Just a point here, but the OP says he is accessing 7 FROM *nix. In this case the smb.conf is not involved. That is for the *nix server process. With an old samba client, your problem most likely relates to communications-signing. 1: Disable SMB2 on the 7 box if you haven't already. It's buggy. And exploitable! 2: in the group policy editor (gpedit.msc) turn off the policy which enforces "Always sign communications" Windows Settings/Local Policies/Security Options: Digitally sign server communication (Always) >Disabled. (I think the latter may be equivalent to the registry key you changed. Give it a try anyway.)