Network path not found

Is this failing 100% of the time?

Did you try using the IP address instead of the name?

Yes, it will not connect. I've tried restarting both the computer and the NAS which usually fixes the issues. There were no updates of system changes I know of.

Can you explain how I would use the IP instead of the name?

\\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\LoneStarPress

where xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx is the IP address of the NAS.

If you don't know the address, you can find it on the frontview home page.

Once I find the IP address, how am I changing my NAS name? Right now on the PC I have them set up as drives I can access like my "C" drive. Sorry, some of the things with the ReadyNAS seem a little more techy than I expected before I bought this. Im pretty good with all of this but dumb it down as needed, thanks.

Windows lets you access the NAS by either its name or its IP address. You don't need to change the NAS name, and I am not asking you to do that.

What I am asking is that you enter \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\LoneStarPress into the address bar of Windows explorer, and let us know if it behaves differently from entering \\NAS-C1-DE-8A\LoneStarPress in the same address bar.

Note this is windows explorer (e.g. "computer"), not internet explorer. Be careful to use the right slash (\, not /).

Entering the IP address allows me to access the NAS files. When I enter the name of the NAS (\\NAS-C1-DE-8A\LoneStarPress) it wont connect but the window lets me "diagnose" the problem. Here is what the diagnostics says:
"Make sure the computer or device is turned on and connected to the network. Windows can't find "NAS-C1-DE-8A". If the computer or devise you are trying to reach is near by, make sure it is turned on and connected to the network. Otherwise, contact your network administrator for assistance."

We know that we can access the NAS since I can access it on the Mac and we just were able to access it through the the IP address.

What is our next step?

Note the main reason I have the NAS set up as drives on the PC is so I can save an offsite backup through Carbonite.

Well, the NAS is certainly on, but it cannot be reached on the PC using its name.

Try launching CMD (which opens a dos-style command box) and try entering
"ping NAS-C1-DE-8A". Also try "ping -a xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx" (using the NAS IP). The -a tells ping to try and discover the name of the NAS - which it will tell you in the response if it finds it.

To launch CMD, you click on the windows icon on the bottom left, and type CMD in the search bar at the bottom. Then press enter.

I tried the NAS name and it said that if "could not find host NAS-C1-DE-8A"
When I entered the ip address it appears that it can find it. There were ping replies and statistics that show up.

I can give you all of the ping response if needed.

Would it be smart to "remove" the drives in windows explored that I added as drives on this computer and then find them and add them again? I might need some tips on how to do that. When I set them up the first time Carbonite was giving the instruction.

Did you get a name when you did the ping -a????

For instance when I ping -a 10.0.0.10, I get

Pinging PRO [10.0.0.10] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 10.0.0.10: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 10.0.0.10: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 10.0.0.10: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

PRO is the name of my NAS.

Also, are the NAS and the PC in the same workgroup? You can see the NAS workgroup on the security->security mode page. USER should be your selected security mode, and the workgroup name is right below it. You can see the PC workgroup by right-clicking "computer" and selecting properties. It is shown under the computer name and description. The two names should match.

Assuming they do match, you could try enabling the WINS server in your NAS and see if that helps. That is on the network->WINS menu in Frontview, the option is "Make this device a WINS Server" While you are in the network configuration, select the "global settings" tab and make sure the hostname is still set to NAS-C1-DE-8A. After setting it, reboot the NAS and the PC. If it doesn't help, turn the WINS server off again.

One work-around is to remove the existing network drives and map them again using the IP address. However, that IP address can change, so we'd also want to adjust your IP configuration to prevent that. The best way is to reserve the IP address in the router. What router model do you have?

Here are the ping results. It shows the IP address, not the name. I'll have to go over those other items you mentioned later today when I have a bit more time. Can you think of a reason why this happened all of a sudden?

Pinging 192.168.1.109 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.109: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.109: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.109: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.109: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.109:
Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
Minimum = 1ms, Maximum = 1ms, Average = 1ms

Thanks a ton for all of the help so far!