Re: [H] Master browser issues and possible NAS solution?

2008-02-26 Thread Robert Martin Jr.
I'm not exactly sure. I wasn't home when the power went out and I have had 
problems with the NAS not powering down or rebooting after telling it to 
manually from the web interface. It never seemed like a big deal then, because 
I always ran the device 24/7 and rarely rebooted it. I spent about 2 weeks 
using utilities both linux and windows based trying to recover and restore the 
missing partition info on drive #2, and scanning all the other 3 drives for 
surface and data errors (they all appeared fine). The array should have been 
able to function without this drive, but apparently one of the other drives had 
corrupted data also (I was never able to indentify which one). I finally gave 
up on week 3, reformatted and started reloading all my data.

If you check the readynas forums, I'm not the only one that has had a problem 
like this. This is why I decided to run a single TB drive on win2k Server to 
serve files, and keep hard copys and a readynas copy of all my videos. The raid 
sounds great, but when it's not as redundant as you think - it sucks to find 
out the hard way.

lopaka

Brian Weeden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: That's no good.  How did a power outage 
corrupt the data?  Didn't the NAS
shut down?

I don't have backups of a lot of my data like TV shows and Photos - the RAID
IS my backup.  I know that's poor network design, but unless I can afford
twice the NAS I need it's all I've got.

-
Brian Weeden
Technical Consultant
Secure World Foundation


On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 4:57 PM, Robert Martin Jr. 
wrote:

> Also, something to consider is that the readynas, although touted as a
> redundant data device is not without occasional catastrophic problems. I had
> a power outage that outlasted the UPS and data got corrupted beyond repair
> although none of the hard drives were flawed. My second 500GB drive had no
> partition data after the power outage and I was unable to recover it using
> various utilities on XPPE, Hirens Boot CD, etc. Luckily I had hard backups
> of about 80% of the movies and shows. I was 2 weeks from the end of my
> warranty and they upgraded me to the NV+ since the NV is no longer
> manufactured. It was assumed that the firmware was corrupted but when I
> received the NV+ and installed the drives, the same problem recurred and was
> not an issue with the nas, but a data loss on my drives. Neatgear will do
> data recovery in cases like this but is fee based and probably not cheap.
>
> lopaka
>
> Brian Weeden 
 wrote: Right now I'm using the
> TwonkyMediaServer to serve content from my HTPC to
> my D-link DSM-520 and it works beautifully, as long as the whole browser
> election thing isn't disrupting the entire network.  Would I be able to
> install that on the ReadyNAS?  Or would I need an actual full windows
> install?  The 520 is listed as supported on the Infrant Wiki but I found
> the
> D-link media server software to be horrible and the Twonky one much
> better.
>
> The ReadyNAS NV+ with no drives is about $900 on Newegg as a "sale" price.
> They are $1,050 on Netgear's site.  Figure you need another $1200 for 4 1
> TB
> drives.  Pretty pricey for just a plain box, could build a full windows
> home
> server for that much.
>
> I have been using IP addresses to map all my shares for a while now as
> well
> and it works fine, except for random network-wide drop outs which I am
> pretty sure are related to browser elections.
>
> -
> Brian Weeden
> Technical Consultant
> Secure World Foundation
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 4:15 PM, Robert Martin Jr.
> wrote:
>
> > Thankfully I bought my ReadyNAS NV while Infrant was still in charge.
> Now
> > that Netgear owns them they raised prices on everything without actually
> > improving any of the technology. I paid $550 2 years ago and got
> upgraded to
> > an NV+ about a month ago when my NV started having problems. They cost
> twice
> > as much now ???
> >
> > It generally works very well as long as you're using supported hard
> > drives. I serve media to 2 Xbox media centers, 2 computers and one
> network
> > DVD player (Avel Linkplayer2)
> >
> > I have run in to similar issues with the name resolution, so I only use
> IP
> > addresses when mapping drives and shares. I have no MAC experience so I
> > can't be much help there.
> >
> > I also have a DLink DSM-G600 but although it works well as a standard
> NAS,
> > the media server is not recognized by my network DVD player. The XBMCs
> can
> > use it fine by just mapping the shares. I believe the DSM-G600 only
> supports
> > a 500GB drive though, although some users have higher capacity drives
> > running fine.
> >
> > lopaka
> >
> > Brian Weeden
>  wrote: I've posted here before about
> > this problem and really haven't solved
> > anything yet.  For those that haven't heard my ranting before, the issue
> > with the Windows on a peer-to-peer network and browsing.  If you have a
> > server that is actually managing a domain, that server will maintain a
> > list
> > of which 

Re: [H] Master browser issues and possible NAS solution?

2008-02-25 Thread Brian Weeden
That's no good.  How did a power outage corrupt the data?  Didn't the NAS
shut down?

I don't have backups of a lot of my data like TV shows and Photos - the RAID
IS my backup.  I know that's poor network design, but unless I can afford
twice the NAS I need it's all I've got.

