Question

NAS drive setup

Asked by: Mal_k

Hi i have recently purchased a network hard-drive enclosue and added a 80GB HDD in it. The exact enclosure can be found at http://www.a-tecsubsystem.com/websys/atec/web/products.jsp?prodId=1191910612953 . This particular model offers the ability to have the NAS drive act as the DHCP server via its web interface. There's also a post about it here >> http://icablog.org/2007/01/landisk-network-drives/

My ISP is Be Broadband UK, they offer static IP address configuration as standard.

Problem i'm having is setting up the NAS drive as the DHCP server and my router (also known as BeBox) to correctly route info and offer access to the web for my 2 PC's.

So far i have spokent o Be technical support and though they did try to help they eventually gave up as we didn't resolve the problem. What we did was change over the IP settings in TCP/IP properties to "Obtain Automatically" for the network controller on PC1.

Via the web interface for the NAS drive i have enabled DHCP and entered the details provided by Be tech support to static details: IP:78.86.175.67 Mask:255.255.240.0 Gateway: 78.86.160.1 with DNS: 87.194.255.154

On the BeBox via its web interface i was told to change the IP Config Mode to Multi 4-port which is essentially a mode that makes the router into a bridge and thus disables DHCP on it.

So i have DHCP disabledo on the BeBox, but enabled on the NAS drive, both PCs have their network controllers set to "Obtain Auto" but i no longer am able to access the web or even my BeBox (whereas before i simply used to type in 192.168.1.254 and enter user details). There is the ability to hard-reset the BeBox if i really need to, but at the moment i just don't know how to progress from here.

When Be provided me with the static IP details as mentioned above, they are obviously meant to host a single PC, 1 static IP = 1 PC. What i am hoping to achieve is to have NAS drive exclusively hosted under the static IP (so i may access it via FTP on teh web) and it assigns the other computers on the network PC1 & PC2 their individual IP address using its built-in DHCP server. I'm not sure if this can be done however, but then doesn't that make the NAS drive pointless if it doesn't?

When i think about it logically though, the BeBox is kind of made redundant as its now just acting like a bridge and therefore even though there's another 2 computers connected to it they cannot access web because its the NAS drive that is controlling DHCP!

Im confused, i obviously don't understand netwoking very well and hope you can help or explain a little, sorry its so long, i wanted ot be sure i covered everything... i run XP Pro. Thanks

I think the problem

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Asked On
2009-10-22 at 06:21:22ID24834353
Tags

network

,

network drive

,

static ip

,

bridge connections

,

port forwarding

,

NAT

Topics

TCP/IP

,

Network Routers

,

Miscellaneous Networking

Participating Experts
2
Points
50
Comments
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Answers

 

by: uklivePosted on 2009-10-22 at 06:56:52ID: 25634206

Sounds to me like the I P address that your NAS is giving out is not on the same subnet as your 'BeBox'

I think the best thing is to try and set your 'Bebox' back as it was. DHCP will be better there for a start

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-10-22 at 07:03:17ID: 25634302

Well you diagnosed the problem allready....
(quite well even).

Can de Bebox in routing mode also do NAT or PAT?
If so, Can you assign f.e. the FTP service to forward all requests to the NAS?

If the BeBox cannot disable the DHCP, have it assign a fixed address (based on MAC to the NAS)... if it cannot do eve that then you might need
a bit more capable firewall.
(NetGear, Zywall ) they can do at least portforwading & DHCP in the right way. (Then you will need to have the Bebox in bridging mode though).


 

by: Mal_kPosted on 2009-10-22 at 07:34:34ID: 25634689

Hi Guys thanks for your responses. I have just gotten off the phone to Be Broadband tech support whom have helped me re-establish my internet connection by simply assigning the BeBox with a static IP and removing the NAS drive from the equation completely (NAS no longer plugged into the router).

So now the BeBox is acting as DHCP server which is great however if i were to reconnect the NAS drive to the BeBox i'm unsure of what IP address i would need to enter into the browser of a remote computer in order to access it. I could connect the NAS drive allow, allow DHCP assign it an IP and record the IP details for the NAS via its web interface, but how would i connect directly to teh NAS from a remote PC?  The ip address that DHCP will provide will be a LAN IP such as 192.168.1.64 not accessible from a remote PC... or am i wrong?

As you mention noci, i should use portforwarding which as i understand it is supported but i fear it may be a little out my depth. Theres some commands here >> http://www.beusergroup.co.uk/technotes/index.php/BeBox_Commands i just dont knwo where to place them! I'will also post on the Be forum and let you know my results...

Thanks for now.. i'll be back!

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-10-22 at 07:39:12ID: 25634752

for that issue you need NAT... (Network Address Translation) support in your BeBox.

Exlained here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_address_translation

 

by: Mal_kPosted on 2009-10-22 at 08:00:21ID: 25635012

Well i have this utility on my BeBox menu (see attached). Im not too sure how i'd configure it, any thoughts? many thanks

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-10-22 at 08:10:46ID: 25635136

That might be the right option (although i would expect an IP address there not a MAC address.)

