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[rector]

All my NAS boxes have statically assigned IP address as does my network printer.  None of these systems have any entries anywhere in the HOSTS files of the computers that access them.  There has never been an issue finding the DNS-321, DNS-323, or the Synology DS209 with network browsing from Windows 2K through Windows 7, and also Linux.

My router is the Actiontec MI424WR supplied with the Verizon FiOS service, and it's the DHCP server for the network.

Hi thanks for the response, I put the entry in my hosts file on your suggestion.
I think this what appears to be not uncommon issue has made me decide to severe my dlink relationship, and move on. This product clearly is crap

Thanks again for trying

[rocaddict]

Hi, Ive had trouble with my dns-323 not connecting to my network after its been switched off. I think I located the problem as a IP conflict as it defaults to a address on one of my pcs. If I set it to enable dhcp its ok but I read if you want to use FTP its best to have a static address. If I let the NAS get an address by enabling DHCP and then use the assigned address to disable DHCP all works well. The problem is the address doesnt stick, and when I next reboot the nas its a different address.

  If I'm interpreting this correctly, you're enabling the DHCP server in the DNS-323, is this correct?  If so, that's not what you need to do. your router and the NAS' DHCP server may be conflicting with each other, as their respective DHCP are not aware of each other's actions.

 1: forget about the DHCP server in the DNS-323, turn it off/stop it. To keep things simple, you only want one device on the network  assigning DHCP addresses, usually your router.

2. Some have reported intermittent connectivity issues when using Dynamic IP addressing with the DNS-323. many have found (including myself) that assigning a static IP within the NAS solves this problem.  (Say, if the maximum number of computers that would be connected at once, set the NAS to a static address of 192.168.x.5 or greater).

I havent had this nas all that long and recently I looked at the dlink site enquiring about using the nas a a print server, Apparently you have to install share point which is for firmware 1.08. I duly updated to 1.08 and then it wouldnt install share point anyway??

I've never had to install any software on the NAS for my printer to work.  When the OS detects theprinte ron the network, just install the printer driver software on the computer(s) that will be printing to it, and look for an option of a Networked printer, as opposed to Local (physically plugged into that computer).
 N.B.: I have noticed a bug in the DNS-323's print server, It only prints one copy of a document at a time, no matter how many copies you tell the OS to print.  Not a big thing, just a bit inconvenient sometimes.

I am using win7

 Shouldn't matter, as long as all PCs are in the same workgroup. I'd suggest enabling LLTD support in the NAS if you want it to show in Win7's Network Map, not 'Other Devices'

Oh, by the way the computer that conflicts with the nas is connected wirelessly whilst the other pcs are wired to the router.

 Once DHCP is set up properly, it should work fine.

[gunrunnerjohn]

Totally overlooked the DHCP server, I have them disabled in all my NAS boxes of course.  I'll have to keep that in mind.

[jamieburchell]

Totally overlooked the DHCP server, I have them disabled in all my NAS boxes of course.  I'll have to keep that in mind.

Perhaps he'll stop slating the NAS now...

Error between chair and keyboard.

[rector]

  If I'm interpreting this correctly, you're enabling the DHCP server in the DNS-323, is this correct?  If so, that's not what you need to do. your router and the NAS' DHCP server may be conflicting with each other, as their respective DHCP are not aware of each other's actions.

 1: forget about the DHCP server in the DNS-323, turn it off/stop it. To keep things simple, you only want one device on the network  assigning DHCP addresses, usually your router.

2. Some have reported intermittent connectivity issues when using Dynamic IP addressing with the DNS-323. many have found (including myself) that assigning a static IP within the NAS solves this problem.  (Say, if the maximum number of computers that would be connected at once, set the NAS to a static address of 192.168.x.5 or greater).

 I've never had to install any software on the NAS for my printer to work.  When the OS detects theprinte ron the network, just install the printer driver software on the computer(s) that will be printing to it, and look for an option of a Networked printer, as opposed to Local (physically plugged into that computer).
 N.B.: I have noticed a bug in the DNS-323's print server, It only prints one copy of a document at a time, no matter how many copies you tell the OS to print.  Not a big thing, just a bit inconvenient sometimes.

 Shouldn't matter, as long as all PCs are in the same workgroup. I'd suggest enabling LLTD support in the NAS if you want it to show in Win7's Network Map, not 'Other Devices'

 Once DHCP is set up properly, it should work fine.

