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[dolsson]

Friends,
I have been routinely accessing my DNS-325 via its static IP address through a web browser. For some reason, can no longer do so. I have restarted PC and NAS, have tried multiple browsers (Chrome and IE) and have switched back and forth between the static and a dynamic IP address.

I can access files just fine through my drive map and file explorer but cannot use the applications that I access through the web interface.

This is my first time here; I hope I am posting appropriately and in the right place. I searched for similar posts but did not find anything.

I am on Win7 and have current (but not the just released ) firmware.

Oh, and I recently tried to set up dynamic DNS but did not get it working. I don't know if that might have caused my problem. I don't see how but I am dumb about dynamic DNS. I do think I was using the web interface just fine, post dynamic DNS activity.

Thank you for your help.

[JavaLawyer]

You should use a reserved IP address (i.e. reserved through your router) rather than a static IP address on the DNS-325. This approach will avoid potential IP address conflicts, in the event multiple devices request the same IP address.

The first thing to do is log into your router web UI and make sure the DNS-325 IP address is listed in the device table. If the IP address is there, you should have no problem accessing the DNS-325 login page through any browser -- although you are likely to find that some browsers work better than others.  IE and FF are the best choice.  To be safe, you should always use IE for firmware updates.

[JavaLawyer]

Were you able to resolve your access issue?

[dolsson]

Thanks for the reply; my notification settings prevented my seeing it sooner.

So I tried changing my DNS-325 static IP (192.168.1.xxx--outside the DHCP range) to a reserved DHCP IP address. I used my Sharecenter's Install Disk to reset the static IP to DHCP and used my Linksys E2000 router's admin to reserve a DHCP.

Now if I pull up the DHCP client list on the router it shows the DNS-325, with the reserved IP address (within the DHCP range). But the problem remains. Neither Chrome nor IE gives me the web GUI. Chrome says: "Oops! Google Chrome could not connect to 192.168.1.xxx. Try reloading: 192.­168.­1.xxx"

Happily, I can still access files on the DNS-325 via Windows file explorer. But I would like to use the applications available through the web GUI, as I was a week or so ago.

 

Other suggestions?

[dolsson]

Sidenote: I thought that, to shut down the DNS-325 without access to the GUI, I pressed and held the power button for 5 seconds. Currently, that does nothing. So I don't know how to reboot without just pulling the plug--which causes me concern about data loss.

I thought I'd try a reboot to see if it solved the problem, now that I have a reserved DHCP IP address. But I don't know how now....

[JavaLawyer]

Sidenote: I thought that, to shut down the DNS-325 without access to the GUI, I pressed and held the power button for 5 seconds. Currently, that does nothing. So I don't know how to reboot without just pulling the plug--which causes me concern about data loss.

I can only speak to the behavior of holding the power button on other ShareCenter models that I own (DNS-343 and DNS-345). On those models, holding the power button long enough (5 seconds or so) initiates a soft-shutdown; while holding down the power button for an extended period of time forces a hard shutdown (similar to holding down the power button for 10 seconds on a laptop). Over the years I have sparingly used the hard shutdown (on all four of my ShareCenters) for one reason or another, including unplanned power failure events, without any consequence to my data.

That said, I think it goes without saying that using a hard shutdown as a normal means of powering down your ShareCenter is not recommended, but the option is there for a reason. This activity will most likely not impact your data, but assuming the risk is up to you.

Also, keep in mind that the DNS-325 has a "Power Recover" option under System Management > Power Management > Power Recovery Settings, so the unit is designed to manage hard shutdown events, such as a power failure.

[cable2]

Hi Dolsson,
I have had intermittent network problems myself and also intermittent luck in resolving those problems.  I think your suspicion about possibly messing up some of your router settings may be correct since the problem was associated with your attempt to set up a DDNS account.  I would first make sure your computers and devices all have the same network name.  After that, I would recommend you check out youtube and search for "dlink ftp setup" or words to that effect.  This should give you at least 2 videos one for the 323 and one for the 325, that describe in detail enabling a ftp server to enable outside access and they both include pretty good instructions for setting up and enabling a DDNS account, you will have to do this on both your 325 and your router.  A lot of windows networking problems seem to be related to "master browser" issues.  I have found a small bit of software which helps identify the "master browser".  It is called "lanscan.exe".  Goggle should help you get it quickly.  I can tell you that if you get any type of error when you run it, your problem is your network settings.  Other than that good luck.

