Problem connecting to NAS on wired connection

Synode

Hi all,

I've been connecting no problem (mounted drives) from my IMac to a Synology DS212 on my home network through a recently installed Ethernet cable for the last few weeks. However in the last few days it has stopped connecting. I was trying to fix it last night and realised that I can connect no problem when I unplug the ethernet cable and use WiFi. However, when using the ethernet cable I cannot connect to the mounted drives or access the DS through a web browser.

There's two possible things that may have cause the issue:-

1. I used the ethernet cable last week to plug it into a Windows 7 laptop i.e. unplugged it from the IMac and plugged it into the laptop.
2. My 2 year old renamed the Macintosh HD the other day by banging away on the keyboard. I renamed it back but had issues seeing files in folders until I ran the disk utility on the IMac.

I've checked the DS and there's no IP's blocked or anything. I'm sure there's some simple explanation but I cannot figure out how to make it work again over the ethernet cable.

Has anyone any suggestions?

Cheers.

Alun

Can you access anything at all on the network when the Ethernet cable is attached? I.e. can you ping your router, or anything else like another PC?

Is it possible your 2 year old could have done any more 'damage' with their random keystrokes? Disabled the Ethernet adapter or suchlike?

Synode

I'm able to access the internet no problem (when ethernet cable attached). I'll check this evening if I can access the router

Alun

Synode wrote: »

I'm able to access the internet no problem (when ethernet cable attached). I'll check this evening if I can access the router

If you can access the internet with the Ethernet cable attached then you can access the router by definition as that's the only way you'll be able to access the internet anyway. I was just trying to ascertain if the Ethernet connection was working at all, which we've now established is the case.

Try pinging the NAS using it's IP address and see what happens. If you can't do that then maybe the NAS has obtained a new IP via DHCP at some stage (should be fixed really). If so then it's really trial and error to try and find the new one unless you can access your router's DHCP lease table and try and find the appropriate IP using the NAS's MAC address (it's on the box somewhere).

If all else fails, switch everything off including the router. Power on the router and wait until it's fully operational, then the NAS and then your other stuff. If the NAS has a dynamic IP, then the chances are then that it will have picked up the first free DHCP address, probably 192.168.x.2 which will give you somewhere to start.

Synode

I'm able to access the NAS from my laptop and using wifi on the IMac so I know its IP. It hasn't changed in the last couple of months and the fact I can log in on the IMac over wireless is really confusing to me.

I'll try pinging the NAS from the wired IMac this evening and see what happens.

Thanks for your replies

28064212

It will probably have a different IP on wireless vs ethernet. What router are you using? It may be able to display a list of all connected devices and their IP addresses

Synode

The router is the one UPC sent me out. I can't remember the make and model. I'll have a look this evening.

I'm pretty sure from messing around with it that it can list the IP's (and MAC addresses) of all connected devices.

I didn't realise the IP could be different for wireless and wired. I wired up my Windows laptop on a different cable last night and was able to connect to the NAS no problem.

I'll report back after college this evening.

Alun

Have you set up any firewall rules on the NAS to restrict admin GUI access to certain IP addresses?

Skalragg

Synode wrote: »

The router is the one UPC sent me out. I can't remember the make and model. I'll have a look this evening.

I'm pretty sure from messing around with it that it can list the IP's (and MAC addresses) of all connected devices.

I didn't realise the IP could be different for wireless and wired. I wired up my Windows laptop on a different cable last night and was able to connect to the NAS no problem.

I'll report back after college this evening.

Unless you have done some major configuration the you will be in the same subnet when you connect to the wired/wireless network...

I am assuming the following scenario...based on the replies below

Your NAS is connected via an ethernet cable into the back of the UPC router. You can access the device via a laptop that is also plugged into the router or via wifi on MAC. The cable was tested on both the laptop and mac but does not work with the MAC.

Sounds like you've your IP is wrong, check your IP when connected to wifi
type ifconfig in the mac terminal your ip should be 192.168.1.X x being a number from 2-253....as your router will more than likely be 192.168.1.1 /192.168.1.254

if you are not in that range, unplug cable, connect to network via wireless and look at ip again.

