QNAP shares disconnect

[r__]

We have two TS809U-RP units connected to a server running Windows 2003. They are setup with shares mapped to H and I.

Initially they seemed to work well; but, after a few days they started showing disconnected in "My Computer". If you click on them the files are there, but the application we have writing to the QNAPs does not reliably recognize them.

We have tried several things, but have not found a solution.

Remapped drives (several times)
Updated QNAP firmware
Changed registry values on 2003 to prevent shares from being disconnected (per a Microsoft recommendation)
Confirmed that no antivirus software is running (there are several reports of Norton causing these symptoms)
Mapped drives via command line in startup script with persistent=no

Also, we have two Terrastation NAS units on the same server mapped to X and Y drives. These have not had the same problems - so we believe it must be a QNAP issue.

Has anyone seen this?

[r__]

Any clues??

[r__]

Has anyone else seen this?

The TerraStations continue to work with no issues, while the QNAP units do not work. The software that is talking to them is Milestone XProtect Enterprise (an IP camera management package). Milestone fails to archive to the QNAP shares but will work with TerraStation shares. Meanwhile, scheduled XXCopy sessions have no problem writing to the QNAP.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[petur]

Why not contact QNAP support directly to debug the issue with them. Online form, skype or MSN...

[r__]

I thought QNAP support folks read this forum. Per your suggestion, however, I filled out the on-line support form yesterday but have not received any response yet. Are they usually responsive?

[petur]

if it's urgent, try skype or MSN

[gschuck]

I am having similar issues with a TS-509 Pro. I have submitted a support ticket. I cannot copy a file of any significant size (> 1Gb) to the NAS because the NAS will disconnect from the network before the copy can be completed. During the time that the NAS goes away, ping times to it will shoot from <1 ms to 60ms. The ping times will slowly return back to <1ms. During the period of high ping times, the NAS disconnects all shares and all file transfers stop. I also cannot connect to the NAS with the web interface.

I am running the 3.1.2 Build 1014T firmware which is the latest available as of right now.

I too would be interested in any ideas as to how to fix this. Is it too much to ask for network attached storage to stay attached to the network?

[petur]

this really smells like network configuration/compatibility issues. How is the connection speed-wise?

[gschuck]

The network has on the order of 80 computers attached to it, none of which have any speed or disconnect issues that we are aware of.

Tech support got back to me and asked me to directly connect the NAS box to a computer to see if it would hold a connection. This seemed like a reasonable thing to do to me. In preparation for this, I changed the NAS back from DHCP to a static IP address. On a whim, I tried my large file transfers to it again. Things have been running stable now for more than 24 hours whereas before I was getting disconnects every 10 to 15 minutes. I made no other changes to the NAS box. Its physical connection to the network is exactly the same as it was before. In fact, I never even touched the box. I simply changed it from DHCP to static IP using the web interface.

I do not know why switching from DHCP to a static IP would make a difference in network stability. The DHCP lease was good for a week, so it should not have been trying to renew every 15 minutes. It appears that something, though, when running in DHCP mode is messing with the NAS network connection every 10 to 15 minutes. If anyone has a technical explanation as to why this might have been happening and why switching to a static IP address solves the problem I would love to hear it.

To the original creator of this thread -- are you using DHCP? If so, try switching to a static IP and see if all of your issues go away. Good luck.

[petur]

I once had random disconnects which turned out to be IP address conflicts. I had been switching around addresses, and one system had kept its old address causing all sorts of weirdness.

Maybe there's a system on the network with a fixed IP that's identical to the DHCP one assigned to the NAS? Just guessing very wildly here....

[ClarkBirkelund]

I've got a TS-439 with similar problem... when we start transfering large files it disconnects...and it becomes unavailable for a couple of secs. Nothing in the log of the QNAP.

I've updated to latest firmware - running raid 6 with 4 x 1tb disks.

[r__]

Glad to see your problem go away. We are already using static IPs and the network is fairly small. We have not seen a problem once the transfers start, but after the QNAPs self disconnect (or Windows 2003 ditches them - not sure which), the reconnection seems to be too slow for some software.

Your problem does sound like an IP conflict to me, or maybe some broadcast that the QNAP is mishandling?

[gschuck]

My problem was indeed an IP conflict. How embarrassing.

Thanks all for the help. I hope that the rest of you find solutions as well!

-- Gary

[petur]

My problem was indeed an IP conflict. How embarrassing.

It isn't, really... As I said, it happened to me some time ago and I'm quite network-knowledged