Clarification on hosts allow subnet in smb.conf example

[HistoryJunkie]

Hi Brandon,

Thanks for putting together this guide — it’s been really helpful!

I ran into an issue that took a bit to troubleshoot, and I wanted to suggest a small clarification to help others avoid the same confusion.

In your example smb.conf, you include the line:

hosts allow = 10.0.0.0/24

Since your guide is written with your own 10.x.x.x network in mind, I initially assumed I just needed to swap the first octets to match my IP layout and used:

hosts allow = 192.0.0.0/24

However, that range doesn’t include 192.168.0.x, which is where my devices are. As a result, all connections were denied, even though Samba was otherwise configured correctly. Updating it to:

hosts allow = 192.168.0.0/24

immediately resolved the problem.

Suggestion: It might help future readers if you include a quick note next to that line explaining that the CIDR block must match the user's actual LAN subnet (e.g., 192.168.1.0/24, 10.0.0.0/24, etc.), rather than just copying your example verbatim.

Thanks again for the guide — it’s solid overall, and this small clarification could make it even more beginner-friendly.

Best regards,
Tim

[Alik-V]

This helped me resolve the issue in my setup, thank you @fwbflnative

[TechHutTV]

Thank you! I'll add a note linked to this issue.

[danielvanhooser]

Hello there! @TechHutTV @fwbflnative

The video and guide has been excellent but I ran into this same problem. I'm able to confirm that the IPs match across my subnet. But when I attempt to run,
"/etc/samba$ sudo apt install wsdd-server"

it runs into an error stating,
"E: Unable to locate package wsdd-server"

Also, I'm still unable to view my device in File Explorer. This is my first project and first time posting on github. Please help!

[JohnCode1]

@danielvanhooser i might not be able to help but gonna give it a shot, id first make sure your server has internet

ping google.com

Second when ive ran sudo apt install wsdd-server
I first ran

sudo apt install wsdd

Lastly if none of that works id make sure your up to date

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

[danielvanhooser]

Thanks @JohnCode1 ! I was able to get things up and running finally. I appreciate the quick reply!

[mirodriguez8]

@danielvanhooser what changes did you end up doing? i am currently running into the same issue.

[super-aminK]

Can anyone help me if I have two CIDRs that i need to be allowed ?
i have two vlan ranges 192.168.0.0/24 and 192.168.2.0/24 that i need allowed. Will it be two lines for allowed hosts with one ip range each ?

[JohnCode1]

@super-aminK you put them on the same line and i just seperated them by space. Verified just now that it works

   hosts allow = 192.168.60.0/24 192.168.2.0/24

Note: if you do two separate lines like so

   hosts allow = 192.168.60.0/24
   hosts allow = 192.168.2.0/24

The second will take precedence so you will only be giving access to the subnet of 192.168.2.0/24 and no access will be given to 192.168.60.0/24

[super-aminK]

@super-aminK you put them on the same line and i just seperated them by space. Verified just now that it works

hosts allow = 192.168.60.0/24 192.168.2.0/24
Note: if you do two separate lines like so

hosts allow = 192.168.60.0/24
hosts allow = 192.168.2.0/24
The second will take precedence so you will only be giving access to the subnet of 192.168.2.0/24 and no access will be given to 192.168.60.0/24

Thank you so much. I was seeing that too, only the second one was working. I ended up doing a /16 instead but will change to wait you suggested.

I got to his second video and it looks like we are doing VMs+ docker over LXC+docker - so trying to figure all of that out now. Thank you.

[TechHutTV]

Thanks everyone for the helpful discussion here! I've updated the docs to address all of this:

• Default hosts allow now covers all common private networks (192.168.0.0/16 10.0.0.0/8 172.16.0.0/12)
• Added a note explaining how to customize for your network
• Fixed wsdd install instructions (it's wsdd, not wsdd-server)

For multiple VLANs, as @JohnCode1 correctly pointed out, put them on the same line separated by spaces:

hosts allow = 192.168.0.0/24 192.168.2.0/24

See the updated guide: https://github.com/TechHutTV/homelab/tree/main/storage#creating-smb-shares