smbfs translator - timeouts?

Hi,

New to HURD, and just booted up the Debian GNU/HURD image in Virtualbox
(neat!). Trying to get the smbfs translator to run, and it works in the
debugging approach suggested (
http://www.gnu.org/software/hurd/hurd/debugging/translator.html -
redirecting stdout) but gives timeouts otherwise. i.e.

jamesh@debian:~$ showtrans Downloads
/bin/sh -c exec > /dev/null && /hurd/smbfs -sBLAH -uJames -wWORKGROUP
-pPASS -rsmb://BLAH/Users/James/Downloads

is fine, but

/hurd/smbfs -sBLAH -uJames -wWORKGROUP -pPASS
-rsmb://BLAH/Users/James/Downloads

doesn't.

Am I missing anything obvious?

Thanks,
James.