Hello fzinken and darwindesign,
I have good news.
I found the webpage https://osmc.tv/wiki/general/file-sharing-with-a-nas,-media-server,-windows-share-or-other-device/
And found the relevant points of:
You cannot currently browse to SMB servers if using the latest version of the SMB protocol.
and
Instead of entering the whole string for each share, you can choose Browse and then Add network location. Enter the server name or IP address in the Server name field and enter appropriate credentials for access to the server in Username and Password. Hit OK and the server will now appear in the ‘Browse for a new share’ list and you can then browse to any SMB shares on that server available to user.
So I did that and I can access my shares.
Performance sucks and the box was continually rebooting as it grabbed the movies in my folder. Playing movies was ok.
I am now looking at https://discourse.osmc.tv/t/mounting-network-shares-with-autofs-alternative-to-fstab/74228 to see if performance will be better.
I really want to thank all of you @sam_nazarko, @fzinken and @darwindesign for your patience and help throughout the ordeal. I am pleased to say we got there in the end!!!
Regards,
fbagnato