-
Brian Weeden
Technical Consultant
Secure World Foundation


On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 4:57 PM, Robert Martin Jr. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:

> Also, something to consider is that the readynas, although touted as a
> redundant data device is not without occasional catastrophic problems. I had
> a power outage that outlasted the UPS and data got corrupted beyond repair
> although none of the hard drives were flawed. My second 500GB drive had no
> partition data after the power outage and I was unable to recover it using
> various utilities on XPPE, Hirens Boot CD, etc. Luckily I had hard backups
> of about 80% of the movies and shows. I was 2 weeks from the end of my
> warranty and they upgraded me to the NV+ since the NV is no longer
> manufactured. It was assumed that the firmware was corrupted but when I
> received the NV+ and installed the drives, the same problem recurred and was
> not an issue with the nas, but a data loss on my drives. Neatgear will do
> data recovery in cases like this but is fee based and probably not cheap.
>
> lopaka
>
> Brian Weeden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Right now I'm using the
> TwonkyMediaServer to serve content from my HTPC to
> my D-link DSM-520 and it works beautifully, as long as the whole browser
> election thing isn't disrupting the entire network.  Would I be able to
> install that on the ReadyNAS?  Or would I need an actual full windows
> install?  The 520 is listed as supported on the Infrant Wiki but I found
> the
> D-link media server software to be horrible and the Twonky one much
> better.
>
> The ReadyNAS NV+ with no drives is about $900 on Newegg as a "sale" price.
> They are $1,050 on Netgear's site.  Figure you need another $1200 for 4 1
> TB
> drives.  Pretty pricey for just a plain box, could build a full windows
> home
> server for that much.
>
> I have been using IP addresses to map all my shares for a while now as
> well
> and it works fine, except for random network-wide drop outs which I am
> pretty sure are related to browser elections.
>
> -
> Brian Weeden
> Technical Consultant
> Secure World Foundation
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 4:15 PM, Robert Martin Jr.
> wrote:
>
> > Thankfully I bought my ReadyNAS NV while Infrant was still in charge.
> Now
> > that Netgear owns them they raised prices on everything without actually
> > improving any of the technology. I paid $550 2 years ago and got
> upgraded to
> > an NV+ about a month ago when my NV started having problems. They cost
> twice
> > as much now ???
> >
> > It generally works very well as long as you're using supported hard
> > drives. I serve media to 2 Xbox media centers, 2 computers and one
> network
> > DVD player (Avel Linkplayer2)
> >
> > I have run in to similar issues with the name resolution, so I only use
> IP
> > addresses when mapping drives and shares. I have no MAC experience so I
> > can't be much help there.
> >
> > I also have a DLink DSM-G600 but although it works well as a standard
> NAS,
> > the media server is not recognized by my network DVD player. The XBMCs
> can
> > use it fine by just mapping the shares. I believe the DSM-G600 only
> supports
> > a 500GB drive though, although some users have higher capacity drives
> > running fine.
> >
> > lopaka
> >
> > Brian Weeden
>  wrote: I've posted here before about
> > this problem and really haven't solved
> > anything yet.  For those that haven't heard my ranting before, the issue
> > with the Windows on a peer-to-peer network and browsing.  If you have a
> > server that is actually managing a domain, that server will maintain a
> > list
> > of which computer name is associated with which IP address on the
> network.
> > So if I tell my machine to connect to "media" the domain server says "oh
> > that's actually 192.169.0.4" or whatever.  If there isn't a domain
> > controller (ie the network is just peers) one machine will maintain the
> > browser list of all the mappings.  If something happens, the computer
> will
> > force an election and the new machine will be the browser.
> >
> > Sounds great in theory but my experience it has been absolutely
> horrible.
> > Over the last few years I have had off and on problems, ranging from
> > simple
> > annoyances like not being able to see any machines listed under "My
> > Network
> > Places" to massive network slowdowns and inability to transfer even 20MB
> > files due to browser elections dropping connections.  I have tried many
> > solutions with the current being to change the registry in all my
> machines
> > save one to never maintain the browser list and disabling the browser
> > service as well.  The one machine which is my media server has that same
> > registry key set to "always" and 

Re: [H] Master browser issues and possible NAS solution?

2008-02-25 Thread Robert Martin Jr.
Also, something to consider is that the readynas, although touted as a 
redundant data device is not without occasional catastrophic problems. I had a 
power outage that outlasted the UPS and data got corrupted beyond repair 
although none of the hard drives were flawed. My second 500GB drive had no 
partition data after the power outage and I was unable to recover it using 
various utilities on XPPE, Hirens Boot CD, etc. Luckily I had hard backups of 
about 80% of the movies and shows. I was 2 weeks from the end of my warranty 
and they upgraded me to the NV+ since the NV is no longer manufactured. It was 
assumed that the firmware was corrupted but when I received the NV+ and 
installed the drives, the same problem recurred and was not an issue with the 
nas, but a data loss on my drives. Neatgear will do data recovery in cases like 
this but is fee based and probably not cheap.

lopaka

Brian Weeden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Right now I'm using the 
TwonkyMediaServer to serve content from my HTPC to
my D-link DSM-520 and it works beautifully, as long as the whole browser
election thing isn't disrupting the entire network.  Would I be able to
install that on the ReadyNAS?  Or would I need an actual full windows
install?  The 520 is listed as supported on the Infrant Wiki but I found the
D-link media server software to be horrible and the Twonky one much better.