Thanks for the response, I may have confused people by what I did. I originally wanted to use a static IP address, but when i had problems with that I then tried a dynamic one with the same results. What I then did originally was allow the nas to allow DHCP and allocate an address. I then set a static address using the same address. A suggestion was made to set the static address outside the range of the routers range which is 01-199. I set it to 250 which would remove any chance of conflict with assigned addresses from the router.

As for print server
I installed the print driver on the remote xp pc as per manual, it shows both on the NAS and the PC correctly idententified. No sign of action when printing is attempted? It shows in the print queue but thats it. Curious in printer properties for the network printer there is no mention of the printer, and all options so far as ports are greyed out. I thought I may be able to add a network path to the port but???

Thanks   

[rector]

Perhaps he'll stop slating the NAS now...

Error between chair and keyboard.

DHCP server disabled in this NAS on advice from this forum and manual

[gunrunnerjohn]

That's going to make the network MUCH more stable!

[rector]

That's going to make the network MUCH more stable!

The network is stable, its the NAS connection thats busted

[fordem]

The network is stable, its the NAS connection thats busted

Let me put it this way - IF you actually had two DHCP servers running, one in the router and one in the NAS - then, regardless of what you thought or experienced, there were problems just waiting to show up, and not just with the NAS.

[OlegMZ]

DHCP server disabled in this NAS on advice from this forum and manual

Just do not confuse DHCP server (ability of NAS to lease IP addresses to other network devices) and DHCP client (ability of NAS itself to obtain DHCP address from DHCP server on the network) Craziest thing is to have both features to be turned at the same time :-). It works fine for WAN routers which obtain WAN IP and other parameters from ISP and control internal LAN, but not for NAS boxes.
Most safe is to have both disabled and NAS IP and other settings properly assigned as static.

Just to clarify - what was your original problem - unability to see NAS and shares in network neighborhood, unability to access shares by entering \\dns-323\Volume_1 from explorer, or unability to open NAS web page in internet browser by typing http://dns-323 ?

If you have no problems using NAS as a storage, but are struggling to get to its config web page by name (but have no problems accessing it by IP address) it is completely different story.

When you do not see NAS from your PC, try to use nbtstat command (with -c, -r and other keys) and net view \\<dns-323 name> command and see if it was registered over netbios.

Try to ping it by name and IP address.

Are you using the same workgroup name and are not using any DNS suffixes in your PC configs?

Are you using wired or wireless network?

Some background info to the crap named NetBIOS. Sorry guys, it may be long, boring and still incomplete, that is why I put it at the end.

To be visible on a network NAS uses (at least for windows devices) NetBIOS protocol, i.e. acts just like any other Win98/2K/XP etc. in the environment where there are no dedicated Windows servers with Active directory+DNS and/or WINS services running.
In this workgroup mode all devices are peers and participate in master browser election. Elected master browser takes responsibility to build and maintain a list of visible network devices and answers netbios requests from other hostss (for netbios name to IP address resolution as well) on behalf of a workgroup. NetBIOS technology is very old and sucks as it relays on unreliable UDP broadcasts which devices issue every 12 minutes. If UDP adverisement packet is lost when device comes online you may have to wait another 12 minutes till you know box is there. If device suddenly dies (without sending goodbye broadcast) then it will be 1 minutes x 3 attempts before it will be removed from the lists - more than half an hour!
NAS tries to take the role of master browser, which is not bad as it is supposed to be online 24/7. If master browser is your, say, laptop on the wireless connection and link suddenly fails, other computers will notice it only after 12 minutes x 3 retries (as far as I remember). Only after that they will try to start new elections, assign, new master browser ant it will start repopulating its alive hosts table by listening broadcasts. In the meantime name resolution on your network devices will be hit and miss (everyone knows what a pain browsing network neighborhood with many workgroups, subnets and computers and without domain controllers.)
There is also default priority list of systems prefferable to become master browser - from Win98 to Windows servers OS. So Windows server is much more likely to become master browser than XP. And I have no idea how NAS advertises itself. BTW there may be also backup master browser AFAIK. Maybe that is why we can see more than one on the network. Besides I do not know is master browser a global network wise or it is workgroup wise. One of my laptops has different workgroup configured and it is master browser alonside with NAS.
I wonder if NAS actually negotiates in elections or statically assumes it is a boss no matter how many other NASes are on the network...

