Buffalo NAS Failes To Assign Drive Letters

Buffalo NASNavagator2 show the NAS and it IP Address on my LAN so I
think this is real.
After booting several times I still get this message and the same IP
Address for the NAS in Buffalo NASNavagator2. All other info shown
looks correct.

What does this mean and what shall I do ?
"Remote default share is missing." is nebulous to me.

Everything worked just fine until I had a major LAN problems that seems
to be resolved for everything else I have tried.

This same NAS shows up and can be assigned a drive letter on my other
desktop running Windows 7 Pro.


The message:

---------------------------
NASNavigator2
---------------------------
Failed mapping.
Remote default share is missing.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

Also, I have a Western Digital NAS on this same LAN and it shows up and
gets a letter assigned.

XPUser wrote:
Buffalo NASNavagator2 show the NAS and it IP Address on my LAN so I
think this is real.
After booting several times I still get this message and the same IP
Address for the NAS in Buffalo NASNavagator2. All other info shown
looks correct.

What does this mean and what shall I do ?
"Remote default share is missing." is nebulous to me.

Everything worked just fine until I had a major LAN problems that seems
to be resolved for everything else I have tried.

This same NAS shows up and can be assigned a drive letter on my other
desktop running Windows 7 Pro.


The message:

---------------------------
NASNavigator2
---------------------------
Failed mapping.
Remote default share is missing.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

Did you set up a share using an IP address ?

To prevent network breakage, set your share up to
"BuffaloNAS", not "192.168.1.3". Because when DHCP
assigns 192.168.1.4 to the BuffaloNAS, the NAS is
going to go missing. If you use the symbolic address,
and make the computer look up the numeric IP for itself,
it should all work.

People *do* use numeric IPs when setting up shares,
and this compensates for when some network protocols
are broken. But don't expect a *permanent* mapping
to be valid for very long, if the NAS is being
assigned addresses via DHCP, and not a static address.

If you know the address of the NAS will never move,
then it is OK to use a numeric IP. But that takes a
lot of manual data entry, if you hard-wire your entire
network like that. If you wanted, you could turn off
DHCP on all the equipment, and enter static addresses
in the panels on each piece of equipment. However, you
will suffer hair loss, the next time your network needs
to be "re-jigged". As you'll have to re-do all those
panels. And you don't want that. That's why we have DHCP.

Anyway, that's what the problem smells like. I don't
have a NAS here, and I've managed to keep some of my hair :-)

Paul

Thanks for your help but a little more tutorial please.

I have never set up a share and do not know how to do this.
This setup has been working for many years until right now.
So maybe I just do not remember doing that.

Remember that the Win 7 PC assigns drive letters for the NASes just fine
(same LAN).

How do I set up a share ?

What I see from the Buffalo SW are IP addresses for the several NAS on
my home LAN that do not seem to be in my range so maybe they come with
their own IP address ????


Paul wrote:

Did you set up a share using an IP address ?

To prevent network breakage, set your share up to
"BuffaloNAS", not "192.168.1.3". Because when DHCP
assigns 192.168.1.4 to the BuffaloNAS, the NAS is
going to go missing. If you use the symbolic address,
and make the computer look up the numeric IP for itself,
it should all work.

People *do* use numeric IPs when setting up shares,
and this compensates for when some network protocols
are broken. But don't expect a *permanent* mapping
to be valid for very long, if the NAS is being
assigned addresses via DHCP, and not a static address.

If you know the address of the NAS will never move,
then it is OK to use a numeric IP. But that takes a
lot of manual data entry, if you hard-wire your entire
network like that. If you wanted, you could turn off
DHCP on all the equipment, and enter static addresses
in the panels on each piece of equipment. However, you
will suffer hair loss, the next time your network needs
to be "re-jigged". As you'll have to re-do all those
panels. And you don't want that. That's why we have DHCP.

Anyway, that's what the problem smells like. I don't
have a NAS here, and I've managed to keep some of my hair :-)

Paul

XPUser wrote:
Thanks for your help but a little more tutorial please.

I have never set up a share and do not know how to do this.
This setup has been working for many years until right now.
So maybe I just do not remember doing that.

Remember that the Win 7 PC assigns drive letters for the NASes just fine
(same LAN).

How do I set up a share ?

What I see from the Buffalo SW are IP addresses for the several NAS on
my home LAN that do not seem to be in my range so maybe they come with
their own IP address ????


It would generally be a bad sign, if the tool is displaying
IP addresses. It almost implies that the IP is the primary identifier
it is using.

Does this software have a name ?

*******

I tried a search on mapped drives, and this was suggested.

http://superuser.com/questions/13575...e-to-text-file

net use

What that should output, is what shares are mapped at the moment,
for your user account.

You will notice in the sample in that thread, the server name
is symbolic ("\\SHAMAN") and not numeric. To me, that suggests
if DHCP assigned a different address to the SHAMAN machine
located via NetBIOS, it would still resolve OK.

I don't bother mapping drives here. I look them up in My Network Places
when I need something. And make sure all my machines are using
WORKGROUP, so they can see one another.

Paul

Buffalo NASNavigator2
"C:\Program Files\BUFFALO\NASNAVI\NasNavi.exe"

I will look in My Network Places and see what I can see.
(out and about right now)


It would generally be a bad sign, if the tool is displaying
IP addresses. It almost implies that the IP is the primary identifier
it is using.

Does this software have a name ?

*******

I tried a search on mapped drives, and this was suggested.

http://superuser.com/questions/13575...e-to-text-file


net use

What that should output, is what shares are mapped at the moment,
for your user account.

You will notice in the sample in that thread, the server name
is symbolic ("\\SHAMAN") and not numeric. To me, that suggests
if DHCP assigned a different address to the SHAMAN machine
located via NetBIOS, it would still resolve OK.

I don't bother mapping drives here. I look them up in My Network Places
when I need something. And make sure all my machines are using
WORKGROUP, so they can see one another.

Paul

XPUser wrote:

Buffalo NASNavigator2
"C:\Program Files\BUFFALO\NASNAVI\NasNavi.exe"

I will look in My Network Places and see what I can see.
(out and about right now)

This is an example of a manual I could find. (You should
scan this, before opening it. Safety first. The nodename
has no trust relationship, and the file could change
at any time.)

http://3865dc10959fb7ba66fc-382cb7eb...l-v1.7-web.pdf

Page 38, is the first admission that maybe a symbolic name
would be nice.

The manual doesn't explain *at all*, the consequences of
DHCP, and the numbers changing on you, and the shares
going missing.

A manual should really explain "best practice for least
hair loss" to their customers. And how their insistence
on defining shares using an IP address, is a clever thing
to do.

I'm surprised the netnavi program can even find the NAS.
Obviously, the thing uses UPNP, NetBIOS, and other Windows
services, to scan for NAS boxes and find them. As if
it insisted on remembering the IP, that would be a disaster
with DHCP. My DHCP here can change, after stuff gets power
cycled, or powered off at night.

In the example on page 38, you can see them referencing
a server called "\\Tera3". And you can assign the Buffalo
box a "name" of your choosing, using their config software.
*Do not* change the name, if you've already started using
the name for some shares :-) Or those shares will break.

If you pick good names, names that don't need to be changed,
those stand the best chance of working.

If, on the other hand, you're an expert at routers and IP
setups, there's nothing wrong with assigning the Buffalo
box its own static IP. But if you frequently re-work your
routers and network wiring, that too could lead to insanity
and hair loss :-)

Using a name like \\Tera3 is the way to go. And as long
as you don't fidget too much, and decide to change it to
"Tera4" some day, it might even continue to work.

Paul