The ReadyNAS NV+ with no drives is about $900 on Newegg as a "sale" price.
They are $1,050 on Netgear's site.  Figure you need another $1200 for 4 1 TB
drives.  Pretty pricey for just a plain box, could build a full windows home
server for that much.

I have been using IP addresses to map all my shares for a while now as well
and it works fine, except for random network-wide drop outs which I am
pretty sure are related to browser elections.

-
Brian Weeden
Technical Consultant
Secure World Foundation


On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 4:15 PM, Robert Martin Jr. 
wrote:

> Thankfully I bought my ReadyNAS NV while Infrant was still in charge. Now
> that Netgear owns them they raised prices on everything without actually
> improving any of the technology. I paid $550 2 years ago and got upgraded to
> an NV+ about a month ago when my NV started having problems. They cost twice
> as much now ???
>
> It generally works very well as long as you're using supported hard
> drives. I serve media to 2 Xbox media centers, 2 computers and one network
> DVD player (Avel Linkplayer2)
>
> I have run in to similar issues with the name resolution, so I only use IP
> addresses when mapping drives and shares. I have no MAC experience so I
> can't be much help there.
>
> I also have a DLink DSM-G600 but although it works well as a standard NAS,
> the media server is not recognized by my network DVD player. The XBMCs can
> use it fine by just mapping the shares. I believe the DSM-G600 only supports
> a 500GB drive though, although some users have higher capacity drives
> running fine.
>
> lopaka
>
> Brian Weeden 
 wrote: I've posted here before about
> this problem and really haven't solved
> anything yet.  For those that haven't heard my ranting before, the issue
> with the Windows on a peer-to-peer network and browsing.  If you have a
> server that is actually managing a domain, that server will maintain a
> list
> of which computer name is associated with which IP address on the network.
> So if I tell my machine to connect to "media" the domain server says "oh
> that's actually 192.169.0.4" or whatever.  If there isn't a domain
> controller (ie the network is just peers) one machine will maintain the
> browser list of all the mappings.  If something happens, the computer will
> force an election and the new machine will be the browser.
>
> Sounds great in theory but my experience it has been absolutely horrible.
> Over the last few years I have had off and on problems, ranging from
> simple
> annoyances like not being able to see any machines listed under "My
> Network
> Places" to massive network slowdowns and inability to transfer even 20MB
> files due to browser elections dropping connections.  I have tried many
> solutions with the current being to change the registry in all my machines
> save one to never maintain the browser list and disabling the browser
> service as well.  The one machine which is my media server has that same
> registry key set to "always" and has the service running.
>
> But recently I've found another issue - my wife's MacBook has started to
> participate in this whole mess.  A couple of days ago I was going  through
> the event viewer trying to figure out why the network had gone to hell and
> saw an entry saying that the MacBook had denied access to an IP and forced
> an election.  Getting the MacBook to stop doing that is beyond my limited
> OSX knowledge.
>
> So, now I'm looking for solutions.  I need to rebuild my HTPC / media
> server
> and wanted to see if I could find a solution in that.  I really want to
> (try) and cut down on the 

Re: [H] Master browser issues and possible NAS solution?

2008-02-25 Thread Brian Weeden
That's the drive I was looking to use.  My current HTPC is an overclocked
Athlon with 6 250GB SATA drives and another 80GB boot drive so it's sucking
power like crazy.  Which is one of the reasons I'm looking to replace it.

I wonder how those power saving drives work in a RAID array and what sort of
effect negative effect it has?

-
Brian Weeden
Technical Consultant
Secure World Foundation


On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 4:47 PM, Robert Martin Jr. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:

