Unable to browse NAS on the network

[Splattered]

Hi Guys,

I have had a look over the forums and not found any other posts relating to my issue so if there is one that someone is aware of please point me to it.

The problem is that I used to be able to browse the network via Windows Explorer on my Windows 7 PC and see the NAS, obviously clicking on the NAS would then show me available shares. Since upgrading the firmware from 3.2.7 to the new 3.3.x series I am no longer able to view it this way and have to manually enter the path into the address bar eg: \\nas-server. Oddly enough Windows XP/2003 machines do still see it in Network Neighbourhood. I did try disabling the firewall on my W7 PC to no avail. I even built a fresh machine with W7 recently and it also has the same problem. This is nothing major of course just a little annoying when I'm being lazy ... I can only put it down to the new firmware at this stage because nothing else has changed. The W7 PC does still see the UPnP however when browsing the network.

My setup is Windows 7 Pro x64 and the NAS is a TS-419P with firmware 3.3.1 b720 installed. 3.3.0 also had the issue, I was waiting for the next firmware release (3.3.1) before I posted to see if that would correct it but of course it hasn't. My understanding is that the new 3.3.x firmware has a new version of SAMBA (correct me if I'm wrong) so maybe the two don't like each other?

I have tried making the NAS the Master Browser which also didn't seem to help.

Any ideas?

Cheers

[lats]

Hi,
I've also started to have this problem with a windows 7 laptop which was working fine before. I have a 409 pro and upgraded to the 3.2.0 Build 0622T. Now I cant connect to any of the my shared drives.

Sorry not to have a solution, I have also been looking. Tried different things but none of them have worked.

[Splattered]

Hey lats

Your issue sounds a little different to mine from your description. I can still connect to mappings no dramas, I just can't browse to the NAS anymore in my Network Neighbourhood so to speak.

When I get some time over the weekend I will be trying a couple of other tweaks to see if I can get it to show up again and if I find it I'll post my workaround.

Cheers

[robned]

Interesting. Just posted something about this a few days ago. QNAP support was unavailable. It all started for me when I did a full reset with default factory settings. Since then the NAS would not be listed as "computer", but only as "other device".
However, typing in \\NAS name would take me to it.

I spent some 2 hours online with support running my computer and putting up an errand for the test departamanet since they were clueless.
We tried everything.

Even reinit and boot up without HDD etc. However, I got peed off and took out the HDD and placed it in a stationary only to find lots of partitions that looked odd in size. some only mb others half the disk size etc. So I reformatted the drive, started it up with the QFinder that came on CD as well ** firmware on CD and voila it works. Now I have upgraded to latest fw and qfinder and everything is as it should.

Just my 2 cents.

[witzendcs]

With v3.3.x on both a 410 and a 239 Pro II, I have seen problems with random disconnects, fully pathed directories in programs claiming not to be there when I can browse to them (and after doing so the program can then launch!), directories being created with all lower case when they already exist as UPPERCASE, backup copies to USB failing, the list is almost endless. Workstations O/S was Windows XP Pro & Windows Ultimate 64 bit.

Reverting back to 3.2.x cures all of these problems

[Splattered]

Hmm interesting...

Thanks for posting your issues though guys, reading about these other issues have given me something to think about and some new ideas to try to get this working before I scrap it.

I may do a rebuild and see what happens. Although that's not really the way i wanted to go >.<

[mwebb]

The problem is that I used to be able to browse the network via Windows Explorer on my Windows 7 PC and see the NAS, obviously clicking on the NAS would then show me available shares. Since upgrading the firmware from 3.2.7 to the new 3.3.x series I am no longer able to view it this way and have to manually enter the path into the address bar eg: \\nas-server.

I have exactly the same symptoms, and so far I'm living with it. Mine's a 659 on 3.3.x and is accessed regularly by 3 Windows 7 pcs (1 Home Premium 32 bit, 1 Home Premium 64 bit and 1 Pro 64 bit). All PCs seem to exhibit the same behaviour, bit I'd assumed the change that stopped this working was at the Microsoft end.

I have noticed that sometimes if left alone long enough the NAS shows up again when browsing the network from Windows Explorer.

Mark W.

[Splattered]

Howdy

I finally sat down today to look at this problem a little more in depth, decided to start from scratch with the latest firmware build for my unit which was recently released (3.3.2 b819) and thought I'd see if starting fresh would do the trick but no such luck. Still couldn't browse the NAS server So now I've wasted a lot of time having to restore all my data.

Good news is my suspicions were correct, this is caused by Samba it seems. I decided to have a look at the smb.conf file and of course wasn't sure what all the switches meant but a bit of Googling helped out in that dept. I found one switch that says "os level = 20". What it basically means in short is who on the network is going to win the war of becoming master browser, the higher the value means the higher the priority so to speak. It's apparently got a maximum value of 255 but I set it to 65 and restarted the Microsoft Networking (Samba) in the web interface and wallah! Finally I can see it on the network by browsing for it on my Windows 7 PCs. The strange thing I have noticed however is that opening the conf file again after restarting Samba the NAS has set the value back to 20. I assume now that it has taken the role it will likely hang on to it for, at least for now.

This is personally something that ** me about open source and devs... stupid bugs and carelessness! End users shouldn't have to do this! I'm a little more savvy than most but those who want something to work without question out of the box forget it

Anyway... apart from my rant I hope this helps anyone else having this same issue.

