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Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

maelstrom
Aspirant

PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

Until recently my Stora has worked perfectly since I bought it a number of years ago. However, for about the last two weeks, when I start my PC I usually (about 90% of the time) get a message saying "Invalid username or password please try again...". Re-entering the details produces the same result. If I reboot the PC it almost invariably then accepts the login details and works normally, although sometimes it needs a second reboot to do it. If I access my Stora through the Stora Application browser interface it always accepts the details and logs in first time, even when the Stora Agent says that the same details are invalid. I haven't updated any of the Stora software or firmware recently. I am using Windows 7 64bit (fully up to date), Stora Agent 1.4.4.109, and the "About Stora" box through the Stora Application shows the software version as 2.6:2.0.0.427:1.2.329. Although I can live with it if there's no easy solution, it's annoying and time consuming, particularly as rebooting my PC seems to make it work normally again. Any ideas what may be causing the problem?

 

Incidentally, today when I checked for software updates through the Stora Application, it says that an update was found - hbs-5044.upd. Does anyone know what this is as I'm reluctant to change what was previously working perfectly?

Message 1 of 20
DexterJB
NETGEAR Moderator

Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

Hi @maelstrom,

 

1. Have you tried uninstalling an reinstalling the Stora agent?

2. Have you tried using another computer that has the Stora agent installed?

 

Regards,

 

Dexter

Community Team

Message 2 of 20
maelstrom
Aspirant

Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

Dexter,

 

Thanks for the reply. To answer your questions:

 

1. Today, although for the first time in some time it logged in correctly first time on startup, I have uninstalled and reinstalled the Stora Agent anyway as suggested.

2. I only have access to one computer.

 

I will have to wait for an oportunity to cold-boot my system to see if this has made any difference. I'll let you know.

 

Can you tell me what the hbs-5044.upd update does and if I need it?

Message 3 of 20
DexterJB
NETGEAR Moderator

Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

Hi @maelstrom,

 

Please keep us posted. Also, I would like to confirm the update that you found. Can you please provide a screenshot showing the update version number (hbs-5044)?

 

Regards,

 

Dexter

Community Team

Message 4 of 20
maelstrom
Aspirant

Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

This is the update I am offered:

 

MyStora.jpg

Message 5 of 20
maelstrom
Aspirant

Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

Sadly, reinstalling the Stora Agent hasn't resolved the problem. It took a reboot this morning to get it to log in. Any other suggestions that I can try?

Message 6 of 20
mvandani
Aspirant

Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

I had a similar issue. Windows Explorer would complain about incorrect username/password combo when accessing the Stora as a network drive, but I could SSH into the Stora just fine. I found that Samba, the service that runs on the Stora and allows it to be mounted as a network drive, was encountering errors.

 

 

-bash-3.2$ tail -f /var/log/samba/smbd.log
[2015/12/27 18:50:28, 0] passdb/pdb_smbpasswd.c:startsmbfilepwent(325)
startsmbfilepwent_internal: failed to set 0600 permissions on password file /etc/samba/smbpasswd. Error was No space left on device

Seeing the "no space left on device" message, I decided to check how much the Stora thought it had available (though I knew there should have been plenty)

 

-bash-3.2$ df -h 
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
rootfs                212M  183M  212M 100% /
ubi0:rootfs           212M  183M  212M 100% /
none                   62M   44K   62M   1% /dev
nodev                  62M   48K   62M   1% /var/log
nodev                  62M  360K   61M   1% /mnt/tmpfs
nodev                  62M  8.0K   62M   1% /var/lib/php/session
nodev                 932G  320G  612G  35% /tmp
...

At this point I realized that despite plenty of space being available on the hard drive itself (the 35% usage on the last line), the database Samba was trying to access must be in the rootfs partition, which has a considerably small portion of the total space available to work with and was completely full.

 

I had recently installed BitTorrent Sync, so I got suspicious that it might be writing to that partition and might not be behaving itself. Sure enough I found two ~100 MB log files in /opt/btsync/.sync. I deleted the log files, restarted Samba, and was able to connect via the Windows network drive.