> You used to be able to install Twonky to the ReadyNAS line of products
> although I never used it. It comes with a version of the linux wizd media
> server preinstalled and this works well with my linkplayer2. In fact I was
> using wizd before I bought the readynas and was surprised to see the same
> screen the first time I pulled it up. I'd check the readynas forum first and
> make sure it runs well for most users.
>
> I'm actually just using the readynas nv+ to archive my movies and shows
> now, but purchased a 1TB WD HDD to put in my pentium-m server and will be
> using that to serve media files 24/7. The readynas will only get powered on
> occasionally to restore files & hold everything. I only have 1.3 TB of
> space on my readynas nv+, so most of my favorite movies and shows will
> easily fit a 1 TB HDD. The electricity cost of running 1 large drive in a
> pentium-m server, will be much less than leaving a 4 drive NAS box running
> 24/7. Plus it's the new WD drive that alters it's spin speed varying from
> 5400-7200 as demand increases. It's supposed to use a lot less power.
>
> lopaka
>
> Brian Weeden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Right now I'm using the
> TwonkyMediaServer to serve content from my HTPC to
> my D-link DSM-520 and it works beautifully, as long as the whole browser
> election thing isn't disrupting the entire network.  Would I be able to
> install that on the ReadyNAS?  Or would I need an actual full windows
> install?  The 520 is listed as supported on the Infrant Wiki but I found
> the
> D-link media server software to be horrible and the Twonky one much
> better.
>
> The ReadyNAS NV+ with no drives is about $900 on Newegg as a "sale" price.
> They are $1,050 on Netgear's site.  Figure you need another $1200 for 4 1
> TB
> drives.  Pretty pricey for just a plain box, could build a full windows
> home
> server for that much.
>
> I have been using IP addresses to map all my shares for a while now as
> well
> and it works fine, except for random network-wide drop outs which I am
> pretty sure are related to browser elections.
>
> -
> Brian Weeden
> Technical Consultant
> Secure World Foundation
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 4:15 PM, Robert Martin Jr.
> wrote:
>
> > Thankfully I bought my ReadyNAS NV while Infrant was still in charge.
> Now
> > that Netgear owns them they raised prices on everything without actually
> > improving any of the technology. I paid $550 2 years ago and got
> upgraded to
> > an NV+ about a month ago when my NV started having problems. They cost
> twice
> > as much now ???
> >
> > It generally works very well as long as you're using supported hard
> > drives. I serve media to 2 Xbox media centers, 2 computers and one
> network
> > DVD player (Avel Linkplayer2)
> >
> > I have run in to similar issues with the name resolution, so I only use
> IP
> > addresses when mapping drives and shares. I have no MAC experience so I
> > can't be much help there.
> >
> > I also have a DLink DSM-G600 but although it works well as a standard
> NAS,
> > the media server is not recognized by my network DVD player. The XBMCs
> can
> > use it fine by just mapping the shares. I believe the DSM-G600 only
> supports
> > a 500GB drive though, although some users have higher capacity drives
> > running fine.
> >
> > lopaka
> >
> > Brian Weeden
>  wrote: I've posted here before about
> > this problem and really haven't solved
> > anything yet.  For those that haven't heard my ranting before, the issue
> > with the Windows on a peer-to-peer network and browsing.  If you have a
> > server that is actually managing a domain, that server will maintain a
> > list
> > of which computer name is associated with which IP address on the
> network.
> > So if I tell my machine to connect to "media" the domain server says "oh
> > that's actually 192.169.0.4" or whatever.  If there isn't a domain
> > controller (ie the network is just peers) one machine will maintain the
> > browser list of all the mappings.  If something happens, the computer
> will
> > force an election and the new machine will be the browser.
> >
> > Sounds great in theory but my experience it has been absolutely
> horrible.
> > Over the last few years I have had off and on problems, ranging from
> > simple
> > annoyances like not being able to see any machines listed under "My
> > Network
> > Places" to massive network slowdowns and inability to transfer even 20MB
> > files due to browser elections dropping connections.  I have tried many
> > solutions with th

Re: [H] Master browser issues and possible NAS solution?

2008-02-25 Thread Robert Martin Jr.
You used to be able to install Twonky to the ReadyNAS line of products although 
I never used it. It comes with a version of the linux wizd media server 
preinstalled and this works well with my linkplayer2. In fact I was using wizd 
before I bought the readynas and was surprised to see the same screen the first 
time I pulled it up. I'd check the readynas forum first and make sure it runs 
well for most users. 

I'm actually just using the readynas nv+ to archive my movies and shows now, 
but purchased a 1TB WD HDD to put in my pentium-m server and will be using that 
to serve media files 24/7. The readynas will only get powered on occasionally 
to restore files & hold everything. I only have 1.3 TB of space on my readynas 
nv+, so most of my favorite movies and shows will easily fit a 1 TB HDD. The 
electricity cost of running 1 large drive in a pentium-m server, will be much 
less than leaving a 4 drive NAS box running 24/7. Plus it's the new WD drive 
that alters it's spin speed varying from 5400-7200 as demand increases. It's 
supposed to use a lot less power.

lopaka

Brian Weeden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Right now I'm using the 
TwonkyMediaServer to serve content from my HTPC to
my D-link DSM-520 and it works beautifully, as long as the whole browser
election thing isn't disrupting the entire network.  Would I be able to
install that on the ReadyNAS?  Or would I need an actual full windows
install?  The 520 is listed as supported on the Infrant Wiki but I found the
D-link media server software to be horrible and the Twonky one much better.

The ReadyNAS NV+ with no drives is about $900 on Newegg as a "sale" price.
They are $1,050 on Netgear's site.  Figure you need another $1200 for 4 1 TB
drives.  Pretty pricey for just a plain box, could build a full windows home
server for that much.

I have been using IP addresses to map all my shares for a while now as well
and it works fine, except for random network-wide drop outs which I am
pretty sure are related to browser elections.

