Cannot scan to a SMB location on Vista (Part II)

Investigating scanning to SMB problem - using RICOH multi-function device and VISTA Home Premium edition - found out, the proposed solution is no always enough.

Trying to send scanned page to a shared folder on VISTA Home Premium box still returned error "connection error". Other computer in the same net segment can easily create files and folder on this share but RICOH cannot.

Installed wireshark on the VISTA box and recorded network conversation between RICOH and VISTA. Following fragment was the key to found error cause:

No. Time Delta Source Destination Protocol Info SrcPort DstPort HwSrc HwDst Length

2 21:16:19.909854 0.000099 192.168.2.105 RNPC5354D NBNS Name query response NBSTAT 137 61929 00:1d:92:29:55:ec 00:00:74:c5:35:4d 253

Frame 2 (253 bytes on wire, 253 bytes captured) Ethernet II, Src: Micro-St_29:55:ec (00:1d:92:29:55:ec), Dst: Ricoh_c5:35:4d (00:00:74:c5:35:4d) Internet Protocol, Src: 192.168.2.105 (192.168.2.105), Dst: RNPC5354D (192.168.2.102) User Datagram Protocol, Src Port: netbios-ns (137), Dst Port: 61929 (61929) NetBIOS Name Service

Transaction ID: 0x0000

Flags: 0x8400 (Name query response, No error)

Questions: 0

Answer RRs: 1

Authority RRs: 0

Additional RRs: 0

Answers

*<00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00>: type NBSTAT, class IN

Name: *<00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00><00>

Type: NBSTAT

Class: IN

Time to live: 0 time

Data length: 155

Number of names: 6

Name: SCH<9a>R<00> (Workstation/Redirector)

Name flags: 0x400 (B-node, unique, active)

Name: RA<00> (Workstation/Redirector)

Name flags: 0x8400 (B-node, group, active)

Name: SCHsR<20> (Server service)

Name flags: 0x400 (B-node, unique, active)

Name: RA<1e> (Browser Election Service)

Name flags: 0x8400 (B-node, group, active)

Name: RA<1d> (Local Master Browser)

Name flags: 0x400 (B-node, unique, active)

Name: <01><02>__MSBROWSE__<02><01> (Browser)

Name flags: 0x8400 (B-node, group, active)

Unit ID: 00:1d:92:29:55:ec

The NETBIOS name of the VISTA box was using german umlaute characters: SCHÜR. These characters were wrong interpreted by RICOH (seems to be, the built-in networking communication software cannot process localized characters - only english character set).

Changed the name to MYPC - it worked immediately.

One more remark: localization of VISTA is smart. I'd say - too smart. When I tried to the name of the box to SCHUER, VISTA keeped box name as SCHÜR instead - automatically transform UE letters combination to an Ü according regional settings.

So, never use local language special characters if you want that networking devices speaking with shares on your machine over NETBIOS can connect to them.

Enjoy!