Lost ability to read/writetonetwork attached storage?

[Fred Bloggs]

Morning all, I have a Buffalo NAS device that has been hanging by LAN cable off my ADSL router for a couple of years now. The last two days the NAS device has become unavailable. Windows says that "An error occurred while reconnecting X: to \\networkdrive\alex". The internet functions just fine and my networked printer works just fine too. I have rebooted the PC's, the router and the NAS device several times and still it isn't appearing on the network. Frustratingly, in the BT router control panel whilst I can see what wireless devices are connected to the router, I have not been able to find a page that shows LAN cable connected devices. Therefore I do not know what IP address the NAS has to try to "ping" it. The light is "on" for the network port that the NAS device is attached to on the router. Clicking the diagnostic test button in the router control panel shows the text below that has a "fail" in the last test. I "think" this has to do with the internet connection, but internet is working just fine. This error has shown the last couple of days, but when it first came I do not know. Anybody have any suggestions what to do? I hope my NAS device isn't toasted I have 00's Gb's of back ups on there. Memeo reports the device as unavailable too.

Thanks for any suggestions what to do next.

Test the connection to your local network
Test your Ethernet Connection: PASS
Test your Wireless Connection: PASS

Test the connection to your ADSL service provider
Test ADSL Synchronization: PASS
Test ATM OAM F5 segment ping: PASS
Test ATM OAM F5 end-to-end ping: PASS

Test the connection to your Internet service provider
Test PPP server connection: PASS
Test authentication with ISP: PASS
Test the assigned IP address: PASS
Ping default gateway: FAIL

[Ardesco]

It should have a sticker on the back of it with its MAC address.

Write this down and then in a cmd prompt type

arp -a

this should give you a list of all the devices on the local network and their corresponding mac code. you should then be able to work out which IP is your NAS (if it is there)

[Fred Bloggs]

Cheers for that. I did that, got the NAS device IP address and I was then able to change the IP address manually. It now seems to work fine. I really don't know what was wrong with it but with a manually set rather than automatic IP address it now seems fine. Weird one really, I don't understand what happened. Thanks for the help. For a moment there, I thought all my back ups were toast!

[Platypus]

My Buffalo NAS does that from time to time, I find it takes about 24 hours after rebooting it for it to reappear to Windows on the LAN (with an automatic IP address).

I also found that mapping it to a drive letter caused this to happen more often, so now I have it as a Network Place such \\nas\share instead of a mapped drive letter.

[Fred Bloggs]

My Buffalo NAS does that from time to time, I find it takes about 24 hours after rebooting it for it to reappear to Windows on the LAN (with an automatic IP address).

I also found that mapping it to a drive letter caused this to happen more often, so now I have it as a Network Place such \\nas\share instead of a mapped drive letter.

Thanks for that, so I'm not alone. How do you fix this?

That helps to know though as it might mean, therefore, that the drive isn't heading to meet it's maker after all. BTW, mine gets switched on/off daily, yours stays on 24/7?

[Platypus]

Yes, mine is on 24x7.

After a NAS powerdown, I find it a real pain to get Windows to "see" the drive again - this usually takes several hours.

I *think* it's something to do with how often the NAS broadcasts "I am here" or how often Windows broadcasts "who is there?" but this is not a scientific analysis as I have no idea how Windows does this!

Perhaps this helps?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/297694

Your post has prompted me to check the firmware version of mine (LS-500GL) but I have the same problem with another Buffalo NAS much later version.

[Fred Bloggs]

I've now enabled sleep mode on mine, I'll see if that helps. The firmware is v2.30, I "think" it's a LS-320. One of the wireless connected laptops has now "lost" its ability to "see" the NAS again after being OK for a few hours. But the PC I'm on which is LAN cable connected is OK. This is a bit frustrating. I'll persevere with it in sleep mode 24/7 for a while to see if it improves otherwise I can see a different NAS coming into my life and the Buffalo getting binned. I depend on it being reliable. Thanks for the heads up.

[Ardesco]

I'm using one as well and have four computers using it for mapped drives with no problems, however I have set a static IP address for the NAS that is not in the DHCP pool.

I would suggest limiting your DHCP pool (I doubt you need more than about 10 IP's dynamically assigned anyway) and giving it a static IP.