R9000 problem - Cannot connect network drive located on a Mac for use in Plex

[agnj]

Hello. I have successfully set up a new R9000 router. I am unable to connect a shared network drive for use in Plex. I am able to successfully connect a shared drive located on a PC running Win7, but I am unable to attach a shared drive on a Mac running High Sierra. The Genie interface does not give me a specific error. It just loads a new blank page for entry of a network drive. There is no specific info in the log, just that the drive failed to mount. I found one similar thread here, but there was no solution there. I can’t be the only one trying to attach a Mac drive. I’m hoping someone can point me in the right direction.

Thanks!

[xnsys · Accepted solution]

I can't see the pictures...yet...I guess they have to be authorized by NetGear first - so when I can I'll be able to confirm your settings.

I'm on 10.13.4 at the moment and that's working for me.  Could be that there is an issue with 10.13.3 and it will be fixed in the 10.13.4 release.

I'm wondering if this could be down to signing being enforced from the Mac, I have this disabled on the mahine I was connecting to as it caused varioous slowdowns when accessing a QNAP NAS, albeit fine when accessing Windows 2016 shares, which still was confirmed to use sharing.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT205926

Pay attention to the 2nd part of the article, "Turn off packet signing on a macOS computer that hosts SMB shares"

@Case850 - No need to be so abrasive.  You obviously don't understand macs and the security laters in the OS - High Sierra has changed things and SMB is far more secure than Sierra (for example), some of the apple forums have recommended downgrading the OS where a Windows 2008 server or XP/Vista machine has been unable to connect, and this has worked - personally I think this to be a signing/encryption enforcment issue.

[michaelkenward]

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@agnj wrote:
I am able to successfully connect a shared drive located on a PC running Win7, but I am unable to attach a shared drive on a Mac running High Sierra.

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Sounds like a Mac issue. Does its support forums offer any help?

[agnj]

Thank you for your reply.

I did not find anything. Surely, there must be people using Macs and I can't believe no one has mapped to a shared drive.

My Mac has an external drive names "MSP" attached via a Thunderbolt cable and shared.

I map it on the Genie interface with /Volumes/MSP and I get nothing (I've tried /MSP, and many other variations, but none work). I've also experimented with mapping a shared folder off of root and that doesn't map either!

Thanks!

[agnj]

Case850,

Thanks for your reply. I am able to see the files on the USB on all my networked devices. That's not the problem. 

I would like to map a network drive in lieu of the USB device. I have a multi-drive enclosure with tons of media attached to a Mac. I would gladly just move it from my Mac to the router, but the enclosure does not have a USB interface, it's Thunderbolt2.

Thanks.

[xnsys]

Check that you are sharing on the mac using SMB.

I presume what you are trying to do is to access a file share on the mac from the R9000.

[agnj]

Thank you.

Yes. I'm tyring to access the shar on the mac.

Its location is /Volumes/MSP

Definitely have it set SMB.

Still searching for an answer....

Thanks again.

[agnj]

Case850,

Yes, I am still searching.

I wasn't sure how to respond to the statement that I picked the most "unreliable router in the Netgear product rage." Netgear advertises the feature I am trying to use, and a call to technical pre-sales confirmed the functionality that I was looking for.

The Thunderbolt model, I discovered, is irrelevant. Turns out that, on the Mac, it doesn't work with the installed drive, an attached USB drive, and a folder off of root. Trying all of these identical options on a PC running Win7 work fine. The problem must be in the way I'm entering the location of the drive, or the way credentials are set up. The frustrating problem is that the Netgear log provides zero details on what the error/problem is in making the mapping.

Finally, buying a new USB enclosure, or a NAS, would certainly be a solution, but after spending $400 on a high-end router with advertised features, I'd much rather use *that* device, along with its advertised features.

Can anyone confirm that they have a Mac OS High Sierra mapped drive up and running on the R9000?

Thank you!

[agnj]

Hello,

I am thinking of downgrading a Mac and using the shared drive there,in case it's a compatibility issue with High Sierra's sharing setup.

Can anyone confirm that they have a shared drive connected, up and running, on an R9000 for use in Plex on:

High Sierra?

Sierra?

El Capitan?

Yosemite?

Thank you!

[xnsys]

I've not read the whole thread - so forgive me if this has been answered already.

Can the Windows machine connect to the SMB share on the mac?

[agnj]

Yes. It can.

Thanks.

[xnsys]

Right, so I've teested this and I can get it to connect fine.

What I have noticed is that the NetGear doesn't like user accounts with a space in them - so "John Doe" needs to be "JohnDoe" otherwise you get an error message.

Also, from the Mac side, you need to click on the "options." button under file sharing, and then enable the user account that's connecting to the Mac.

Click on the "On" button left of each user name (If you haven't already).

Pay attention to the warning, as it will store your passwords in a less secure manner.