-
Brian Weeden
Technical Consultant
Secure World Foundation


On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 4:15 PM, Robert Martin Jr. 
wrote:

> Thankfully I bought my ReadyNAS NV while Infrant was still in charge. Now
> that Netgear owns them they raised prices on everything without actually
> improving any of the technology. I paid $550 2 years ago and got upgraded to
> an NV+ about a month ago when my NV started having problems. They cost twice
> as much now ???
>
> It generally works very well as long as you're using supported hard
> drives. I serve media to 2 Xbox media centers, 2 computers and one network
> DVD player (Avel Linkplayer2)
>
> I have run in to similar issues with the name resolution, so I only use IP
> addresses when mapping drives and shares. I have no MAC experience so I
> can't be much help there.
>
> I also have a DLink DSM-G600 but although it works well as a standard NAS,
> the media server is not recognized by my network DVD player. The XBMCs can
> use it fine by just mapping the shares. I believe the DSM-G600 only supports
> a 500GB drive though, although some users have higher capacity drives
> running fine.
>
> lopaka
>
> Brian Weeden 
 wrote: I've posted here before about
> this problem and really haven't solved
> anything yet.  For those that haven't heard my ranting before, the issue
> with the Windows on a peer-to-peer network and browsing.  If you have a
> server that is actually managing a domain, that server will maintain a
> list
> of which computer name is associated with which IP address on the network.
> So if I tell my machine to connect to "media" the domain server says "oh
> that's actually 192.169.0.4" or whatever.  If there isn't a domain
> controller (ie the network is just peers) one machine will maintain the
> browser list of all the mappings.  If something happens, the computer will
> force an election and the new machine will be the browser.
>
> Sounds great in theory but my experience it has been absolutely horrible.
> Over the last few years I have had off and on problems, ranging from
> simple
> annoyances like not being able to see any machines listed under "My
> Network
> Places" to massive network slowdowns and inability to transfer even 20MB
> files due to browser elections dropping connections.  I have tried many
> solutions with the current being to change the registry in all my machines
> save one to never maintain the browser list and disabling the browser
> service as well.  The one machine which is my media server has that same
> registry key set to "always" and has the service running.
>
> But recently I've found another issue - my wife's MacBook has started to
> participate in this whole mess.  A couple of days ago I was going  through
> the event viewer trying to figure out why the network had gone to hell and
> saw an entry saying that the MacBook had denied access to an IP and forced
> an election.  Getting the MacBook to stop doing that is beyond my limited
> OSX knowledg

Re: [H] Master browser issues and possible NAS solution?

2008-02-25 Thread Brian Weeden
Right now I'm using the TwonkyMediaServer to serve content from my HTPC to
my D-link DSM-520 and it works beautifully, as long as the whole browser
election thing isn't disrupting the entire network.  Would I be able to
install that on the ReadyNAS?  Or would I need an actual full windows
install?  The 520 is listed as supported on the Infrant Wiki but I found the
D-link media server software to be horrible and the Twonky one much better.

The ReadyNAS NV+ with no drives is about $900 on Newegg as a "sale" price.
They are $1,050 on Netgear's site.  Figure you need another $1200 for 4 1 TB
drives.  Pretty pricey for just a plain box, could build a full windows home
server for that much.

I have been using IP addresses to map all my shares for a while now as well
and it works fine, except for random network-wide drop outs which I am
pretty sure are related to browser elections.

-
Brian Weeden
Technical Consultant
Secure World Foundation


On Mon, Feb 25, 2008 at 4:15 PM, Robert Martin Jr. <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:

> Thankfully I bought my ReadyNAS NV while Infrant was still in charge. Now
> that Netgear owns them they raised prices on everything without actually
> improving any of the technology. I paid $550 2 years ago and got upgraded to
> an NV+ about a month ago when my NV started having problems. They cost twice
> as much now ???
>
> It generally works very well as long as you're using supported hard
> drives. I serve media to 2 Xbox media centers, 2 computers and one network
> DVD player (Avel Linkplayer2)
>
> I have run in to similar issues with the name resolution, so I only use IP
> addresses when mapping drives and shares. I have no MAC experience so I
> can't be much help there.
>
> I also have a DLink DSM-G600 but although it works well as a standard NAS,
> the media server is not recognized by my network DVD player. The XBMCs can
> use it fine by just mapping the shares. I believe the DSM-G600 only supports
> a 500GB drive though, although some users have higher capacity drives
> running fine.
>
> lopaka
>
> Brian Weeden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I've posted here before about
> this problem and really haven't solved
> anything yet.  For those that haven't heard my ranting before, the issue
> with the Windows on a peer-to-peer network and browsing.  If you have a
> server that is actually managing a domain, that server will maintain a
> list
> of which computer name is associated with which IP address on the network.
> So if I tell my machine to connect to "media" the domain server says "oh
> that's actually 192.169.0.4" or whatever.  If there isn't a domain
> controller (ie the network is just peers) one machine will maintain the
> browser list of all the mappings.  If something happens, the computer will
> force an election and the new machine will be the browser.
>
> Sounds great in theory but my experience it has been absolutely horrible.
> Over the last few years I have had off and on problems, ranging from
> simple
> annoyances like not being able to see any machines listed under "My
> Network
> Places" to massive network slowdowns and inability to transfer even 20MB
> files due to browser elections dropping connections.  I have tried many
> solutions with the current being to change the registry in all my machines
> save one to never maintain the browser list and disabling the browser
> service as well.  The one machine which is my media server has that same
> registry key set to "always" and has the service running.
>
> But recently I've found another issue - my wife's MacBook has started to
> participate in this whole mess.  A couple of days ago I was going  through
> the event viewer trying to figure out why the network had gone to hell and
> saw an entry saying that the MacBook had denied access to an IP and forced
> an election.  Getting the MacBook to stop doing that is beyond my limited
> OSX knowledge.
>
> So, now I'm looking for solutions.  I need to rebuild my HTPC / media
> server
> and wanted to see if I could find a solution in that.  I really want to
> (try) and cut down on the power used so I was thinking of replacing the
> whole thing with a NAS box and a small set top like an Apple TV or D-Link
> box.  I was doing some research and noticed that all these NAS solutions
> support different filesharing protocols, like CIFS, SMB, AFP, NFS, etc.
> What's the different between these and the normal protocols that are used
> when you share a drive within Windows?  Do they result in more efficient
> use
> of the network bandwidth?
>
> Why are the ReadyNAS boxes so darn expensive (almost $1000 on Newegg for
> diskless NV+)?  What are other good options?  I need something that will
> support at least 3 TB of storage (ie 4x 1TB SATA drives) in RAID 5 and
> preferably something can I can daisy chain another to to hit my goal of 6
> TB
> (ie 4x8 1TB SATA in RAID 5).
>
> Aside from setting up a domain controller, can anyone think of other ways
> to
> help with my problem of the m

