I always set my CE box as the SMB master because its the only box thats on all the time.
My OpenSUSE PC frequently loses the SMB network, but this is generally caused by an update unilaterally resetting and my NETWORK SMB settings back to default hidden behind its firewall. Opensuse is terrible for regularly screwing up samba setups. I always make certain it is set to secondary SMB server.
The whole SMB1,2,3 is another configuration minefield. However I generally find that Zeroconfig finds the SMB shares better than anything else in mysetup.
Shoog