

There is no way to control ConnectMeNow with Automator.
However ... you can start ConnectMeNow at startup of your Mac, and just leave it running.
Next you can use the "Mount on Appear" option. When ConnectMeNow sees the server appear in the network, it will try to mount it automatically.
Few things to keep in mind:

1) Under "Preferences" (in CMN, lower left corner of the window) set "Check network every x seconds" to a reasonable time. If you're not in a hurry, use 60 seconds or more. The higher the number, the less it will "ping" the network.

2) For the given share definition, go to the "Advanced Options" tab and check "On Server IP address Appear" - this requires the IP address, but if a mount works with a server name, then that should work as well. The reason why it says "not recommended" is to avoid too much network activity, which we'd like to minimize of course and that's why we set the polling delay as high as acceptable. 

Hope that helps 😊 

Many thanks Hans,

Have followed your instructions and will monitor it. When working consistently I will then play around with the option to run a script after mount to backup my mac every morning.

Again many thanks for your help

Regards

Fozzie

p.s. tip for auto-mount on appear:

Sometimes the server is already seen in the network before its services are running. In that case you'd have to wait a little bit for the mount to succeed. You can influence this under the advanced tab of an individual share, by playing a little with "Mount Delay" and "Mount attempts". For example set "Mount Delay" to 30 seconds (if that would be appropriate for you server), or maybe set "Mount Delay" to 5 seconds and set "Mount attempts" to something ilke 20. This may take a little testing to find the sweet spot.

Hope this helps 😊