[JavaLawyer]

Hi Dolsson,
I have had intermittent network problems myself and also intermittent luck in resolving those problems.  I think your suspicion about possibly messing up some of your router settings may be correct since the problem was associated with your attempt to set up a DDNS account.  I would first make sure your computers and devices all have the same network name.  After that, I would recommend you check out youtube and search for "dlink ftp setup" or words to that effect.  This should give you at least 2 videos one for the 323 and one for the 325, that describe in detail enabling a ftp server to enable outside access and they both include pretty good instructions for setting up and enabling a DDNS account, you will have to do this on both your 325 and your router.  A lot of windows networking problems seem to be related to "master browser" issues.  I have found a small bit of software which helps identify the "master browser".  It is called "lanscan.exe".  Goggle should help you get it quickly.  I can tell you that if you get any type of error when you run it, your problem is your network settings.  Other than that good luck.

Many of those instructional videos are linked on our ShareCenter FAQ board: DNS-325 - FTP Server Configuration (Video) 

[dolsson]

Thanks for the add'l suggestions. I watched the video, opened a new account at dlinkddns, forwarded ports 21 and 80 from router to DNS-325, but no love. In DNS-325 setup I get a message that "Unfortunately we cannot update DDNS account status."

Also, the next step of the video involves using the web interface to set up ftp on the DNS-325 and, of course, I cannot access the web interface.

I have a new hard drive on the way from NewEgg. Once it arrives, I plan to backup all the data on my DNS-325, reformat (I have a degraded raid array at present) and setup afresh. I hope that will solve my problem. But maybe not; in the meantime, I'd happily try other suggestions.

(I'm not convinced that the DDNS issue caused the problem; I have gone through the DNS-325 setup since then and indicated that I do not have DDNS.)

[priitv8]

If you are experiencing all your problems on your local (home) network, then DDNS plays absolutely no role in it.

[dolsson]

priitv8, thank you, that's what I was thinking. Happily, problem is solved.

As mentioned above, I was not able to do a proper power down of the unit. I did not want to do a hard shutdown without first backing up all my data (400 Gb). Yesterday, I did that backup and pulled the power cord on the DNS-325. Then I rebooted my router, with the DNS-325 still offline. Then plugged DNS-325 back in. For some reason, it reverted back to the static IP that I had previously assigned, rather than the reserved DHCP address that I gave it subsequently. But I can now access the device via web browser and use all the goodies there.

Thank you all for your suggestions. Your support helped me keep at this when I might otherwise have given up.

Cheers.

 

[dolsson]

haha/grrr ....

Problem is not fixed, not permanently, at least. Following computer restart I am back to same spot. I hope I don't have to restart my DNS-325 and router everyday that I want to use the web interface...

[bigdave240]

restarting your pc shouldn't cause a problem for the dns325. are you sure you are on the same network as the 325? can you open a cmd.exe window and ping the server? should get something like this:

 Microsoft Windows [Version 6.2.9200]
(c) 2012 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\WINDOWS\system32>ping 192.168.1.153

Pinging 192.168.1.153 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.153: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.153: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.153: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.153: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.153:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 2ms, Average = 1ms

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

[dolsson]

Yup, network is the same and I can see the device both via Win7 and through Cisco's Network Magic (which has been very helpful). And it pings fine:

Pinging 192.168.1.200 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.200: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.200: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.200: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.200: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.200:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 2ms, Average = 1ms

Still, my only issue is not being able to connect through Chrome, IE or Firefox. And I am more and more interested in using the features accessible in that way: e.g. setting up a media server.

I am now going to pull and reformat the drives, uninstall and reinstall drivers/software and see what happens. Don't know why it would solve the issue but, since I don't know what is causing it, maybe it'll help. I have a degraded RAID 1 array, so I have to do it anyway....

[bigdave240]

maybe try accessing it with both drives removed? ( thought I just posted this so if it comes up twice please ignore)