 

/etc/init.d/smb restart

 

Maybe you also have some service that is filling up that partition. If it is periodically cleaning up after itself but still running out the space on the partition the majority of the time, that might explain why sometimes you're able to connect to the network mount and sometimes you are not.

 

I hope this helps you track down your issue.

 

 

Message 7 of 20
Gerbrand
Aspirant

Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

I found also an update HBS-5044.upd. Is there someone who knows what this update does???

Dexter, maybe????

Message 8 of 20
Gerbrand
Aspirant

Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

Hi @maelstrom,

 

 

Why use this software?

I use for a few years a batch file with the following text

 

NET USE X: \\STORA\GedeeldeBestanden /persistent:yes
NET USE Y: \\STORA\MijnComputers /persistent:yes
NET USE Z: \\STORA\MijnBestanden /persistent:yes

 

This works when your username and your password are the same on Stora and your PC!!!

 

If you use a different username on your PC and Stora, then you must create a bat file with the following text:

 

NET USE X: \\STORA\GedeeldeBestanden /USER:"username stora" "password Stora" /persistent:yes
NET USE Y: \\STORA\MijnComputers /USER:"username stora" "password Stora" /persistent:yes
NET USE Z: \\STORA\MijnBestanden /USER:"username stora" "password Stora" /persistent:yes

 

You have to run the bat file ones. Persistent:yes saves the info so with the next reboot of your PC it connects automaticly the three drives.

 

I use the same username and password for both my devices and that works great.

I never use the software from Netgear. (Stora and PC/Laptop)

 

You can also make a second bat file with the following text:

 

NET USE X: /delete
NET USE Y: /delete
NET USE Z: /delete

 

And your drives are disconnected from your PC when you run this file.

 

Imported!!!!!!

 

Login Stora with your browser and be sure that the following setting is set to Yes:

 

Server preferences -> :

 

 - Share Network to Yes!!!

 

No need for a name. I put "None"

 

Ofcourse in my text are dutch words like "GedeeldeBestanden" "MijnComputers" and "MijnBestanden",  Change this in your own language.

 

Good Luck

 

 

 

Message 9 of 20
maelstrom
Aspirant

Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

Gerbrand,

 

Thanks for the great suggestions! The batch file for starting the Stora works perfectly. Stopping it needs some user intervention for each virtual drive but I'm sure that there's some way to automate this. The next time my Stora refuses to start with the Stora Agent, I'll try using the batch files and, if they work, I'll use them permanently.

 

 

Update. Unfortunately, when the Stora Agent can't log in, neither can the batch file. Back to the drawing board!

Message 10 of 20
Gerbrand
Aspirant

Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

Maybe uninstall Stora Agent first and then use the batch files.

See if that works without problems.

 

And you can change "STORA" in the lines for your IP adres wich STORA use.

 

For example:

 

NET USE X: \\192.168.0.2\GedeeldeBestanden /persistent:yes

 

Ofcourse change the IP to your STORA IP adres.

 

Good Luck

 

Ps. This is my bat file:

---------------------------------------------- start bat file -------------------------------------------

@echo OFF
echo.
echo.
echo Versie 1.0 Stora script file voor inloggen.
echo Script gemaakt door: G.H.T. van Noort
echo Datum: 04-03-2011
echo.

 

PING stora -n 5

echo.
NET USE X: /delete
NET USE Y: /delete
NET USE Z: /delete
echo.
NET USE X: \\STORA\GedeeldeBestanden /USER:"user" "pasword" /persistent:yes
NET USE Y: \\STORA\MijnComputers /USER:"user" "pasword" /persistent:yes
NET USE Z: \\STORA\MijnBestanden /USER:"user" "pasword" /persistent:yes
echo.
Pause

--------------------------------------------------------------- end bat file ----------------------------------------

 

You can skip the "pause" line

With the "Ping" you can check if Stora is online.

