ftp and drive mapping are independent and unrelated, as far as Windows is concerned. Your ability to access the network drive through ftp suggests that the PC and the NAS are networked in a working configuration, but beyond that it does not have anything to do with inability to map drives.
I assume that "xp home" in your subject line means you are using Windows XP Home. If you are using Linux or any non-Windows OS, the rest of this message won't help you.
As far as mapping the drives - only one user name can be connected to a network drive at any one time.
Note that you can automatically (inadvertently) create a temporary connection simply by browsing the shared drives in Network Neighborhood. You have to disconnect that before you can map using a new user name. If you don't do that, the new mapping will fail. I think this is the most likely explanation for your problem.
For Windows XP (or Win 2K), in File Explorer: Tools | Disconnect Network Drives, then select and disconnect the network drive you intend to connect to, if it appears there. Then use the Tools | Map Network Drive dialogue to select the drive letter and the remote storage volume, using the syntax \\ipaddress\drive_name, as you gave. Be sure to choose the option "Connect using a different user name." Otherwise, Windows will attempt to log on to the network drive with your current log-in name, which is probably not what you want.
For this syntax to work reliably, you should have a fixed IP address assigned to the DNS-323. You can use the DNS-323 Setup | Lan menu page, or else leave the DNS-323 as a DHCP client and use the static DHCP assignment capability of your router.
If you do not use static IP assignment, but instead rely on open DHCP from your router, it is possible for the DNS-323 to have a different IP address whenever it reboots. Most routers will in fact assign the same address every time, but it's not guaranteed. However, if you set a static IP using one of the two methods above, you are guaranteed that the DNS-323 has the same address after every reboot. (You must make sure not to assign the same fixed IP address to more than one device.)
You can avoid static IP assignment if you give the DNS-323 a Samba name and put it in the same workgroup as your PC, on the Setup | Device page. In this case, when you map the drive you would use a syntax like \\nas_name\drive_name. (You can also use the network browse function - the DNS-323 ought to show up in File Explorer under My Network Places | Entire Network | Microsoft Windows Network. Note that it might take as long as 10-15 minutes after power-up before all the attached computers will show up in this listing, although if you supply the name explicitly by typing it, it will be available immediately after bootup.)
Try setting the Windows Firewall to "off" temporarily, to see whether that helps. If it does, then you need to look into configuring your firewall correctly. Actually, I think it is unlikely that this would cause your problem - the firewall is intended to prevent your local files from being shared on the network, but should not prevent you from connecting to a network share. However, if turning off the firewall makes a difference, then you need to figure out how your firewall got configured that way and undo it.
Another possible reason for it to be intermittent could be a conflict caused by having two DHCP servers on your home LAN. You must have exactly one device configured as the DHCP server. Usually this device will be your router, and DHCP servers in any other devices on the LAN should be disabled. The DNS-323 is capable of being a DHCP server, but in the typical home networking setup that feature should be turned off (it is off in the default factory configuration). You don't mention your level of experience, but if you are an experienced user then you likely are aware of this - and if you're not aware of it, you are probably using the default, which ought to work OK. But if you were experimenting with this, you might want to check and make sure that you have this set up correctly.
There are probably other possibilities, but it would require knowing much more detail about your LAN. If you have the typical home networking setup and have left things at their default settings, I believe the above advice should get you working.
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Topic: dns xp home network sharing (Read 4100 times)