And NOW, as the screenshot below shows, we are able to successfully follow the MS DFS link.
Figure 12: Adding an lmhosts entry and reloading the NetBIOS name cache from the cmd window
Naturally, in a production environment, you would want to either use WINS or DNS, to globally resolve name issues across your enterprise rather than having to add entries to the lmhosts file of every client needing to follow this link. But this simple method is very useful for troubleshooting.
NOTE: Since it is the client’s responsibility to directly connect to the node (server) and share name that the MS DFS referral response returns, it is entirely possible to create MS DFS links on your HP CIFS Server share that the server itself is unable to resolve or connect to so long as the CLIENT can resolve the name and has the appropriate credentials to connect to the share on the referred server. There is no check on the HP CIFS Server side to verify that a MS DFS link is reachable.