Its worth noting if you are connected to the network with the wireless and plugged into the router at the same time. This can cause problems when two devices have active interfaces at the same time. so for the sake of testing, disconnect from the wifi during testing

Alun

Skalragg wrote: »

Its worth noting if you are connected to the network with the wireless and plugged into the router at the same time. This can cause problems when two devices have active interfaces at the same time. so for the sake of testing, disconnect from the wifi during testing

IME it's not usually a problem, certainly not on Windows anyway, as the faster connection, usually the wired one, will have a lower routing metric, and be preferred over the other. Wouldn't do any harm to do it anyway for troubleshooting purposes though.

Skalragg

Alun wrote: »

IME it's not usually a problem, certainly not on Windows anyway, as the faster connection, usually the wired one, will have a lower routing metric, and be preferred over the other. Wouldn't do any harm to do it anyway for troubleshooting purposes though.

Personally if in work I ended up in a scenario where I had reset my Ethernet interface back to receive DHCP , same as the wireless it would simply choose whatever interface was connected first as I have wiresharked the interfaces as a test. While the gigabit ethernet connection clearly has a greater bandwidth which would make it more attractive when calculating a routing metric it never made a difference in my experience Ina laptop, whatever interface was connected to the network first took priority.

To explain the scenario, I am generally connected to internet via wifi as I need my ethernet connection for testing/configuring equipment which are generally on custom subnets

Synode

Hi all,

So this evening I used the app Fing on my iPhone to work out what IP addresses are assigned to what devices on my LAN. I started by turning on and off devices/checking MAC addresses etc and writing names in Fing for all the ones I could figure out. I then unplugged everything from the router and turned it and all other devices (other than phones/tablet off). I turned the router back on and when it booted up I checked on Fing and the only IP's assigned were .1 and .10 for the router, and 3 others for phones/tablets. So all good. Next I plugged in the IMac on the ethernet connection and ran Fing again. The IMac was assigned the number I had labelled in Fing earlier. On the IMac I logged into the router and checked the DHCP client devices and the numbers / MAC addresses all agreed to Fing.

I then plugged in and turned on the Synology NAS. When it booted up I checked Fing and it had been assigned the expected IP address. However, when I logged into the router from the IMac there was no entry for the NAS under DHCP client devices and I was unable to log into the NAS. After messing around for about 5 minutes or so I noticed my wife's phone's IP had disappeared from the DHCP client devices list on the router, even though it still worked. My head is wrecked as I haven't a clue what's going on. I presume the DHCP client devices list on the router should show all devices with an assigned IP? My wife is always giving out saying her signal drops completely all the time unless she makes a call out (we use a Vodafone Sure Signal in the house as mobile signal is non existant). Don't know if this has anything to do with it.

I turned on my Windows laptop and was able to connect to the NAS on both wired and wireless. I then logged into the router from the laptop and checked the DHCP leases list and the NAS was showing there - it also had *** STATIC IP ADDRESS *** written under 'Expires On' section. My wife's phone wasn't showing at first but after about 5 minutes it came back on the list when I refreshed.

The router is a Technicolor TC7200. On Fing the .10 shows as a Thomson device so I presume its a Thomson Technicolor.

Thanks for all your help so far. Hope someone knows what the hell is going on.

Edit: Just to add that again I can connect to the NAS on the IMac when using wireless. Haven't a clue why it wont when wired.

Skalragg

Synode wrote: »

Hi all,

So this evening I used the app Fing on my iPhone to work out what IP addresses are assigned to what devices on my LAN. I started by turning on and off devices/checking MAC addresses etc and writing names in Fing for all the ones I could figure out. I then unplugged everything from the router and turned it and all other devices (other than phones/tablet off). I turned the router back on and when it booted up I checked on Fing and the only IP's assigned were .1 and .10 for the router, and 3 others for phones/tablets. So all good. Next I plugged in the IMac on the ethernet connection and ran Fing again. The IMac was assigned the number I had labelled in Fing earlier. On the IMac I logged into the router and checked the DHCP client devices and the numbers / MAC addresses all agreed to Fing.

