RPi can access smb://$server/$share no problem through file manager
RPi can not resolve //$server/$share
RPi can not ping/nslookup //$server/$share
RPi can ping IP address of //$server
Looking like a DNS issue. How would I go about resolving this? Don't want to specify WINS or a DNS server.
installing these helps resolve windows hostnames:
sudo apt-get install samba winbind
sudo nano /etc/nsswitch.conf
and change 'hosts: files dns' TO 'hosts: files wins dns'
if your rpi is on a static ip you may have to add the dns server in the /etc/resolve.conf
I would not expect //$server/$share to resolve as a host name using DNS or WINS. $server is (presumably) the host name. It looks like you can ping it by name (e.g. ping server) by omitting the $share and extraneous '/' portions of the commands that fail, so you are getting name resolution. That would be the expected result.
