Mapping A Share Fails to Connect At Startup

You might want try also try creating a new (temporary) account on your PC to rule out issues related to your specific account setup.

I tried creating a new admin account on my PC and mapping a drive. Still had teh same problems. Next up, removing security.

So now I run into another problem. I removed security on the share and Windows is still prompting me for a username/pass when I try to click on the NAS in the Network. The share is open, what username/pass could it possibly want?

Here is the 1 and only share settings:

CIFS Default Access: Read/Write
Allow Guest Access: Checked
Enable Oplocks: Checked
All other fields empty, all other checkboxes unchecked.

Advanced Options:
Grant rename and delete privileges to non owner files: checked
All rights: Read/Write
Share folder owner: wyatt (does this matter to network access? It is set to wyatt because that is the name of the user I created and what I set all file ownership rights to.)
Share folder group: users (does this matter to network access?)

Argh.

The share folder owner and group don't really have anything to do with connecting to the share since they are filesystem level settings.

If guest access is enabled, then any unsuccessful authentication attempt will result in guest access. So UNC in Explorer works but clicking on the NAS in Network does not? Do you have any protocols other than CIFS enabled for the share?

Hi ewok

Only CIFS is enabled.

I decided to start from scratch.

I created a new share named "fileshare".

I created two "users" for me and my wife. I matched the users names and passwords to our Windows logon names and passwords. Both of the users are in the default group named "users". Both have 0 quota, and were assigned unique ID's automatically.

The new share was automatically given the the share folder owner name: "fileshare" and the share folder group name: "nogroup". I left everything in the Advanced Options tab as default. so Read/write rights for all choices and grant rename and delete privs is checked.

On the CIFS tab I changed default access to "Disabled". I checked the box for "Write Enabled user and group". I entered my wife and my user names into the write enable users field and the I entered "users" into the write enabled groups field.

Everything is else is default except that I checked "Automatically set permissions on new files and folders" and left all selections as Read/Write.

Now I am almost done copying all of the folders and files from my old share that was having all kinds of problems to my new share. I tested the new share by copying a few folders and files from the old share over. Both my wife and my PC's were able to connect without being prompted for a login/pass so I am continuing to copy all files and folders to the new share.

Here are the remaining issues:

#1 This is not an ideal setup because both my wife and my Windows logons do not use a password so the security is very poor as far as accessing the NAS since the NAS users need the same login/pass as my Windows logons. I can't get it to work correctly any other way so I guess I have to deal with it or add Passwords to our Windows logons which would mean we have to enter them every time we start out computers....

#2 I still cannot map the new share to my PC's. Neither the Windows 7 PC or the Windows XP PC is able to reconnect upon a restart. If I wait a few seconds after they restart and then click on the "disconnected" mapped drive, it opens up just fine....

#3 Instead of mapping the drive I just opened the NAS on the network and created a shortcut to the share. This works. There is a major issue though. Opening up the share in windows explorer for the first time takes about 17 seconds before the contents appear. After that I can browse the files and folders quickly. However if I stop browsing, close the explorer window and try to open it up a few minutes later, I have to wait for another 17 seconds.

The same problem occurs when I add music files from the NAS drive to itunes and try to play, pause and resume them. I can add a song and begin playing it, but if I pause the track for a few minutes and then try to resume play I have to wait 17 seconds for it to start again.

I never experienced any of these problems prior to my factory reset of my ReadyNAS Duo and the installation of my new 2TB hard drives. Connecting to the NAS was always instantaneous. I only ever had to wait for the hard drives to spin up from sleep which took about 2 seconds and once they were awake I could play, pause, resume as much as I wanted.

The only strange thing I notice that is different between my old setup and my new one is that whenever I would access my old setup, whether through windows explorer or Frontview the NAS drives would always spin up if they were sleeping.

On my new setup the NAS drives don't spin up when I try to access the NAS for the first time or when I try to resume playback of a music file. They only spin up if I navigate to a file or folder on the NAS that I haven't visited before. It's kind of like it is using some sort of cache or memory to try and resume where it left off without spinning up the hard drives if that is possible. I don't know enough about it to say what it might be. Do Oplocks have anything to do with that?

Still frustrated with this fiasco. Thanks for all the help.

After all of my trials an tribulations it turns out that THIS is the cause... viewtopic.php?f=21&t=48120

The linked thread provided a workaround to my problem (#3):

I simply went into The Menu: Services / Standard File Protocols / I unchecked CIFS, hit apply and then rechecked CIFS and hit apply. Now my access is almost instant (solving problem #3). Unfortunately reading the thread they have been asking for a fix to this problem for over 6 months (with little to know response from Netgear). Only recently has it been mentioned that the latest beta Firmware 4.1.8 might resolve this problem.

Over two weeks of painful research and troubleshooting and I finally have a working (kind of) NAS.

Sulu wrote:
I then added the command "NET USE /Persistent:Yes" to set it to reconnect at startup The drive mapped fine and I was able to open it up and see all the files, create files with the correct ownership rights, everything is perfect except when I restart it fails to reconnect. Any new suggestions? Thanks for sticking with me.