I then plugged in and turned on the Synology NAS. When it booted up I checked Fing and it had been assigned the expected IP address. However, when I logged into the router from the IMac there was no entry for the NAS under DHCP client devices and I was unable to log into the NAS. After messing around for about 5 minutes or so I noticed my wife's phone's IP had disappeared from the DHCP client devices list on the router, even though it still worked. My head is wrecked as I haven't a clue what's going on. I presume the DHCP client devices list on the router should show all devices with an assigned IP? My wife is always giving out saying her signal drops completely all the time unless she makes a call out (we use a Vodafone Sure Signal in the house as mobile signal is non existant). Don't know if this has anything to do with it.

I turned on my Windows laptop and was able to connect to the NAS on both wired and wireless. I then logged into the router from the laptop and checked the DHCP leases list and the NAS was showing there - it also had *** STATIC IP ADDRESS *** written under 'Expires On' section. My wife's phone wasn't showing at first but after about 5 minutes it came back on the list when I refreshed.

The router is a Technicolor TC7200. On Fing the .10 shows as a Thomson device so I presume its a Thomson Technicolor.

Thanks for all your help so far. Hope someone knows what the hell is going on.

Edit: Just to add that again I can connect to the NAS on the IMac when using wireless. Haven't a clue why it wont when wired.

Let's eliminate the router from the picture for the purposes of isolating the problem...as sudden losses of connection/ expiring DHCP leases aren't the main issue


Assign a static ip to your NAS and also the Ethernet interface of ur iMac. Both in the same subnet. Eg make NAS 192.168.1.100 , subnet 255.255.255.0 and make your iMac 192.168.1.200 with same subnet. Gateway is not relevant as this will be layer two connection. Once the addresses are assigned ,Using ur Ethernet cable connect the NAS and iMac.

Can you ping the NAS from the iMac ??

Synode

Will do that after work thanks.

Alun

You say the NAS has a static IP address? Is that an address outside of the range allocated by DHCP on the router? If not that can cause all kinds of problems. Also, any other clients with either static IP's or DHCP reserved addresses?

Regarding what this Fing program reports, it'd be extremely unlikely if the router had an address ending in .10 unless it's been messed around with. Default would be usually something ending in .1, either 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1, or in some cases ending in .254. Find out what your default gateway is on one of the attached devices, that will be the address of the router.

But as Skalkragg says, you need to be methodical about this, and work bottom up, so try connecting the two up without the router involved and see if you can ping it and work from there.

Synode

The router's address does end in .1 but there's also a second one on .10 (Thomson) - can't log into the .10 though.

According to the DHCP leases list when I logged onto the router from the Windows laptop, the NAS has a *** STATIC IP ADDRESS ***. It is inside the range allocated by DHCP on the router (.11). I may have set this up from in the NAS at some point in the past. I'll have a look this evening and see what happens if I remove the static IP. I don't think that's the issue though because this was all working fine last week and I can also log onto the NAS when using wireless on the IMac.

I'll do what Skalkragg said later this evening but surely that still involves the router no?

Skalragg

Synode wrote: »

The router's address does end in .1 but there's also a second one on .10 (Thomson) - can't log into the .10 though.

According to the DHCP leases list when I logged onto the router from the Windows laptop, the NAS has a *** STATIC IP ADDRESS ***. It is inside the range allocated by DHCP on the router (.11). I may have set this up from in the NAS at some point in the past. I'll have a look this evening and see what happens if I remove the static IP. I don't think that's the issue though because this was all working fine last week and I can also log onto the NAS when using wireless on the IMac.

I'll do what Skalkragg said later this evening but surely that still involves the router no?