 

by: Mal_kPosted on 2009-10-22 at 08:59:13ID: 25635725

Hi again... i'm really sorry but i've been checking countless sites and it seems that no other interface has similar settings as my own... I really don't understand what to put in the fields shown in the image attached. I understand hat i should direct any traffic connecting on port 21 (default FTP) but to what? I'll keep looking for the answer...

 

by: Mal_kPosted on 2009-10-22 at 09:06:57ID: 25635798

in case anyone else is looking over this post and needs some insight into port forwarding... i found this link very helpful!

http://portforward.com/help/portforwarding.htm

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-10-22 at 09:53:11ID: 25636294

In the box right to the FTP box you need to add the IP address of your NAS.


BTW think again about FTP over the internet.
Anonymous is no problem, but username/password access can be easily broken as the username & pasword travel over the internet unencrypted.

 

by: Mal_kPosted on 2009-10-22 at 10:38:43ID: 25636862

Thanks for the advice noci, i dont know how to ascertain the IP address of the NAS drive. Do you know of a way? I used this utility http://www.youngzsoft.net/cc-get-mac-address/ but it just shows the mac address as 0000000000 so im unsure which device is which in the BeBox device listings...

 

by: Mal_kPosted on 2009-10-22 at 10:40:41ID: 25636890

I bought the drive so i can have a central place where i can store my work... i have both a Mac and PC and work on the same file file regularly with both... if i shouldn't use FTP then what do you suggest? I imagine a VPN would be good but i dont have a first idea how to set one up or even if it can be setup with this particular drive.

 

by: Mal_kPosted on 2009-10-22 at 12:31:43ID: 25638050

So 7 hours later and i'm still here... I now have the following configuration.

DHCP is controlled via my BeBox router.
NAS drive has DHCP disabled and i have manually entered static ip details so it can reside in the same work domain in my network. For some reason when leaving the Automatic IP radio button checked in the NAS interface, the router never seems to be able to map a working ip address (read above) hence my manual override.

I have the drive mapped as a network drive on my computer and can access it without problems, however i am unable to access it via FTP across the web. I have even setup port-forwarding via the BeBox web interface for the NAS but still doesn't work.

I suppose i don't even know what to type into a web browser to access the damn thing and i have tried all sorts including ftp://78.86.175.67/ & ftp://78.86.175.67/work-nas (the root directory to which i have setup access via the NAS gui).

Any thoughts... anyone?

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-10-22 at 12:31:43ID: 25638051

Ok A VPN would be OK...
If the box supports SSH & SCP that would be good enough.

 

by: Mal_kPosted on 2009-10-22 at 12:52:27ID: 25638258

I always seem to have this Unknown Device connected to my router (illustrated in attached image and circled in green). Could this be the problem with the connection to my NAS?

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-10-22 at 16:07:26ID: 25639988

the unknown MAC address (00:90:d0...) has address ... 78.86.160.1 is your default gateway (needed to access the internet... its name is not published..)


Don't add a new service, FTP is port 21, but needs extra handling because it has more channels at different ports for the data transfer. So you need to use the EXISTING Fftp, and in the Device box select your NAS.

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-10-22 at 16:07:46ID: 25639991

your Bebox probably won't allow access to your NAS from the inside...
the ftp access should be like you do (ftp to your outside address).

 

by: Mal_kPosted on 2009-10-22 at 17:46:36ID: 25640490

OK... thanks.. i did think  that the mysterious mac address was my external gateway... honest...

i have followed your instructions using the built in FTP application selectable from teh drop-down menu and then selected my NAS drive from the device list from within the router gui...

When i try to connect via firefox ftp it comes back with: Alert 530: permission denied... i imagine thats because im trying to access the external gateway via the internal, right?

I will try tomorrow when i can get to a pc outside of my LAN.

Many thanks... heres hoping! I'll post back my findings...

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-10-23 at 00:13:25ID: 25641918

it could well be that you NAS doesn't known the anonymous user used by default by firefox.

try the url:

ftp://username:password@address/

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-10-23 at 00:14:58ID: 25641924

Also have you tried using the same URL from the inside with:
ftp://username:password@192.168.1.xxx/    
(thus with the inside IP, that way you can can check if & how you can access your  nas)

 

by: Mal_kPosted on 2009-10-23 at 03:11:21ID: 25642834

Noci thank you very much for your continued support.... everything seems to be working fine now and that's a very useful tip for passing my account details along the URL to see my ftp server internally!

I have just one last question... do you know if its possible to directly save changes to a document on the NAS drive as opposed to having to save a copy locally and then replace copy on the NAS?

many thanks again for all your help... true genius!

 

by: Mal_kPosted on 2009-10-23 at 03:12:21ID: 31644483

Not only did i get the problem resolved... but i learned a few tricks too! Thanks

 

by: nociPosted on 2009-10-23 at 09:29:20ID: 25645964

No,

that needs a bit more intelligent handling of files & protocols.

You might want to look into a Linux distribution using KDE. That is based around the concept of having 'access engines' called IO-Slaves to access data through urls. (All data also local, hidden through a file:/// construction).

All editors use the load & edit & store-result work cycle, but not may allow ftp url's ;-)

A database engine cannot be called this way (also not in KDE), as it requires bi-directional data transport and FTP cannot do that.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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