NAS Network share not working?

[Twill]

Hi,

I'm a NAs enwby and I've hit a snag.

I mapped my QNAP's Multimedia share to my Win7 laptop, so it appears in My computer as just another drive. Perfect. except after a while of working fine, my laptop now can't access the Multimedia folder.

This is what I think has happened, based on my limited knowledge. Does this sound reasonable?

The mapped drive has an IP address of xxxx.03, but when I used QFinder to look for it yesterday, the NAS was down as xxxxx.05. It's ethernet linked to my router. so could I be right in thinking that the IP address is changing everytime I start the system - depending on what other devices are accessing the router and what IP addresses they're using on the network, and this is confusing my laptop which is still looking for the NAS on the IP address it was originally mapped using? ... ... If that makes any sense.

Could I solve this by assigning a fixed IP address to the NAS that wouldn't get used by other devices, and would this need to be done through the NAS control panel, or the router's?

that's my best guess, but as you can see, I don't really have the knowledge to know for sure. It's when I noticed the NAS had a new IP address that no longer matches the one shown in Win Explorer for the mapped share, that I began to wonder if it's a dynamic IP thing.

Cheers.

 

[The_Lhc]

You could tell the router to assign the same IP address to the NAS, or you could map the network drive using the NAS's network NAME rather than it's IP address, then the router's DNS server (or WINS or Netbios or something) will just get you to the right place regardless of what IP address the NAS is using.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Yes, it's down to changing IP addresses. I'd assign fixed IPs to both the NAS and the laptop to be on the safe side: in my rather more complex system, with four NAS units and a further ripper/server, plus five network players of various kinds – including a couple of hi-fi players, a network AV receiver, and a Sony 'netbox' – all of the devices have fixed IP addresses. It just makes life simpler.

 

[Twill]

Thanks both. I've always used dynamic IPs with routers, looks like time to consult the manual!