[bramschats]

Splattered,

I am having the same problem to and as far as i can see we are not the only one having this problem, i have seen at least 5 topic about this problem but without reply of anyone from Qnap.

What you say about changing smb.conf is correct, after restart smb.conf is reset back to defaults, i also don't know why Qnap has the habbit to do so, it makes setting up a samba domain a lot more tricky.

I replied to more topics about this problem, hoping qnap will see it and reply on it.

Greetz.

[Neverwinternights]

Hi, perhaps something trivial, but did you try putting your NAS in the same workgroup/domain as the rest of your machines? It seems to make a difference on my 419p.
Cheers:D

[bramschats]

Of course i have done that but nothing seems to work. I think qnap has made some changes like Splattered tells in the smb.conf..

[Splattered]

Howdy

Neverwinternights : It is in the same workgroup as everything else on the network (always has been), and I have also proven that it is a problem with Samba by making the changes to its config file which then made the NAS work as it should but unfortunately the changes don't stick on restart of the service and I'm no Linux guru so I don't know how to make them stick permanently.

Bramschats : I'm kind of glad to hear that there are others having this drama only because it reaffirms that I haven't lost my mind just yet And it also puts more pressure on the devs to fix the issue. I haven't looked around for more topics on this in a while so to me it sounds like a few have posted since I went looking shortly before posting this or I missed them while I was trawling through topics.

It's just another epic fail and I can't understand how QNap devs missed that one seeing as I have seen this happen upon rebuild of both NAS and W7 client, in other words I can easily replicate the problem over and over with no effort so they would be able to as well. Chances are they did see the problem but went ahead with the release anyway

For the record for anyone else who reads this, note that if you look at the release notes for firmware 3.3.0 b629 on my TS-419P it says in the Enhancements section and I quote "Upgraded Samba to 3.5.2". This is when the issue started, so it's undeniably a Samba problem in my mind.

Cheers

[bramschats]

I found something strange when installing the new Qnap, the only thing i changed was EXT3 to EXT4, on my new Nas i had also installed the 3.3.2. firmware on my other NAS and i was able to browse it in the network.

To know for sure:
-reinstalled my ts239 and used ext3 filesystem, fw 3.3.2 -> browsable without a problem
-reinstalled my ts239 and used ext4 filesystem, fw 3.3.2 -> not browsable at all, only accessible with its ip adres \\192.168.2.200 even not with its network name.

My clients are windows 7 ultimate x64.

Can someone from Qnap comment on this issue?

[schumaku]

There are several factors in this master browser "workgroup" game. This is a parity system, where all systems in the workgroup can and should participate - and not only the NAS. The original idea of having the "os level" on 20 ensures, the typically lower power NAS not taking the priority over the other systems (typically Windows, and potentially more advanced, due to the fact the SAMBA team has to re-engineer newly invented Microsoft features, mostly in a recative way.

The first thing we might want to have in the LAN (respective the workgroup) is _one_ master browser.

Please go to the "Advanced Options" tab of Home>> Network Services>> Microsoft Networking and enable "Local Master Browser"

In general, I tend to say this should be enough to get the NAS "browsabe". When you have multiple NAS, you can (and likely should) enable more than one as a local master browser, this should not hurt.

Digging somewhat deeper also unveils the "preferred master" and the "os level" parameters, which are related. With "preferred master" set to yes, on joining the network, the preferred master (only one can be active on the net at a time) calls an election. The "os level" is used as a number of votes - the one with the higher will win. With the default setting on 20, the QNAP NAS will let any Windows machine able to be a preferred master to win, historically this was done to not over-vote an existing Windows NT server on the network, nor an actual Windows system. It does not require a lot of fantasy, that some tight security settings or third party firewalls on the Windows systems might block this capability, leaving the net un-browsable.

By rule of thumb, an "os level" around 35 would over-vote the other Windows machines on the network; setting it higher should be required for now legacy Windows network environments (pre-AD) only, to ensure a specific typically big server becomes _the_ master in the LAN.

Potentially, QNAP should add some more advanced configuration options for

- preferred master
- os level

This should keep everyone happy then, and will ensure to leave the adjustment of these parameters to the user to gain a browsable network. Hope this gives some insight.

After all the years, I don't have the full picture. We don't run WINS on our networks, just DNS (either standalone BIND or Active directory integrated), and have the "Local Master Browser" enabled on the NAS. Like this, all Windows, OS X and Linux clients are able to discover it by browsing - before and after v3.3.x firmware. Not sure if there is a changed default, requiring to enable explicitly the "local browser".

-Kurt.

[Splattered]

Howdy

Bramschats - file system type would make no difference so how you managed to come across that I can't say without having a tinker myself.

The first thing we might want to have in the LAN (respective the workgroup) is _one_ master browser.

Please go to the "Advanced Options" tab of Home>> Network Services>> Microsoft Networking and enable "Local Master Browser"

In general, I tend to say this should be enough to get the NAS "browsabe". When you have multiple NAS, you can (and likely should) enable more than one as a local master browser, this should not hurt.

Did that to no avail, forcing preffered and upping the vote is the only thing that has worked for me. And obviously you don't want to be forced into turning the browser service off on Windows clients because in a workgroup environment that is just a silly waste of time when you can force it on one machine (NAS or Windows) so that this issue doesn't occur.

Potentially, QNAP should add some more advanced configuration options for

- preferred master
- os level

This should keep everyone happy then, and will ensure to leave the adjustment of these parameters to the user to gain a browsable network. Hope this gives some insight.

Definately would do the trick for me!