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[snoutmeat]

Hi gang-

I am in the process of retiring my main home office PC, which has been running Win XP. Yes, I know it's ancient, but it has worked without issue for years. The XP machine's hardware was old enough that I'm upgrading to a newer machine I had been using as an HTPC. This new machine is running Windows 8.1. Instead of migrating all of my data from the XP machine to the new Win 8 machine, I thought it would make sense to just migrate the data to an NAS so I could set up a RAID 1 array and also be able to access my data from my laptop, my wife's laptop, etc. That's why I bought the DNS-325 and a pair of 3TB Hitachi drives.

So here's the issue: I have now migrated a bunch of data from the XP machine to the NAS, but the Windows 8 machine does not see the NAS (and neither does my Win 7 laptop). It's not in "Network" like it is on my XP machine. The D-Link finder software CD that came with the DNS-325 does not see the NAS from my Win 8 or Win 7 machine. If I try to enter the DNS number that's assigned to the NAS from my XP machine's web browser, I see the DNS-325's web interface. If I try to enter the DNS number from my new Win 8 machine or my Win 7 laptop, I get a timeout. I have tried disabling the firewall temporarily on the Win 8 machine. No difference. I have tried checking the workgroup settings -- not sure if it's case-sensitive or not, but I tried changing "workgroup" to "WORKGROUP" as the workgroup on the NAS name just in case (my Win 8 machine says the workgroup is called "WORKGROUP". I feel like I'm missing something super obvious. Suggestions? Is my router blocking something? (It's a D-Link router too, BTW). The NAS and the XP machine are both on CAT-5 cables, but Win 7 and Win 8 are both using Wifi...but that shouldn't make a difference. Help!

[tedfroop]

So just to clarify, when you put in the ip address in your browser you cn see the managment page?

Waht can you see if you go to the desktop page, open the file explorer, go to the top menu and cllick on Map Computer Drive and click on Browse?  Can you see anything else on your network?

[snoutmeat]

Hi tedfroop-

On the old XP machine, when I put the ip address in my browser I can see the management page. Everything works great with my XP machine.

On my laptop (Win 7) and my new desktop (Win , putting the ip address in my browser just gets me a "timeout"

In Win 8, if I open file explorer, I can go to the "Network" category. There's a drop-down menu item at the top that says "Network", and one choice is "add devices and printers" (I'm assuming this is the Win 8 version of what you're describing?) It just says "no devices found".

[cable2]

Hi,
I have a couple questions.  Do your W7 and W8.1 machines see each other and your XP machine?  Are all of your Windows machines showing they are in the same WORKGROUP?  Is Network Discovery and File Sharing turned enabled on all machines?  
I have used this free tool http://scottiestech.info/downloads/ to help troubleshoot Master Browser problems and quickly find IP's for networked devices.  If you run it and get errors, there is a fair chance either your network is not configured correctly or there is something not working correctly with windows Master Browser service.
Just in case you need it.  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/networking-home-computers-running-different-windows#networking-home-computers-running-different-windows=windows-7

[snoutmeat]

Hi cable2-

Thank you for getting my head thinking in the right direction. I went back through my network to see which devices were communicating with which other devices. The XP machine and the NAS were talking to each other, and the Win7 and Win 8.1 machine were also talking to each other, but it almost seemed like they were on 2 separate networks. However, all 3 machines were working with my network printer.

Long story short: I like everything about my router except for the fact that it only has 3 wired connections. The XP machine, the printer, the NAS, an old single-disk NAS, and a 2nd router upstairs (operating as a repeater) all needed wired connections, so I had an older router daisychained to the newer router as a source of more wired connections. This setup was working. I wasn't sharing any files among the computers, so I never really had a home network -- I was just using my setup to get Internet to all of the computers, to print, and to back up files from one computer to the old 1-disk NAS. In that role, it all worked fine. When I tried this week to set up a home network to share files, the computers didn't want to see each other. For now, I've simplified the system by removing the single-disk NAS and getting the XP machine on a wireless adapter, so now I just have my router's 3 ports going to the NAS, to the printer, and to the repeater upstairs. All of the machines now see each other (and the DNS-325). I am suspicious that the older router is not working properly. I just placed an order for a simple 5-port gigabit switch that I'm hoping will work more effectively to let me add more wired devices to the router.

Thank you for the links and for getting me to think about the problem from a more productive perspective. Though my setup still isn't perfect, everything that's attached to the network is now working properly and I think I have all the problems worked out. Thanks!