QNAP NAS Community Forum

Hello, I was hoping someone could help.

I have recently bought a TS-251+ and set it up in a work environment with 5 computers running windows.

We cannot see the computer on the network, i.e. we cannot see it in windows explorer as a computer. It DOES appear as a MEDIA DEVICE.
We can see it if we enter \\IPaddress (and If I do that it appears under the network tab for a while, but then disappears next time I open explorer)
We are able to map the folders on the Qnap to our computers
We can see it on the router
We can see it when logging in via a web browser.
We have computers on the network with systems ranging from windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10. I am working on a win 10 computer. We all have the problems, apart from one win 7 computer.
The Qnap is operating with latest firmware: 4.2.0
The file service for windows (standalone server) and apple networking is enabled. NFS service NOT enabled.

The problem is that to set an automatic backup of the computers file history to the NAS, the Qnap has to appear within the windows explorer network list. I would like for this to be automated.

I have been struggling with this for a while, and have tried most of the solutions I have found on other posts. (subnet mask add is correct (255.255.255.0), it is enabled for Windows networking, I have tried to turn various things on and off (including firewall), I have checked that the network discovery is automatic, my workgroup name is WORKGROUP (same as NAS) and I have set a description for my computer, but I am not having any luck.)

Does anyone have any other suggestions? I am not an IT professional, so if what you are suggested is very complicated I may need to be pointed in the right direction.

Thank you very much for your time!

Yours, Elin

emsom wrote:We have computers on the network with systems ranging from windows 7, 8, 8.1 and 10. I am working on a win 10 computer. We all have the problems, apart from one win 7 computer.

Double-checked the correct subnet mask? ...this applies to all NAS, router, Windows systems, ...
Multiple individual network interfaces connected to the LAN?
Windows Network Location set to home or office / not to public?

Is there a major difference in the physical network configuration for the other Windows systems?

is the problem still existing ?
have the same problem here...
no wrong masks, etc...
any ideas ?

Windows 10 1511 (10586)?

Open an elevated privilege cmd prompt (on Windows of course...), run “netcfg -d”, then reboot and reconfigure networking...

Problem still persisting. But now seems it is only my computer that does it, so that narrows it down.
I will try the cmd prompt. (Only work with this on Tue and Thu, hence sometimes takes me a while to get back).
Thank you for any/all suggestions.

Double-checked the correct subnet mask? ...this applies to all NAS, router, Windows systems, ... I know how to do this on the NAS, but not sure how to go about checking this on all the other devices.
Multiple individual network interfaces connected to the LAN? Not sure what you mean? We have a small set up. One office, one router, one NAS, 4 computers connected via wireless to that router. Should be a simple set up I would have thought.
Windows Network Location set to home or office / not to public? I think my computer network location is set to office when I am in the office. Should it be public? I thought not, as it is a trusted network.

Is there a major difference in the physical network configuration for the other Windows systems? No major difference in anything. However, mine is a laptop, theirs are desktops. There is one other laptop, working on Windows 7, and that sees the NAS perfectly.

I have exactly the same problem!
Too bad nobody is willing to assist....

It seems that the problem has resolved itself, by which I mean one of the recent windows updates has probably solved it. I was not able to solve it with any of the suggestions I had.

Hi,
I think there might be a simple solution, after I tried a number of suggestions!!!
Login to your QNAP and go to 'Network Services' then select 'Win/Mac/NFS' New window appears

Where it says 'Workgroup:' I typed in Network and my PC was able to see the NAS.
It worked for me, worth a try and easy to do.

Futher investigation is you can type anything in the Workgroup: box. I think now it the refresh by 'Apply' action which sometime does the trick.

Update; I removed my password login requirment for my PC and the PC lsees the NAS every time. I am not sure what this means but does work for me.

Mike

Everything were fine i use to just refresh and it would show up, now nothing at all

Had this same problem. A win10 machine stopped being able to see the NAS using the server name but had no problems when the IP address was used. Similarly, I have a Kodi media centre PC that stopped being able to see media file on the NAS (again as the media source was using the server name not IP address). Not sure if it was a f/w update or other event on the NAS that coincided with this.

However, in desperation, I tried the method mention by mikeb4ugo in the above post by typing in a new workgroup then applying and normality returned. I also reverted back to the previous workgroup name and still OK. Hope this remains the case after a NAS power cycle.

I was thinking this was a DNS issue but I tried numerous servers without success. I am not sure why this works, but am glad that it does (and hope it is permanently corrected).

Thanks mikeb4ugo, wife is well happy as we can finish off Downtown Abbey!

Darrin

Dal wrote:I was thinking this was a DNS issue but I tried numerous servers without success.

Of course, the server discovery as well as the name resolution is based on NetBIOS - IPv4 broadcast. There is nothing like a DNS based discovery in the industry, so just with DNS it's not becoming visible in Explorer. With a locally operated DNS server, you could manage name -> address and address -> name so ie \\nasname\ or \\nasname.your.domain\ can use DNS to find the IP if NetBIOS is not available why ever.

After my NAS powered cycled the issue returned, the discussed method still fixes it.

Thanks for your comments schumaku. Could this be a service discovery issue? I have uPnP and bonjour enabled. My NAS has a fixed IP address. Could it be that uPnP is not functioning correctly so devices on the LAN cannot discover the NAS by server name? Perhaps changing the windows workgroup restarts something that has failed?

A service discovery issue would explain why both a kodi (nix box) and a windows laptop both fail to find the NAS.

I have never had this issue before, so I wonder if a Qnap f/w update has introduced this behaviour?

This problem has recently started happening for me as well. It seemed to start after upgrading from firmware 4.2.1 to 4.2.2. LIke others, changing the workgroup in the settings makes it start working again.

Dal wrote:Could this be a service discovery issue? I have uPnP and bonjour enabled. My NAS has a fixed IP address. Could it be that uPnP is not functioning correctly so devices on the LAN cannot discover the NAS by server name?

None of these involved - just plain NetBIOS service announcement in the play.

cs96and wrote:LIke others, changing the workgroup in the settings makes it start working again.

Changing the workgroup name does restart the SAMBA service.

Strongly suggest to put SMB 3.0 protocol in place: Control Panel => Network Services => Win/Mac/NFS => Advanced Options => Highest SMB version = 3.0

schumaku wrote:Strongly suggest to put SMB 3.0 protocol in place: Control Panel => Network Services => Win/Mac/NFS => Advanced Options => Highest SMB version = 3.0

I do not have a "Highest SMB version" option in my settings. I am on firmware 4.2.2 on a TS-119P II