Early on I rejected a lot of Linux distros because I could not "easily" find items on my home network. I found that generally I can paste the smb address into the location field in most file managers and navigate directly to my desired location. A smb address will look a bit like this, but with numbers instead of # smb://###.###.#.###/
A quick web search will usually supply you with the address required for your device.
I can confirm that this works perfectly on Solus Plasma.

Archdevil I don't use smb. In Nautilus, I don't have to.

Interesting. What do you suppose Natilus uses to browse a Windows network?

    Archdevil I don't use smb. In Nautilus, I don't have to.

    I'm not trying to poke fun at you. The reason I replied the way I did is because every file broswer on every one of the dozens of distros I've examined used Server Message Block (SMB), a Windows protocol, by default to browse networks. I don't really know why, but it's true. Maybe it's because most corporate user networks are based on Windows? Or it's easiest to implement? Like I said, I don't know why, I just know that it's so.

    And I also know for a fact that it's true for every file manager of every Solus edition. I have VMs of all of them, so I've used them all, and they can all access my NAS shares. Using another protocol, like the Linux Network File System (nfs) that I use with my DS415+ requires appending /etc/fstab (file system table) to list the shares, what protocol is used to access them, some options, and where they're to be mounted (usually on folders in /mnt). And most times it requires a "helper" application like nfs-utils in Solus, or nfs-commmon in many other distros.. It's not rocket science to arrange all this, it's just not a default.

    This is Nautilus on Budgie. It works the same way. It uses the smb protocol to browse the network. Here it shows my DiskStation415 NAS in exactly the same way that Dolphin did on my KDE Plasma machine. I hope I've been able to clear up some of the mystery for you.

      I believe my NAS uses NFS instead of SMB. And I believe Nautilus supports this and Dolphin doesn't by default. Can that be arranged?

        Archdevil I believe my NAS uses NFS instead of SMB.

        I don't believe that Synology makes a NAS that can't support Windows networks. I strongly suspect that it supports both prodocols, just like mine. I'm curious, what model is yours?

        When you click on Network in Dolphin on your Plasma system, does it not look like this?

        And if you use it to display your NAS shares, does it not look like this?

        If it does, then your NAS clearly supports smb, as it says at the top of each of those listings. (It supports ftp, as well.)

            WetGeek To be fair, I cannot see my SMB drive from Dolphin without linking directly to it with an address. If @Archdevil can find what the address of the device is then we will have a better idea of how to move on from here.
            Also Dolphin has lots of additional helper applications that might make finding his device easier.

                BuzzPCSOS To be fair, I cannot see my SMB drive from Dolphin without linking directly to it with an address.

                Are you talking about an NAS (network attached storage) or simply a remote disk that you access via smb? I ask, because there's a big difference. An NAS is - among other things - a file server, not a file. It's understandable that they would be accessed differently by a file manager. Archdevil and I are both using Synology NASs, which are small Linux systems.

                    WetGeek I have a WD MyCloud on my home wireless network. Solus Plasma with Dolphin has never seen it but back when I was using Budgie I could access the drive even from the live boot image.
                    Sorry if I have confused the issue here but the symptoms @Archdevil described sounded exactly like the issue that I had when I made the switch.

                        BuzzPCSOS Sorry if I have confused the issue here

                        No worries ... I just wanted to make sure we weren't comparing apples to wheel bearings.

                        It's been a polite discussion so far, but I've already said all I have to say on the subject, and I'm not here to embarrass anybody or argue with anyone's beliefs, so I'm going to duck out for now, hopefully before anything like that happens.

                            😄

                            WetGeek 😄 Rusty wheel bearings is what I mostly run on these days, being polite is what makes us civilised.

                              BuzzPCSOS This is exactly what I mean. I can add SMB, but it should not be necessary to do so. When I run Nautilus on Debian it works without issues too. It's a Dolphin thing, but I believe it can be fixed.

                                  Archdevil It's a Dolphin thing, but I believe it can be fixed.

                                  Just curious .. it's been a long thread, and I've lost track of what you believe can be fixed. Remind me?

                                    Not trying to tread on toes here, this is just the way I am seeing it.
                                    The part of Dolphin that needs fixing is that it can't see NFS?
                                    Much of what we take for granted happens behind the scenes, we push a button and the desired thing happens. Surely the objective here is to achieve the goal rather than how we get there?
                                    If SMB is really something that must be avoided, then please take up the very kind offer to show you how to let Dolphin show a list of your shares using NFS which was made by @WetGeek very early on in this thread.

                                    I have seen 2 references to nautilus in the thread I thought we got rid of it?

                                      Axios I thought we got rid of it?

                                      Not completely. One can still install it from the repo.

                                      I thought it might still be the default for the GNOME DE, but whatever is used there is simply called Files. Even in the Preferences > Help > About menu item, all we can see is just Files. And eopkg can't find Files in the repo, so the info command is no help.

                                          WetGeek Nautilus still is the default file browser for GNOME. Files is just the simplified name for it that gets displayed in StartMenu respective GNOME dash/appgrid. So, no matter if I launch nautilus or files, it's always nautilus that will come up. In the same way evince is called document viewer.
                                          You can see this if you inspect nautilus desktop file in /usr/share/applications/org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop
                                          There you will find Name=Files

                                              Sebastian Nautilus still is the default file browser for GNOME.

                                              Thanks, I thought that might be the case. The recent discussions about getting rid of Nautilus were with respect to the Budgie DE, if I remember correctly.

                                                24 days later
                                                TraceyC changed the title to Unable to access NFS mount on KDE .