Forum Discussion

Aspirant

Oct 12, 2019

Win 7 64 bit file explorer Network lists the NAS, but cant connect

Hi after update OS from 4 to 6.10.1 my win7 PC cant connect to NAS from fil explorer directly, when I click on it I get "network path not found" On the other side i can mount it to a drive w...

Sandshark

Sensei

Oct 12, 2019

There is some issue with name resolution of Samba servers or shares by Windows 10. Some never see the issue, others do (on ReadyNAS and other brand NAS that use Linux Samba). I am one who does.

You can simply keep using the IP address, but that doesn't help with browsing via the Network window. To make that work, you can add the NAS IP address to the HOSTS file. A little Googling will show you how to do that. It's a work-around, not a real solution, but the only thing I've fond 100% long-term successful.

Of course, this does assume your NAS will always have the same IP address. Rather than using a static IP via the NAS set-up, it is better to reserve the address in your router.

schumaku

Guru - Experienced User

Oct 12, 2019

Hard to say what is going wrong. Especially because of most modern NAS (including the RN) are concurrently running both NetBIOS name discovery and resolution (IPv4 brodacast based) as well as WS-Discovery (Multicast based). Windows 7 concurrently runs both, same for WIndows 8, 8.1, and earlier Windows 10 builds. Here only later builds disabled it (either on installation, on update, and when SMB 1.0 transport protocol wasn't used for a while.

I'm pretty much convinced that most discovery and/or name resolution issues are caused by network issues, bad switches, poor WiFi routers, borked Wireless access points, buggy powerline, ... but also some special issues with the network config, multiple interfaces, potentially overlapping IP subnetworks (interfaces, OpenVPN, ...), probably some VPN configurations (active, or just installed and enabled).

As a side comment: WSD-discovery (or WS-Discovery) isn't part of the SAMBA suite - it's independent code.

A start might be using

C:\> ping [nasname]

...

It depends on some factors - NetBIOS will only return IPv4 addresses, complete WS-Discovery implementations will return IPv6 by default (if configured to some basic extent), or IPv4. Compare all these addresses with the NAS interfaces connecting to the [W]LAN network.

For pure NetBIOS environments (Windows 10 needs the SMB 1.0/CIFS client feature enabled), you can check

C:\> nbtstat -a [nasname]
...

littomalt
Aspirant
Oct 13, 2019

Thanks for answer
Befor upgrade to OS6, all was working fine, after upgrade I cant browse from file explorer, i must mount a drive with a ip adress.

My setup is:
pfsense router (dedicated pfsense box)
Managed switch from ubiquti
Cabled CAT 6 from PC to NAS
Wifi ap from ubiquity
===
I have VPN installed on pfsense router, this VPN is per today not working, it stopped suddenly last week...

Ping NAS is working
===

nbtstat result
C:\Users\nn>nbtstat -a NAS
Local Area Connection:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.0.2] Scope Id: []
Host not found.
VirtualBox Host-Only Network:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.56.1] Scope Id: []
Host not found.
FreedomeVPNConnection:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []
Host not found.
Local Area Connection 5:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []
Host not found.
Bluetooth Network Connection:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []
Host not found.
- Sandshark
  Sensei
  Oct 13, 2019
  Well, in my case, and most others I've seen while I looked for a solution, discovery was not the issue, though those offering a "solution" failed to read the full set of symptoms and offer discovery related ones. The NAS is right there in the Network folder, but double-clicking it brings up an error instead of a password prompt. Same thing if you try to map the drive or navigate to it by typing in a network address in a Windows Explorer address bar. The first time this occurs after a reboot, it takes a long time for the error to appear. Afterward, it's nearly instantaneous.
  
  If the OP has a similar issue, I'm lettng him know that he may not find a true solution, but there are work-arounds.
  
  I believe some also have "fixed" this by saving the credentials to the Windows Credential Manager. I prefer to not do that.