Sulu, sorry for being away for several days since my last post. I don't visit here often.

Anyhoo, in post #2, I asked you if you have tried the command-line batch reconnect-at-logon approach. You never answered me. I didn't link it, but I told you that I was referring to the wiki FAQ under the "shares" section. (See below)

PandaMarketer wrote:
Have you tried the command line batch (manual) reconnect at logon approach? (found in the wiki under "shares")

What this method has you do is create a batch file. (*.BAT) that runs on start-up. This is where YOU, the user, manually creates it and puts it in the start-up folder. Tell me, have you tried this? This should map your drives for you using the old (pseudo-) DOS method.*

Also, the switch "/persistent:no" was explicitly set to no for a reason. (from post #4 in this thread)
It doesn't meant what we think it means. :slap:

I also stated in post #4, that:

PandaMarketer wrote:
Once you can get this to work from the command line, then you can include this command in a batch file that you can set up to run every time you boot your machine.

Maybe you don't know how to create a batch file? It's pretty simple. A the core, it's just a text file with a collection of commands one would enter on the command-line.

* let me show you how to build one

• Open up any text-only editor, and save the file as <whatever>.BAT (not <whatever>.BAT.TXT) You must be able to rename file extentions!


• Put this in and edit it for your system...

@echo off
echo.Mapping NAS to drive letter Z:

NET USE z: \\NAS-01-F0-3F\fileshare /USER:user1 password /PERSISTENT:no

echo.Done!

I like to use simple, descriptive names, so in our case, let's name this NASMAPZ.BAT. :-)

• So, let's test this baby out. Put it somewhere you can find it in the DOS Shell easily. (the desktop is fine.)


• Be sure to un-map your drive Z for this, and future tests.


• Run "cmd" and get a shell window. It defaults to "C:\Users\User", so to navigate to the desktop, type "cd desktop" and you're now there. "C:\Users\User\Desktop"


• Type your batch file's name "nasmapz.bat" and press enter.


• You should see the echoed output we wrote in the batch file, and if successful, a new window with our share open. (I think)
  


• So, if all is well, un-map your drive for the next test.
  
  Okay, so now we need to put this puppy in the start-up folder. In Windows 7, it's hidden very well. Here is a trick to get to it...
  


• Press the WIN key (or click Start) and just start typing the following command and press Enter: shell:startup


• I'm sure you'll know what to do next... put your batch file in this folder. (not a short cut)


• Now, just log off and back on. (or reboot)
  


• Enjoy.

NOTE: THIS IS ONLY TO SOLVE YOUR MAPPING, not your accessing speed. :D

No need to be sorry, as you can see I have been busy and sphardy, ewok and others have been helping me out.

I looked into the batch file method while you were gone and didn't explore it much further. Call me stubborn but when mapping a drive (which should be an easy and straightforward process does not work, I want to know why. What makes me different than the millions of other windows users out there that I can't map a drive? Then I want to fix whatever it is that is preventing me from doing that. Working around the problem by creating a batch file wasn't the solution that I wanted to jump to right away. I do really appreciate your in depth explanation though.

After you left I started talking about UNC with sphardy which actually serves my purpose just as well. I am not even really sure what the main advantage/disadvantages using a mapped drive vs a UNC path are but they seem to serve the same purpose and work just fine for me. So I am using UNC now which is great.

One of the other problems I was having was with permissions which I finally had to resort to making my NAS users login/pass the same as my Windows logon/pass. This wasn't what I really wanted to do since my Windows logons don't have passwords but it works as a small security measure to prevent guest access I guess. I also had to copy all of my files from the first share I setup to a new share which seemed to fix any access problems I was also having.

The last problem was the access speed which was cause by a bug in the 4.1.7 firmware and I got the workaround from this thread viewtopic.php?f=21&t=48120

So in the end, I setup a new share, accessed with a UNC path (created a shortcut) and used the info in the linked thread to fix the speed issue. So far so good. :D

Well, at least my input will be preserved for posterity, in case some one in the future wants to take the batch file approach. :)

I had the same problem. This is how I fixed it in Win7. Type Manage Windows Credentials in the search/run bar. Select Add a Windows Credential. I typed in \\NASNAME\SHARE for Internet or Network Address. I typed in my username. If you have a different domain than your windows logon, you need to include it. For us, our users are on a workgroup, not a domain, so I put workgroup\UserName because the NAS is on a workgroup. Then enter the password. Click Finish or OK.

Then go to COMPUTER. (There may be another way to get here, but I don't know it) Right click in the white space, and select ADD A NETWORK LOCATION. Select Choose a Custom Location, click next. Put in the share again \\NASNAME\SHARE and then type whatever name you want to see under Network and then click finish.

Each user has the same logon/password for all of the shares they are permitted access to, so setting up the credentials for one share gave them access to the other shares under the NAS. (They don't have the same password, just one password per user) After rebooting and logging on and off, the network share is still there and they don't have to enter their passwords. Hope this helps.