No,

step1. Log into the NAS as you normally would, change the IP address for it to a static IP, once done unplug from the router.

step 2 set up a static IP on your macs ethernet interface only http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/22161/how-to-set-up-a-static-ip-in-mac-os-x/

step 3 Using patch lead ( ethernet cable) , connect the NAS directly into the side of your NAS.

step 4 Using the Mac, ping the ip address that you gave the NAS.
U can do this via terminal. (search for this App) type ping x.x.x.x where the x's represent the IP of the NAS. Eg. 192.168.1.100



Your original issue you had was not being able to connect to the NAS via cable using your Mac. The above test proves that you can/can not connect to it using a cable

Alun

Odd, no idea what the .10 address is then.

It may or may not be the cause of the problem, but you really should set the NAS to something outside the DHCP range, say to .200. The problem can be that a device that was previously allocated a particular DHCP address will try and get that address again if it can, and if that address conflicts with a static IP that the router has no knowledge of all manner of odd things can happen that can be difficult to pinpoint. You mentioned for example that your wife's phone dropped out when the NAS was switched on.

Best to eliminate any non-standard configuration stuff like this before continuing.

Regarding Skalkraggs suggestion, no, you can simply connect the two directly with a cable if both have static IP's. No need for a crossover cable, most NIC's do this themselves these days.

If that works, try it with the router in the equation, BUT either power off or disable the wifi on EVERYTHING first, and power cycle the router first.

Synode

Ok will do that this evening. Thanks again.

I've a horrible feeling it was some setting on the IMac that my 2 year old has somehow managed to change. So far between himself and my 3 year old they've re-named my IMac HD twice, moved files and folders into other folders on it countless times and signed me up to 2 years of X-Box Gold (using an X-Box controller) when I already had a subscription. My wife keeps forgetting to put things out of their reach.

Alun

Maybe you should ask one of them to give you a hand, they seem pretty tech savvy I don't have kids myself, but one of our cats walked over my keyboard once and caused total mayhem.

Good luck!

Forgot to say, also disable wifi on the imac while you're doing this to eliminate the chance that you're connecting via that instead.

Skalragg

Synode wrote: »

Ok will do that this evening. Thanks again.

I've a horrible feeling it was some setting on the IMac that my 2 year old has somehow managed to change. So far between himself and my 3 year old they've re-named my IMac HD twice, moved files and folders into other folders on it countless times and signed me up to 2 years of X-Box Gold (using an X-Box controller) when I already had a subscription. My wife keeps forgetting to put things out of their reach.

like i mentioned in a previous post.... typing ifconfig in the terminal will show real time information about connected networks etc

It's quickest and easiest way to see if something has been changed

good luck

Synode

Hi all,

Sorry about the delay getting back, I've only had a chance to look at this again this evening.

So I set up a static IP address on the Mac and made sure the NAS also had a static IP. When I set up the Mac static IP I restarted the computer. When it booted up I noticed that the mounted folders were now accessible and I was able to log into the NAS. However, I could not access the internet from the IMac.

I then unplugged the ethernet cable running from the IMac from the router and plugged it into the NAS. All was fine and I was able to ping it/log into it/access mounted drives.

If I use a static IP on the IMac I can access the NAS but not the internet.
If I don't use a static IP on the IMac I can access the internet but not the NAS.

Anyone any ideas? I'm at a loss

Alun

When you gave the iMac a static address, did you also configure a default gateway (address of router) and DNS on the iMac? If not you wouldn't be able to access the internet. If getting an address via DHCP both of those are set automatically for you.

Synode

The options I set were:-

IP address:
Subnet Mask:
Router:

Are there other things I should set?

Skalragg

Alun wrote: »

When you gave the iMac a static address, did you also configure a default gateway (address of router) and DNS on the iMac? If not you wouldn't be able to access the internet. If getting an address via DHCP both of those are set automatically for you.

There was originally no internet access because it was a connection just from MAC to NAS.


@ synode

When the NAS , MAC and router are all plugged in please list the

IP address:
Subnet Mask:
Gateway
DNS

For all 3 devices at the moment.

If no DNS is set, set it to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4

Synode

Issue now resolved

Alun

Skalragg wrote: »

There was originally no internet access because it was a connection just from MAC to NAS.

The way I read it was that he originally had the two connected via the router, and then connected them directly.

Synode

No internet on IMac when connected to the router and using a static IP address. But can connect to the NAS.