NAME RESOLUTION

Then when you try to access some not fully qualified domain name (like forums.dlink.com) but just dns-323, windows, depending on your network settings will lookup:
1) netbios names cache
2) WINS server (if it is configured)
3) B-node broadcast,
4) LMHOSTS file
5) HOSTS file
6) query DNS server

For FQDN steps 5 and 6 are used only. So if you configure some domain suffix on your DHCP server or directly on your PC, it will stop checking netbios names and will go directly to hosts file and then to DNS server (which is usually at ISP side) as windows will automatically add that suffix to any host name.
For example if you configure myhome.com (or just myhome) as your domain, then any name lookup (nslookup fro example) for DNS-323 name will be searching DNS-323.myhome(.com) name and will never check netbios name DNS-323 which you will see and access in network neighborhood.
So any minor piece of config may screw all name resolution infrastructure on Windows. That is why we love it so much :-)

[rector]

Just do not confuse DHCP server (ability of NAS to lease IP addresses to other network devices) and DHCP client (ability of NAS itself to obtain DHCP address from DHCP server on the network) Craziest thing is to have both features to be turned at the same time :-). It works fine for WAN routers which obtain WAN IP and other parameters from ISP and control internal LAN, but not for NAS boxes.
Most safe is to have both disabled and NAS IP and other settings properly assigned as static.

Just to clarify - what was your original problem - unability to see NAS and shares in network neighborhood, unability to access shares by entering \\dns-323\Volume_1 from explorer, or unability to open NAS web page in internet browser by typing http://dns-323 ?

If you have no problems using NAS as a storage, but are struggling to get to its config web page by name (but have no problems accessing it by IP address) it is completely different story.

When you do not see NAS from your PC, try to use nbtstat command (with -c, -r and other keys) and net view \\<dns-323 name> command and see if it was registered over netbios.

Try to ping it by name and IP address.

Are you using the same workgroup name and are not using any DNS suffixes in your PC configs?

Are you using wired or wireless network?

Some background info to the **** named NetBIOS. Sorry guys, it may be long, boring and still incomplete, that is why I put it at the end.

To be visible on a network NAS uses (at least for windows devices) NetBIOS protocol, i.e. acts just like any other Win98/2K/XP etc. in the environment where there are no dedicated Windows servers with Active directory+DNS and/or WINS services running.
In this workgroup mode all devices are peers and participate in master browser election. Elected master browser takes responsibility to build and maintain a list of visible network devices and answers netbios requests from other hostss (for netbios name to IP address resolution as well) on behalf of a workgroup. NetBIOS technology is very old and sucks as it relays on unreliable UDP broadcasts which devices issue every 12 minutes. If UDP adverisement packet is lost when device comes online you may have to wait another 12 minutes till you know box is there. If device suddenly dies (without sending goodbye broadcast) then it will be 1 minutes x 3 attempts before it will be removed from the lists - more than half an hour!
NAS tries to take the role of master browser, which is not bad as it is supposed to be online 24/7. If master browser is your, say, laptop on the wireless connection and link suddenly fails, other computers will notice it only after 12 minutes x 3 retries (as far as I remember). Only after that they will try to start new elections, assign, new master browser ant it will start repopulating its alive hosts table by listening broadcasts. In the meantime name resolution on your network devices will be hit and miss (everyone knows what a pain browsing network neighborhood with many workgroups, subnets and computers and without domain controllers.)
There is also default priority list of systems prefferable to become master browser - from Win98 to Windows servers OS. So Windows server is much more likely to become master browser than XP. And I have no idea how NAS advertises itself. BTW there may be also backup master browser AFAIK. Maybe that is why we can see more than one on the network. Besides I do not know is master browser a global network wise or it is workgroup wise. One of my laptops has different workgroup configured and it is master browser alonside with NAS.
I wonder if NAS actually negotiates in elections or statically assumes it is a boss no matter how many other NASes are on the network...

