Win 7 Explorer Not Show Network Drive

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  1. Posts : 19,383
    Windows 10 Pro x64 ; Xubuntu x64
       #11

    Mark, I had a bit of a win. I went and played around in the Thecus Utility, and when I turned on uPnP, my NAS appeared in the Network Map and also in Network in Windows Explorer. Not sure if this helps or not.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Win 7 Explorer Not Show Network Drive-capture.jpg  
    Last edited by Golden; 20 Sep 2011 at 06:29.
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  2. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #12

    Great idea. I was not sure if uPnP affects things like network drives. I also engaged uPnP on the Thecus. However, it did not make any difference for me. I still don't see the Thecus in the network map anywhere or in Windows Explorer. I am still running an older firmware 3.04, waiting to get some things stabilized before I upgrade. Maybe that has some affect. Or maybe your router handles things differently somehow. Still trying to figure this out.
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  3. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #13

    After checking all my network carefully, and even upgrading my router to a Cisco small business series, I still have the problem -- but I have the symptoms more defined. Basically, when the Win 7 computer initially scans the network, it finds only my computer (and that because I set its broadcast service to be automatic). So I expand the network in Windows Explorer, and I see only this computer. However, I typed an invalid name into the search bar, and all of a sudden both of my NAS drives appeared under Network in Explorer. This strongly suggests to me that whatever network scanning service or protocol Win 7 uses by default does not find these devices on my unmanaged office network. However, when Explorer is asked to locate a device by name, it apparently starts an additional service or protocol that finds the devices. Perhaps Win 7 only uses the LLTD discovery protocol by default,and my NAS drives do not support that. But it engages some additional protocol or service when searching for a specific device that LLTD does not discover. If I could just understand what Win 7 does differently when searching for a specific named device, I could try to enable it all the time. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.
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  4. Posts : 880
    Windows 7 Professional 64bit
       #14

    Which of your devices is serving as your Master Browser? Maybe there is competition somewhere. At least, I had problems on my network til I relegated the task to a single 24/7 NAS device.
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  5. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #15

    I am not sure what you mean by master browser. As far as I know, there are no devices in control of my network which just consists of up to four computers, 2 NAS drives, and two networked printers behind a Cisco router.
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  6. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #16

    I have more information on this issue, but no resolution. After some research, I found that the NAS drives do not respond to LLTD discovery as preferred by Windows 7. So that means discovery must be by the old way of NetBIOS. Apparently, since I turn my computer off each night, but leave the NAS drives and other network components running, the Thecus establishes itself as the "master browser" or index for NetBIOS response. This can be verified with the nbtstat command. However, since the Thecus is a Linux system, it does not respond as Win 7 expects. It seems that Win 7 sees the master browser, asks for network devices, but does not get the proper response. If I reboot the Thecus with the computer on, or start the computer with the Thecus off, then the Win 7 computer takes over as master browser and finds all the drives with no issues. The problem is I have found no way to get the Thecus to not take the master browser role when it is left on the network.

    This is much more about networking than I care to understand. If anyone has any suggestions for how to deal with this problem, please share them. Thecus said the N7700PRO should not be the master browser on a Windows network because it is Linux based. However, they had no suggestions how to prevent this. They suggested mapping both NAS drives so Windows will attempt to connect them at bootup, which I prefer not to do.

    Thanks.
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  7. Posts : 880
    Windows 7 Professional 64bit
       #17

    marklang said:
    This is much more about networking than I care to understand. If anyone has any suggestions for how to deal with this problem, please share them. Thecus said the N7700PRO should not be the master browser on a Windows network because it is Linux based. However, they had no suggestions how to prevent this. They suggested mapping both NAS drives so Windows will attempt to connect them at bootup, which I prefer not to do.
    Sorry, Mark, I'm in over-my-head too with this one. All I can tell you is that I have a rather ancient Linux-based NAS serviing as my Master Browser, and the "Computer Browser" service turned-off in all my PCs (both W7 and XP) and everything sees everything else in "My Network", though no, W7's "Network Map" feature does not work. But I can share folders from any computer to any other computer, and print to network printers no problem.

    This NAS I'm speaking of runs Linux 2.4 on some PPC called a Motorola PMC8241 and I'm surprised that it works so well, but it does...
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  8. Posts : 19,383
    Windows 10 Pro x64 ; Xubuntu x64
       #18

    marklang said:
    They suggested mapping both NAS drives so Windows will attempt to connect them at bootup, which I prefer not to do.
    Thats how I set mine up - mapped the drives via Windows. Perhaps thats why I don't thave the same issue with my Thecus?

    Looks like you might be stuck with that as the only solution, for now at least.

    Regards,
    Golden
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  9. Posts : 12
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit
    Thread Starter
       #19

    Thanks for the input. Thecus provides the NAS operating system, which they say is based on Linux but I have no idea what version. There must be something in the way Thecus has implemented their system or the version of Linux they are using that does not work well with Windows 7 in this regard at least. I don't remember having this problem with my earlier Windows XP computer, and I don't remember it either before I added the second NAS drive, a Synology DS211j. There must be something in the way all those devices interact that gets in the way. I guess mapping the drives or searching for them when I need them are the only alternatives.
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  10. Posts : 880
    Windows 7 Professional 64bit
       #20

    My limited experience with the "election process" (and I don't even want to pretend that I know how it works) is that it doesn't work very well when, as in a typical home environment, you have computers being turned on & off on an irregular basis. Further, it seems that if one device is the current "master" and a new election is needed, then it can be quite some time before a new master is "agreed upon" and the PCs can see each other again.

    So whenever I have a problem of "can't see a PC" I check who is the MB and usually that's the problem i.e. I had to reboot my NAS recently to get this working again. And then the PCs didn't see each other right away either--took many minutes for everything to work again.

    In any case that's why I've turned-off Computer Browser service in all PCs and try to leave one as Master 24/7.
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