XigmaNAS

I've just installed full NAS4Free on an old computer I wasn't using. It has two harddrives. The install went smoothly - I was using a combination of your documentation and instructions from other blogsd I found on the 'Net - and I was able to set up the computer, a group called Public and two users and also was able to get the Web GUI to work on the first try. I have a small home network with two Windows boxes, one wired into the network and the other one connecting through my wireless router. I can ping the NAS4free box from both the laptop and my desktop and I can ping my desktop from the NAS4Free box. In spite of that, the NAS4Free box doesn't show up under the network section of my Windows Explorer on either the laptop or the desktop. The NAS4Free box is part of the workgroup called WORKGROUP, as are the laptop and the desktop.

I'm not sure what else to look for. I've gone through your forum but didn't find any answers that address my particular situation. I've also searched the Internet for clues to resolving this issue and have so far come up empty. Is there a clue that you can give me as to where to start looking?? Thanks for any ideas at all - I'm fresh out. What additional information do you need from me?

Willem

A further development. I reconfigured the Network IP address (option 2 from the Console Menu on the NAS4Free box) and placed the address of my wireless router in the Default Gateway section of the configuration questions. After I did that, and rebooted both boxes, the NAS4Free server appeared in the Network list of my desktop, which connected via ethernet cable to the network. However, I still cannot see the NAS4Free box on the laptop, which is connected to the network via WiFi, even after rebooting it as well. Progress, but not complete resolution.

Any hints as to where to start looking??

Willem

the network neighbourhood works via broadcasts. it is most likely that the router does not forward them to the wireless network.

Make sure that the 'NetBIOS name' in CIFS/SMB is valid (try all capitals & no "exotic" characters).
Is 'Local Master Browser' on or off? - try off.

Open a file window and type in \\192.168.x.x (the IP address of your nas) If it works, it is a name resolution issue. Fix it with WINS or a host file. (Or configure something in your router...) I suspect eveything is fine other than mapping nas-name to nas-ip.

just resolved an issue where my i3 box was not showing the gui [drive access A-OK]
by deleting the memorized IP in the router and it corrected the problem. [DHCP related?]

Thank you all for your suggestions. I tried all of them and it didn't make a difference to the way the laptop responded to NAS4Free. However, this story does end happily. I was planning to install Windows 7 Professional on the laptop before the NAS4Free issues came up so when I ran into the issues, I tabled them and installed Windows 7 Professional (from scratch, not as an update) on the laptop. Lo and behold, when I cranked things up for the first time, the NAS4Free box showed up immediately in Network. I was then able to map a network drive use the NAS4Free box.

Bottom line, I'm not sure what the issue was with the laptop. It had started acting up occasionally so maybe it needed a fresh OS install, to clear out the cobwebs, so to speak. At any rate, NAS4Free is working flawlessly now - it's a great improvement, in my opinion, over FreeNAS and I'm enjoying it.

Thanks again for your help and support.

Willem