Re: [H] Master browser issues and possible NAS solution?

2008-02-25 Thread Robert Martin Jr.
Thankfully I bought my ReadyNAS NV while Infrant was still in charge. Now that 
Netgear owns them they raised prices on everything without actually improving 
any of the technology. I paid $550 2 years ago and got upgraded to an NV+ about 
a month ago when my NV started having problems. They cost twice as much now ???

It generally works very well as long as you're using supported hard drives. I 
serve media to 2 Xbox media centers, 2 computers and one network DVD player 
(Avel Linkplayer2)

I have run in to similar issues with the name resolution, so I only use IP 
addresses when mapping drives and shares. I have no MAC experience so I can't 
be much help there.

I also have a DLink DSM-G600 but although it works well as a standard NAS, the 
media server is not recognized by my network DVD player. The XBMCs can use it 
fine by just mapping the shares. I believe the DSM-G600 only supports a 500GB 
drive though, although some users have higher capacity drives running fine.

lopaka

Brian Weeden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I've posted here before about this 
problem and really haven't solved
anything yet.  For those that haven't heard my ranting before, the issue
with the Windows on a peer-to-peer network and browsing.  If you have a
server that is actually managing a domain, that server will maintain a list
of which computer name is associated with which IP address on the network.
So if I tell my machine to connect to "media" the domain server says "oh
that's actually 192.169.0.4" or whatever.  If there isn't a domain
controller (ie the network is just peers) one machine will maintain the
browser list of all the mappings.  If something happens, the computer will
force an election and the new machine will be the browser.

Sounds great in theory but my experience it has been absolutely horrible.
Over the last few years I have had off and on problems, ranging from simple
annoyances like not being able to see any machines listed under "My Network
Places" to massive network slowdowns and inability to transfer even 20MB
files due to browser elections dropping connections.  I have tried many
solutions with the current being to change the registry in all my machines
save one to never maintain the browser list and disabling the browser
service as well.  The one machine which is my media server has that same
registry key set to "always" and has the service running.

But recently I've found another issue - my wife's MacBook has started to
participate in this whole mess.  A couple of days ago I was going  through
the event viewer trying to figure out why the network had gone to hell and
saw an entry saying that the MacBook had denied access to an IP and forced
an election.  Getting the MacBook to stop doing that is beyond my limited
OSX knowledge.

So, now I'm looking for solutions.  I need to rebuild my HTPC / media server
and wanted to see if I could find a solution in that.  I really want to
(try) and cut down on the power used so I was thinking of replacing the
whole thing with a NAS box and a small set top like an Apple TV or D-Link
box.  I was doing some research and noticed that all these NAS solutions
support different filesharing protocols, like CIFS, SMB, AFP, NFS, etc.
What's the different between these and the normal protocols that are used
when you share a drive within Windows?  Do they result in more efficient use
of the network bandwidth?

Why are the ReadyNAS boxes so darn expensive (almost $1000 on Newegg for
diskless NV+)?  What are other good options?  I need something that will
support at least 3 TB of storage (ie 4x 1TB SATA drives) in RAID 5 and
preferably something can I can daisy chain another to to hit my goal of 6 TB
(ie 4x8 1TB SATA in RAID 5).

Aside from setting up a domain controller, can anyone think of other ways to
help with my problem of the master browser issue and overall poor network
performance?  Would running a Windows Home Server box help at all?  Or would
a *nix server be better?  I have some experience with *nix (specifically
Ubuntu)?

-
Brian Weeden
Technical Consultant
Secure World Foundation



Re: [H] Master browser issues and possible NAS solution?