[agnj]

Thanks for your suggestion.

Do you have your share running on High Sierra?

Unfortunately, I have had no success.

I have a user account called "routerplex" and I have enabled the user account. Please see my settings below. Do you see any issues with them?

Thanks again!

[xnsys · Accepted solution]

I can't see the pictures...yet...I guess they have to be authorized by NetGear first - so when I can I'll be able to confirm your settings.

I'm on 10.13.4 at the moment and that's working for me.  Could be that there is an issue with 10.13.3 and it will be fixed in the 10.13.4 release.

I'm wondering if this could be down to signing being enforced from the Mac, I have this disabled on the mahine I was connecting to as it caused varioous slowdowns when accessing a QNAP NAS, albeit fine when accessing Windows 2016 shares, which still was confirmed to use sharing.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT205926

Pay attention to the 2nd part of the article, "Turn off packet signing on a macOS computer that hosts SMB shares"

@Case850 - No need to be so abrasive.  You obviously don't understand macs and the security laters in the OS - High Sierra has changed things and SMB is far more secure than Sierra (for example), some of the apple forums have recommended downgrading the OS where a Windows 2008 server or XP/Vista machine has been unable to connect, and this has worked - personally I think this to be a signing/encryption enforcment issue.

[xnsys]

@Case850. Ah ha, you're not fully understading the OP's issue, it's not the mac connecting to the ReadyShare - Share, but the R9000 connecting to a share on the Mac via the Plex interface - there is an option in there to add a "Network Drive Connection from Local Network for the Plex Media Library"

@agnj - is the error you're getting "Your router can't connect to your network drive because of network errors."  - I've just tried re-enabling signing on the Mac and that's the error I'm now getting - so looks like signing is the issue when accessing shares on the mac from the Plex interface.

@Case850 - Yes, the R9000 has had issues and things haven't worked properly since dxay one, but the latest firmware seems to have fixed a few issues along the way, although there are still several niggling little things that need to be resolved.

[agnj]

xnsys = Boss

It was the packet signing issue! I followed the suggestion in the Apple KB article and it now works! Netgear must have tested it with older flavors of MacOS, but the newer SMB security settings are not compatible with the router out of the box. Hopefully, they will address it on an update. For now, this is a usable workaround since my clients and server are all on the same secure network.

Thanks very much for your suggestions and for working this out with me!

[agnj]

UPDATE:

The solution did allow me to add the Mac network drive,which is why I am keeping it marked as the solution, but, unfortunately, Plex is still not functional.

Within minutes of adding the drive, the little network drive icon in the Genie interface turns from green to a drive with a small red "x" on it. Apparently, the router thinks the drive is offline, even though it is not.

Plex creates a library with the network drive. However, when it scans for movie files it finds nothing (the scan goes on and on). The Plex log records "Resource temporarily unavailable," so I suspect this has something to do with the drive being offline as far as the router is concerned.

Any thoughts on this one??

Thanks.

[xnsys]

The Mac isn't going to sleep is it?

[schumaku]

@xnsys wrote:

I'm wondering if this could be down to signing being enforced from the Mac, I have this disabled on the mahine I was connecting to as it caused varioous slowdowns when accessing a QNAP NAS, albeit fine when accessing Windows 2016 shares, which still was confirmed to use sharing.

Cumbersome, the SMB signing implemented in SAMBA is very inefficient, Windows (in many deployments operating on high-end server platforms, very different from many NAS) does the same job with much less overhead.

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@agnjwrote:

 It was the packet signing issue! I followed the suggestion in the Apple KB article and it now works! Netgear must have tested it with older flavors of MacOS, but the newer SMB security settings are not compatible with the router out of the box. Hopefully, they will address it on an update.

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The SAMBA SMB clients are by far not as flexible as what we have on the mainstream desktop OS. While a current WIndows SMB client does negotiate to almost any possible customisation or limitation, we have to tell the SAMBA SMB client almost anything. The (one and only) defaults in the mounter implemented are streamlined to common NAS; specifically RedyNAS. 

No idea right now why the mount you have in place does went lost over time - while being used in fact.

[agnj]

Definitely not.

Neither is the external drive.

I tried it with a mapped folder and USB stick. They go offline very shortly after being mapped. The same does not occur in Win7.

Thanks.

[xnsys]

How are the machines connected to the router?  Copper or WiFi?

[agnj]

They are hardwired - copper.

Thanks.

[michaelkenward]

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@Case850 wrote:

@agnj

Read Message 23

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To make life easier, and to save everyone scrolling around the place, I think this is Message 23:

Solved: Re: R9000 problem - Cannot connect network drive l... - NETGEAR Communities

[michaelkenward]

Go on, click that link and see where it takes you.

I try to make life easy for people by offering direct links rather than instructions to embark on a route march.

Long live the hyperlink. One of the few things that Lithium's horrible software gets right.