Help connecting Macbook Pro to Server 2008 R2

[ProfessorKaos64]

Im having issues with my macbook recognizing my server 2008 pc automatically , it has the file sharing role on, network discovery is on with the services needed, but it wont show up on my mac, any ideas? its part of WORKGROUP, and named.
simple issue thats driving me nuts since I switched from Win Server 2003 to 2008. I even went as far as shutting off SMB 2.0 for compatibility.

I can manually add the SMB share by IP address using COMMAND+K, but it won't automatically pick it up.

Any ideas?
Thank you,

 

[nessus]

Did you have anything intsalled on your old 2k3 box that caused Bonjour for Windows to be installed and the server was therefore boradcasting its presence though Apple's version of UPnP?

Microsoft network browse functionality is based on UDP mailslots (non gauranteed delivery traffic) and is notoriously unreliable. The inability to connect to a server by name is not a valid test of network functionality even in a purely MS only environment if you don't have DNS or WINS implemented. The fact it actually does work most of the time is amazing.

 

[ProfessorKaos64]

So what do you suggest, using automator or accounts > login items ? I know I could right a small script to mount on boot or mount the drive and pull that into "login items" for my account. Its a shame it used to work fine before.