2008-02-24 Thread Winterlight


I think this is just the usual Windows TCP/IP networking BS. I have 
these kind of complaints ever since I switched from Win95 Netbui to 
WinNT TCP/IP. All the times I have tried to get things working 
better, the only thing I discovered is that mapping drives generally 
work better then browsing the network. I thought Vista was suppose to 
replace the whole TCP/IP stack and fix a lot of these problems.




At 11:54 AM 2/24/2008, you wrote:

I appreciate the advice.  Here's what gets me - I'm fairly
knowledgeable about this sort of stuff and I'm not doing anything
extraordinary.  I have 3 windows machines and a MacBook on a home LAN
with my Airport Extreme handling the DHCP duties.  And this problem
was happening with both the Netgear and D-link devices I was using
before, as well as back when I only had 2 Windows machines on the
system, so I am fairly sure it isn't any of the networking gear.

Am I missing something critical about configuration for Windows file
sharing?  All I want to be able to do is transfer files and share
media back and forth.

If I get rid of NetBIOS, I would go into the Network config and remove
File and Print Sharing?  I know back in the day you had multiple
network protocols you could bind to various adapters, so you could do
NetBUI or NetBIOS over TCP/IP.  Here's what I have now:

Client for Microsoft Networks
File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks
QoS Packet Scheduler
TCP/IP

I have no idea what these three are, I think they installed with my
Wi-fi card (they only exist on my one machine):

Jumpstart Wireless Intermediate Driver
Wireless Intermediate Driver
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder

Wait a minute, now that I think about it, I remember back in the day
having the IPX/SPX/NetBIOS protocol - should I have that running or
no?

-
Brian Weeden

On Sun, Feb 24, 2008 at 11:50 AM, Ben Ruset <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Your Mac is doing it because you have Windows file sharing turned on.
> If you're not sharing anything on the Mac to Windows clients then you
> shouldn't need to have it turned on.
>
> One thing that you could do to get around the browser issues would be to
> not rely on NetBIOS for name resolution. You could do this one of two ways:
>
> 1) Give all of your machines static IP's, and make entries for each of
> them in each machine's hosts file.
>
> 2) Set up a local DNS server, and have your DHCP server send over the IP
> and hostname info to the DNS server when they register a lease. This is
> easy to do with Windows DNS/DHCP, slightly harder with Linux, and
> probably impossible if you have your home router handling DHCP.
>
> You'd have this problem even if you had a Windows Home Server or *nix
> box running. For whatever reason NetBIOS over TCP/IP is not working
> right in your environment. You'd have the same sort of problems
> connecting to a Microsoft or Samba SMB share. Using something besides
> NetBIOS for name resolution should net you some performance benefits.
>
>
> Brian Weeden wrote:
> > I've posted here before about this problem and really haven't solved
> > anything yet.  For those that haven't heard my ranting before, the issue
> > with the Windows on a peer-to-peer network and browsing.  If you have a
>
> 
>




Re: [H] Master browser issues and possible NAS solution?

2008-02-24 Thread j maccraw
Setup a DNS server & disable WINS/Netbios completely?

http://technet2.microsoft.com/windowsserver/en/library/aa70b386-dafa-4cd4-b950-dda84e5fa1f61033.mspx

Turn off Netbios broadcasts:

http://www.petri.co.il/hide_a_server_from_the_microsoft_computer_browser_service.htm

Disable browser:

http://www.windowsitpro.com/article/articleid/45641/browser-registry-entries-changed-in-windows-xp-sp2.html


Brian Weeden wrote:

> Aside from setting up a domain controller, can
anyone think of other ways to
> help with my problem of the master browser issue and
overall poor network
> performance?  Would running a Windows Home Server
box help at all?  Or would
> a *nix server be better?  I have some experience
with *nix (specifically
> Ubuntu)?
> 
> -
> Brian Weeden
> Technical Consultant
> Secure World Foundation
> 
> 


  

Never miss a thing.  Make Yahoo your home page. 
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs


Re: [H] Master browser issues and possible NAS solution?

2008-02-24 Thread Brian Weeden
I appreciate the advice.  Here's what gets me - I'm fairly
knowledgeable about this sort of stuff and I'm not doing anything
extraordinary.  I have 3 windows machines and a MacBook on a home LAN
with my Airport Extreme handling the DHCP duties.  And this problem
was happening with both the Netgear and D-link devices I was using
before, as well as back when I only had 2 Windows machines on the
system, so I am fairly sure it isn't any of the networking gear.

Am I missing something critical about configuration for Windows file
sharing?  All I want to be able to do is transfer files and share
media back and forth.

If I get rid of NetBIOS, I would go into the Network config and remove
File and Print Sharing?  I know back in the day you had multiple
network protocols you could bind to various adapters, so you could do
NetBUI or NetBIOS over TCP/IP.  Here's what I have now:

Client for Microsoft Networks
File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks
QoS Packet Scheduler
TCP/IP

I have no idea what these three are, I think they installed with my
Wi-fi card (they only exist on my one machine):

Jumpstart Wireless Intermediate Driver
Wireless Intermediate Driver
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder

Wait a minute, now that I think about it, I remember back in the day
having the IPX/SPX/NetBIOS protocol - should I have that running or
no?