If I revert back to 'automatic' under Network on IMac I can connect to the internet but not the NAS

Alun

You need to set the gateway on the iMac to 192.168.0.1. Either set the DNS to what Skalragg said, or in many cases you can also set the IP of the router and it'll act as a proxy.

I'd also set the IP of the NAS to something well out of the DHCP range, say 192.168.0.200, and also set the DNS to 8.8.8.8/8.8.8.4 or again the IP of the router. I have an idea something else (a phone or whatever) has grabbed 192.168.0.11 via DHCP in the meantime, and not all devices (unlike Windows) check to discover whether their IP is already in use and report an error.

If this works with static IP's and connected via the router, set the iMAc back to Automatic and try again.

Skalragg

Alun wrote: »

You need to set the gateway on the iMac to 192.168.0.1. Either set the DNS to what Skalragg said, or in many cases you can also set the IP of the router and it'll act as a proxy.

I'd also set the IP of the NAS to something well out of the DHCP range, say 192.168.0.200, and also set the DNS to 8.8.8.8/8.8.8.4 or again the IP of the router.

Once thats done, (making sure the wifi on mac is off for testing purposes)

1. ping 192.168.0.1 can you ping this?
2. ping 192.168.0.201 (whatever the IP of the NAS is)
3. ping 8.8.8.8 can you ping googles DNS server

Skalragg

Synode wrote: »

No internet on IMac when connected to the router and using a static IP address. But can connect to the NAS.

If I revert back to 'automatic' under Network on IMac I can connect to the internet but not the NAS

Thats because the static IP had no gateway / dns addresses.

What address were you being given when on automatic address

Synode

I've set the DNS Servers to the ones that are there for the automatic setting and evreything is now working fine. A static IP address on the IMac has fixed whatever the issue was.

Thanks a million for both of your help.

Skalragg

Synode wrote: »

I've set the DNS Servers to the ones that are there for the automatic setting and evreything is now working fine. A static IP address on the IMac has fixed whatever the issue was.

Thanks a million for both of your help.

Although you havent given the address it was giving during DHCP , sounds like it was not giving you correct settings . esp if it works with static.

Anyway good to hear its working

Alun

Synode wrote: »

I've set the DNS Servers to the ones that are there for the automatic setting and evreything is now working fine. A static IP address on the IMac has fixed whatever the issue was.

Thanks a million for both of your help.

Thats great but its not a neat long term solution though. I still strongly recommend setting the NAS to an IP outside the dhcp range. It could even be that your iMac grabbed .11 from DHCP when you first connected it via cable.

Synode

What's the range of DHCP? When I log into the router is says the starting local address is .10 and the DHCP pool size is 245. So does that mean it will assign addresses between .10 and .255? Can I set an address of .260?

Skalragg

Synode wrote: »

What's the range of DHCP? When I log into the router is says the starting local address is .10 and the DHCP pool size is 245. So does that mean it will assign addresses between .10 and .255? Can I set an address of .260?

it will assign address between .10 and .254 .255 would be your broadcast address for the network . the number can only be between 0 - 255

If you want to set a device an IP within that range you can, but its recommended to change the DHCP so the static IP isnt assigned to another device. so for example. set the DHCP pool to a size of 90 between .10 and .100 set any static IPs you want/need to .101 - .254 ( using same subnet, gateway, DNS as the IP's assigned by DHCP

Alun

Synode wrote: »

What's the range of DHCP? When I log into the router is says the starting local address is .10 and the DHCP pool size is 245. So does that mean it will assign addresses between .10 and .255? Can I set an address of .260?

Ah OK in that case you can set it to anything between 2 and 9. .260 isn't a valid address.

Usually on consumer routers the dhcp will stop at something like 100 hence my initial suggestion.

Synode

I'll change the pool to 90 and set all static IP's bigger than .100. Thanks again folks

Alun

Synode wrote: »

I'll change the pool to 90 and set all static IP's bigger than .100. Thanks again folks

And once you've done that, try setting the iMac back to auto and see if that works.