 

 

Message 11 of 20
Skynet-cz
Aspirant

Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

I also have a new update available for my Stora MS2110 named as "hbs-5044.upd". When I try to make the update it ends up with a fail message. I was hoping it would solve some of the problems I have with it (e.g. the Power Timer is not working). Till this day My Stora encounters a lot of problems (e.g. I'm unable to make some user account changes) even though I'm a Premium Subscriber. And now even the update (that came up after years of waiting) doesn't work. Is there someone with this problem? Was anybody able to apply this update? Is there some solution? Thanks.

Message 12 of 20
Skydiver2111
Aspirant

Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

Hello,

I have successfully installed the update. The unit then shows Version 2.6.1.
I also had from time to time the blue light error. Since I installed the update, no longer. But I test only two weeks ...

The time will tell.


I do not know why you can not install the update.

 

But maybe you should follow this guide to flash your firmware to its original state?

https://community.netgear.com/t5/Stora-Legacy/Re-flash-your-NetGear-Stora/td-p/264219

Message 13 of 20
Skynet-cz
Aspirant

Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

Thank you very much for your reply. Yes, I would like to do that, but I'm sure Stora would wipe out my entire HDD so I would most likely lost all the data. I don't have a spare drive currently so I can't do even a backup but anyways, yeah, I think that procedure "turn it off and on again" could help. Thank you, I'll try to acquire secondary HDD to make a backup and then I'll give it a try. Thanks and have a nice day.

Message 14 of 20
oldstor
Aspirant

Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

I remember, going back some time, that my Stora would not update its firmware when it had a static IP address, I always had to change it to obtain one automatically in the settings and then the update would work. Not sure if this if this has been the case for you, but thought I'd mention it just in case.

Message 15 of 20
oldstor
Aspirant

Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

While I'm at it, can anyone shed any more light on the hbs-5044.upd update? It seems quite as small file compared with previous ones. I haven't installed it yet as I'd like to know what it does. (Although my Stora appears to be working, I've always had problems accessing it reliably from my MacBook - currently, a particular folder seems to keep appearing and disappearing and I can't access its contents - no such issues with a Windows PC, though.) I'm sure it's too much to hope that this update might fix that, but, in any case, I certainly don't want to install it if it breaks something else.

Message 16 of 20
maelstrom
Aspirant

Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

It would appear that even the Netgear Moderators don't know what the update does! I had a response earlier in this thread from a Moderator asking for details but nothing since.

 

Mysteriously, my Stora seems to be starting up normally now (2 weeks and counting) so whatever was causing my original problem appears to have resolved itself. As a result, I'm very reluctant to apply an unknown update in case it causes more problems.

Message 17 of 20
Gerbrand
Aspirant

Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

I don't update my Stora if i don't know what it does. Even when the Netgear specialists doesn't, it feels not good.

 

My only problem is that Stora changes the DNS server settings in the Stora firmware when Stora starts from a shutdown. And here Stora is always online, so the problem isn't that great.

With the Stora DNS settings, after a restart, Stora runs also fine. It's more my feeling that says it is (small)problem. I can live with that.

 

DNS-server 1: 206.191.24.194

DNS-server 2: leeg

 

These are the Stora standard settings. But again, Stora workst fine with it.

 

If it isn't broken don't fix it. 😉

 

But i am still curious what the firm software does. So who knows...........

 

 

Message 18 of 20
netmnply
Aspirant

Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

My only problem is that Stora changes the DNS server settings in the Stora firmware when Stora starts from a shutdown. And here Stora is always online, so the problem isn't that great.

With the Stora DNS settings, after a restart, Stora runs also fine. It's more my feeling that says it is (small)problem. I can live with that.

 

I have the same issue.... so i can not connect online ... from another place for example or from my mobile device via 4G

 

When you say all works fine .... can you connect to your stora from another place ?

Message 19 of 20
ghtvannoort
Aspirant

Re: PC suddenly needs one or two reboots for Stora Agent to accept username/password

I changed the way of linking Stora to the router. I put the MAC address in the Static DHCP table in the router and assigned an dedicated IP address. In Stora I put DHCP automatically. In that way the configuration of IP settings comes from the router. This way I can always reach my Stora. Even over 3G on my smartphone.

 

Sorry for the bad english. I hope you understand.

Message 20 of 20
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