-
Brian Weeden

On Sun, Feb 24, 2008 at 11:50 AM, Ben Ruset <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Your Mac is doing it because you have Windows file sharing turned on.
> If you're not sharing anything on the Mac to Windows clients then you
> shouldn't need to have it turned on.
>
> One thing that you could do to get around the browser issues would be to
> not rely on NetBIOS for name resolution. You could do this one of two ways:
>
> 1) Give all of your machines static IP's, and make entries for each of
> them in each machine's hosts file.
>
> 2) Set up a local DNS server, and have your DHCP server send over the IP
> and hostname info to the DNS server when they register a lease. This is
> easy to do with Windows DNS/DHCP, slightly harder with Linux, and
> probably impossible if you have your home router handling DHCP.
>
> You'd have this problem even if you had a Windows Home Server or *nix
> box running. For whatever reason NetBIOS over TCP/IP is not working
> right in your environment. You'd have the same sort of problems
> connecting to a Microsoft or Samba SMB share. Using something besides
> NetBIOS for name resolution should net you some performance benefits.
>
>
> Brian Weeden wrote:
> > I've posted here before about this problem and really haven't solved
> > anything yet.  For those that haven't heard my ranting before, the issue
> > with the Windows on a peer-to-peer network and browsing.  If you have a
>
> 
>


Re: [H] Master browser issues and possible NAS solution?

2008-02-24 Thread Ben Ruset
Your Mac is doing it because you have Windows file sharing turned on. 
If you're not sharing anything on the Mac to Windows clients then you 
shouldn't need to have it turned on.


One thing that you could do to get around the browser issues would be to 
not rely on NetBIOS for name resolution. You could do this one of two ways:


1) Give all of your machines static IP's, and make entries for each of 
them in each machine's hosts file.


2) Set up a local DNS server, and have your DHCP server send over the IP 
and hostname info to the DNS server when they register a lease. This is 
easy to do with Windows DNS/DHCP, slightly harder with Linux, and 
probably impossible if you have your home router handling DHCP.


You'd have this problem even if you had a Windows Home Server or *nix 
box running. For whatever reason NetBIOS over TCP/IP is not working 
right in your environment. You'd have the same sort of problems 
connecting to a Microsoft or Samba SMB share. Using something besides 
NetBIOS for name resolution should net you some performance benefits.


Brian Weeden wrote:

I've posted here before about this problem and really haven't solved
anything yet.  For those that haven't heard my ranting before, the issue
with the Windows on a peer-to-peer network and browsing.  If you have a





[H] Master browser issues and possible NAS solution?

2008-02-24 Thread Brian Weeden
I've posted here before about this problem and really haven't solved
anything yet.  For those that haven't heard my ranting before, the issue
with the Windows on a peer-to-peer network and browsing.  If you have a
server that is actually managing a domain, that server will maintain a list
of which computer name is associated with which IP address on the network.
So if I tell my machine to connect to "media" the domain server says "oh
that's actually 192.169.0.4" or whatever.  If there isn't a domain
controller (ie the network is just peers) one machine will maintain the
browser list of all the mappings.  If something happens, the computer will
force an election and the new machine will be the browser.

Sounds great in theory but my experience it has been absolutely horrible.
Over the last few years I have had off and on problems, ranging from simple
annoyances like not being able to see any machines listed under "My Network
Places" to massive network slowdowns and inability to transfer even 20MB
files due to browser elections dropping connections.  I have tried many
solutions with the current being to change the registry in all my machines
save one to never maintain the browser list and disabling the browser
service as well.  The one machine which is my media server has that same
registry key set to "always" and has the service running.

But recently I've found another issue - my wife's MacBook has started to
participate in this whole mess.  A couple of days ago I was going  through
the event viewer trying to figure out why the network had gone to hell and
saw an entry saying that the MacBook had denied access to an IP and forced
an election.  Getting the MacBook to stop doing that is beyond my limited
OSX knowledge.

So, now I'm looking for solutions.  I need to rebuild my HTPC / media server
and wanted to see if I could find a solution in that.  I really want to
(try) and cut down on the power used so I was thinking of replacing the
whole thing with a NAS box and a small set top like an Apple TV or D-Link
box.  I was doing some research and noticed that all these NAS solutions
support different filesharing protocols, like CIFS, SMB, AFP, NFS, etc.
What's the different between these and the normal protocols that are used
when you share a drive within Windows?  Do they result in more efficient use
of the network bandwidth?

Why are the ReadyNAS boxes so darn expensive (almost $1000 on Newegg for
diskless NV+)?  What are other good options?  I need something that will
support at least 3 TB of storage (ie 4x 1TB SATA drives) in RAID 5 and
preferably something can I can daisy chain another to to hit my goal of 6 TB
(ie 4x8 1TB SATA in RAID 5).

Aside from setting up a domain controller, can anyone think of other ways to
help with my problem of the master browser issue and overall poor network
performance?  Would running a Windows Home Server box help at all?  Or would
a *nix server be better?  I have some experience with *nix (specifically
Ubuntu)?

-
Brian Weeden
Technical Consultant
Secure World Foundation