NAME RESOLUTION

Then when you try to access some not fully qualified domain name (like forums.dlink.com) but just dns-323, windows, depending on your network settings will lookup:
1) netbios names cache
2) WINS server (if it is configured)
3) B-node broadcast,
4) LMHOSTS file
5) HOSTS file
6) query DNS server

For FQDN steps 5 and 6 are used only. So if you configure some domain suffix on your DHCP server or directly on your PC, it will stop checking netbios names and will go directly to hosts file and then to DNS server (which is usually at ISP side) as windows will automatically add that suffix to any host name.
For example if you configure myhome.com (or just myhome) as your domain, then any name lookup (nslookup fro example) for DNS-323 name will be searching DNS-323.myhome(.com) name and will never check netbios name DNS-323 which you will see and access in network neighborhood.
So any minor piece of config may screw all name resolution infrastructure on Windows. That is why we love it so much :-)

Hi, and thanks for the comprehensive post.

Bit of background first.
I am running a network with 1 win7 pc and 1 xp home machine wired through the ports of a dlink dir-300 modem. on the same network and running wirelessly is another xp home pc, and 2 xp home laptops. The network is stable and I can print to 3 printers hooked up to my win7 pc. Even though I have 5 pcs there has never been an occasion when all 5 have been on the network together. I realized very early in the peace that win 7 network setup is different to xp, and ive just configured the win7 to the old xp network, with obviously the same workgroup name.  

My problem is when I turn on my DNS-323 there is no evidence in my network, or explorer, or my normal (xyplorer) file manager that the NAS is connected to the network. If I look for the NAS in a browser its unavailable. If I go to easy search, highlight the NAS, then enter configuration, and then either run the setup wizard, or lan settings, CHANGE NOTHING, and then save settings its immediately available to the network, and on all pcs. It will then work (cant get print server to work, but im happy to play at a later time) so far as file access (read /write) is concerned until it is turned off.

You may have to be gently with me so far as some of the commands you referred to, but youve given me a glimmer of hope today. I switched the NAS on and as usual its nowhere to be seen. I pinged it as suggested and got a successfull reply with no errors, so the rotten thing is really there?

By the way the dhcp server, and client is definately turned off as ive been using a static IP for ages, I only used dynamic to see if there were any changes to the behaviour.
      

Thanks again

[OlegMZ]

You may have to be gently with me so far as some of the commands you referred to, but youve given me a glimmer of hope today. I switched the NAS on and as usual its nowhere to be seen. I pinged it as suggested and got a successfull reply with no errors, so the rotten thing is really there?Huh

Here is the guy who made this job a little bit easier by creating simple netbios scanning app:

http://scottiestech.info/2009/02/14/how-to-determine-the-master-browser-in-a-windows-workgroup/

BTW, when you said you could ping NAS does it mean you could ping it by its name?

It you still have HOSTS file configured, you may also try to change NAS name there a little bit (make it DNS-323a for example) and try to play from there, to make sure NetBIOS and DNS names are different.

When you request NAS by entering \\dns-323\  somewhere in network neighborhood your machine AFAIK sends netbios broadcast asking "who the heck is DNS-323?" and expects to receive IP from NAS.
If you go to network neighborhood and try to browse list of workgroups, you get it from master browser, which should have DNS name-IP mapping obtained from NAS when it came online and sent broadcast "here I am, DNS-323, my IP is X.X.X.X".

Check you network with that tool (link) and see who is master browser on your network, workgroups etc. It is very strange that no computers see NAS netbios name. It means either it failed to send udp notification  broadcast on startup or it did not reach any destination. Don't you use any "non-standard" name for NAS by any chance (longer that 15 symbols, special characters etc.)? Is link and port to NAS reliable?

[gunrunnerjohn]

I modified my DNS-323 to keep it from becoming the master browser in the workgroup, seems it and the DNS-321 were always telling the world they were the master browser.

[OlegMZ]

I modified my DNS-323 to keep it from becoming the master browser in the workgroup, seems it and the DNS-321 were always telling the world they were the master browser.

If you have server which runs 24/7 - why not? But if you NAS is the only host which runs 24/7 why not to let it operate as a master browser? Besides, as far as I see, every workgroup has its own master browser. If so, you can also move your NAS to other workgroup and let it be master browser for itself.
I am just wondering if NAS cares of any other master browsers on the network. What if you put 10 NAS on the same network/workgroup? You get 10 master browsers? 

[gunrunnerjohn]

Since I have a DNS-321, a DNS-323, and the Synology DS209.  I don't need three of them trying to be the master browser!