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Forum Discussion
Netgear RN204 NAS set up and firmware.
I have 2ea RN204 units up and running now and they have been work horse machines... Recently my son in law gave me a unit with out drives he is not using but, no drives... I happen to have 4 WD...
For some reason when I do a factory reset and the unit comes up it sees my network and assigns an IP address for the network but for some reason it thinks its one of the other RN204s on my network and thinks its empty... at that point if I try to log on the Working RN 204 seems to be conflicting....
Do the working NAS have static IP addresses assigned? (On the NAS itself, not reserved in the router).
If they do, are those IP Addresses outside the DHCP pool?
Also, when you access the NAS web interface, are you using the IP address in your browser? Or are you using the hostname? Use the IP address for now.
Thanks for the replies Sand-shark and Stephen B, So, yesterday I tried a factory default again and still having an issue.
To answer the question on the static vs DHCP...it is DHCP on the older one and I am assuming this one... .it did give me a IP with the end numbers being .181 For safety this morning I shut down the older one and fired up the new one (The one I just put the drives in) and fired it up... for some reason I am not getting the log in screen and when I put in the Ip address it shows that the device is empty (I think) I tried the Netgear web log in but it comes up with something completely difference and does not have anything about the NAS, I can not get it to the setup page at all. I can not see firmware version.
So since I am paranoid about keeping the original NAS with with lots of files on it... I am trying to be very careful and not wiping it out. I turned off the new unit, unplugged it from the network and turned my original back on.... when it came up it had a new IP address changing from .35 to .48 though.... My Plex server is working and I can get in to the NAS as before so... that is good...but it's strange it gave me another IP address....
So, do you think I should just do a fresh factory install? I have the latest firmware downloaded and unzipped on a flash drive. and I am assuming I'd do that off line with out the Ethernet cable connected....
I'd just like to get this NAS up and running to add to my Plea set up..but I don't want to do anything to disturb my working system that has 10 years of files loaded and running.
Thanks again for the suggestions.
To answer the question on the static vs DHCP...it is DHCP on the older one and I am assuming this one.
DHCP is what it uses by default.
If you are getting x.x.x.181 on one, or .35 and .48 on the other, then you aren't dealing with an IP address conflict.
turned my original back on.... when it came up it had a new IP address changing from .35 to .48 though
There are two NICs on the back of the RN204. So it is possible that you connected the ethernet cable to the other socket.
Though if the NAS was turned off for a while, and the address was not reserved in the router, then it might have given you a new address.
I tried the Netgear web log in but it comes up with something completely difference and does not have anything about the NAS, I can not get it to the setup page at all. I can not see firmware version.
Can you post a screenshot? Note that the camera icon won't work. You'll need to put the screenshot into cloud storage and post a link.
You can also try RAIDar, and see what status it gives:
Just to be clear on this - the new NAS is also an RN204?
Good Morning Stephen B. Thanks for all the information so far I appreciate it. Let me try to answer this. Yes, both the NAS are the RN204 and both have 4x4tb drives in slot 1-4 all drives are WD Red (not pro). Lets call the RN204 my current working RN204 and the other one New set up RN204. I am using the NAS as a library of media files for my Plex server and the current RN204 just fine. And it is the one that is now with an IP of .48 (use to be .35 until I turned it off while trying to get the new one up and running, but turned it back on and how has the new IP address and like before with plex flawlessly.
1 and 2 DHCP is Working fine I am sure as I had tried different things and was connected to my network I'd get the different IPs ... I am in the first (top) Ethernet port when I plugged the cable in to the new set up.... I am also on the top port on my current working device.
3. I am assuming that when I turned the current NAS back on the unit went from .35 to .48 but all is working fine (at this point the new set up device does not have any Ethernet connection currently because it was conflicting with the current device.... When I did a factory default on the new one I had the Ethernet cable disconnected form the new set up RN204
4. Can you post a screenshot? Not sure what you want here...in the RN204 manual set up it tells you to log in to a NETGEAR site and log in with the admin password id, when I try to go to that address it seems to take me to NETGEARs home page with nothing about any NAS and I am thinking they have removed that page.
As for the formatted drives originally they were formatted by the NAS and back then I'm pretty sure they would have been not been GPT.
Perhaps I should remove 2or3 of the drives and try a factory default and see if that works.
Finally, On my Lenovo NAS from the past if the unit needed a new firmware you would use a flash drive load the firmware on it and put it in the USB and start the NAS it did the rest with out connecting to the network , once done you put it on the network to finish the configuration. Does the RN204 have an option like that?
Are you in the USA? It would be nice to be able to have a phone conversation but I understand it that isn't available... Netgear just says they are not supported and that they are not in the NAS business anymore... Go figure that one out!
That Netgear web site has been down for years. To log in, use RAIDar or go to https://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/admin, where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of your NAS.
Thanks for all the help...I did get the system configured and up and running this morning using Raidar utility...I was able to set everything up make any changes and set it to raid 5... Now have almost 11Tb space out of 4x4 WD Red drives...Now Ill have to see how everything goes with my Plex Server! I appreciate everyone's help here.
And you are doing the factory default with at least one drive installed? If the drives were used on a machine that uses GPT partitioning, you may need to manually delete the GPT protection partition before the NAS can re-format it.
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