All computers can access NAS, NAS can't access anything.

mdgm wrote:
Can you give the full backup job settings for one of your jobs? What version of RAIDiator on the NAS? Are you running a firewall on the PCs?

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Thanks for responding to a very general query (about a very basic problem).

It's RAIDiator 4.1.7 (apparently the latest, came with the NAS).

Firewalls are disabled within the 'HOME' workgroup (basically corresponding to our home network, running through a Belkin wireless router which also runs DHCP for all machines on the network (protected by MAC address filtering, with all 'HOME' MACs, including that of the NAS, allowed access; I can see all the machines' - including the ReadyNAS' - IP addresses in the router setup).

The simplest job that failed (again, just now) is an attempt to backup the root directory of this XP-SP3 computer to a share on the NAS (/backup/username). The root directory of this machine is fully shared with write permissions. I've tried both Timestamp and Archive Bit protocols. I entered the COMPUTERNAME (with and without Unix slashes, since Frontview 'Help' tells you to use these, but the program seems to add them also - the non-connectability error includes 2 Unix-style forward slashes before the machine name, even if I didn't enter those myself, though I've also tried with the slashes, as suggested in the very unhelpful 'Help' - the whole software package seems like a glitchy beta release from some minor player).

I'm not sure (again, great documentation) whether I need to enter the full (UNIX-style) path from the root directory to the share to be backed up, or just the COMPUTERNAME and the SHARENAME (as in an Windows Explorer listing), so again, I've tried both (this random experimentation with permutations of all the variables is pretty timeconsuming, and prompted my choice of username).

I've also tried simply entering the name of the root directory, C (no partition on this hard disk), with or without a dollar sign immediately following (though this isn't mentioned in Frontview 'Help').

For login, I've tried the name of the adminstrator/sole user and blank (the way I login without password through the 'windows classic' login prompt on the machine itself), and when this failed, I've tried setting a password to login on this computer, and entering the password on Frontview.

And because after many attempts at simply using 'Test Connection' with all these settings, only to then read on this site that 'Test Connection' often doesn't work when there IS in fact a connection (again, great beta release), I've tried doing a basic test backup ignoring the 'Test Connection' failure. Again, 'error connecting' to any of the machines on the network. I've also tried using numerical network addresses in the 'Host' field, again, it fails to connect.

NOTHING works - I must have tried about 30 combinations of the badly-documented variables I've mentioned. I've also tried enabling ALL XP services, then returned to the services that have worked fine for interacting with the other computers, running different OSs, on the network (Mac OS X 10.5.8 and Windows 7 Home Premium).

WHY do all these computers all see each other and the NAS with no difficulty, while the NAS is blind to everything in its workgroup? Why on earth can't Frontview browse the home network like all the other machines?

Not only is the 'Help' and documentation pretty useless (from what I thought was a serious IT player, Netgear)... but this whole business is worse than configuring a modem or printer 25 years ago! I'm shocked.