FocusCanada Forums

So my 100g hd on the laptop is 90% full and really slowing things down ... the solution is to finally get around to adding my Network Storage ... I thought it would be plug and play but apparently it's a lot easier said than done.

My OS is Windows VISTA, the network storage is the Thecus N2200 with two 1TB WD Cavier Green drives in it, and my router is the D-Link DIR-625.

The problem is that the Thecus Setup utility hardware doesn't "see" the NAS drives ... even though the router has no problem assigning an IP address for the N2200.

I've added the Utility program to the firewall exception list (and even tried turning the firewall off and anti-virus) ... and I've tried playing around with some of the Router's configuration to see if it could make a difference.

Googling produced no answer, couldn't find an answer on the Thecus forums, and Thecus support hasn't gotten back to me.

Not sure what to try now ... any thoughts? Thanks in advance. Ken.

Do you have a portable hard drive? Cuz if you do, back up your info on that and delete some stuff on your laptop you don't need. If that dosen't work, i'd either upgrade the memory or delete programs and files you dont need. Also defragging the files on the entire system might be something you could consider as well

(03-05-2011, 12:23 AM)dinabaybee Wrote: [ -> ]Do you have a portable hard drive? Cuz if you do, back up your info on that and delete some stuff on your laptop you don't need. If that dosen't work, i'd either upgrade the memory or delete programs and files you dont need. Also defragging the files on the entire system might be something you could consider as well

Yup ... these are all things I do on a regular basis and I don't think memory is a problem ... as for the portable hard drive, that's what the NAS (Network Attached Storage) is for ... my problem is that although the router assigns an IP address to the NAS device, I can't "see" the drives from my computer, and neither does the Thecus Setup Utility program.

Is there a web management interface for the NAS that you could use from IE or Firefox and skip the laptop-side utility for now?

If the setup/management utility is looking for a specific, "fallback" IP address and not the one your router has assigned to it, it may not be able to "find" the NAS.

If you want a hand with this today/tonight, let me know. Just download the tool Crossloop from http://www.crossloop.com and then PM me your contact email, Ken.

I can connect remotely when we're ready to go and I'll give you a hand

I believe TeamView is a free version of crossloop (on quick glance itl ooks like u gotta pay or something for the good version?)

I use TeamViewer as well. We can use either, really. TeamViewer is its own product, but very similar to Crossloop. The nice thing is that you can do file transfer with the free version and you can't do that with Crossloop free.

Do you know what IP address the router assigned the router?

Can you ping that IP address from your computer (open command prompt, type ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx where xxx is your IP addy)?

If so, there's a chance that the software is looking for a default DHCP address of 192.168.1.x .... and if your router is using something other than 192.168.1.x (ie, 192.168.0.x) it won't be able to talk...

you can first try changing your router to use 192.168.1.1 as the gateway and IPs) and try again. If that fails, try the following:


1) set your router to use 192.168.1.1 as your gateway
2) uninstall the NAS software from the computer
3) make sure you computer is using DHCP, and turn it off -- disconnect all other computers except this one.
4) hold the reset button on the NAS server and turn it on -- holding the reset button for at least 5 seconds after it turns on. -- this will reset the NAS to the default IP 192.168.1.100, and the default admin password.
5) turn on your computer
6) re-install NAS software

that should get you into the NAS server.

once you do that you can change the subnet of the server, but you'll then need to change it on the router and computer to match in order for them to talk to each other correctly.

hope that helps.

Thank you Adam ... much appreciated ... sounds like you and Steve are thinking along the same lines ... I'll give Steve's recommendations a shot and see how that goes.

(03-05-2011, 01:03 AM)NOS2Go4Me Wrote: [ -> ]Is there a web management interface for the NAS that you could use from IE or Firefox and skip the laptop-side utility for now?

If the setup/management utility is looking for a specific, "fallback" IP address and not the one your router has assigned to it, it may not be able to "find" the NAS.

If you want a hand with this today/tonight, let me know. Just download the tool Crossloop from http://www.crossloop.com and then PM me your contact email, Ken.

I can connect remotely when we're ready to go and I'll give you a hand

Thanks Steve ... just a couple of followup comments and questions:

1) If your first question is do I know the IP address of the NAS, the answer is yes ... and yes, I can ping that IP address from both the router webpage and from a command prompt. The address given the NAS by the router is 192.168.0.193.

I assume that when you talk about changing the "gateway" address you mean the routers own IP address (192.168.0.1), ... or are you talking about the WAN address at 99.228.187.132 .

(03-05-2011, 03:45 AM)darkpuppet Wrote: [ -> ]Do you know what IP address the router assigned the router?

Can you ping that IP address from your computer (open command prompt, type ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx where xxx is your IP addy)?

If so, there's a chance that the software is looking for a default DHCP address of 192.168.1.x .... and if your router is using something other than 192.168.1.x (ie, 192.168.0.x) it won't be able to talk...

you can first try changing your router to use 192.168.1.1 as the gateway and IPs) and try again. If that fails, try the following:


1) set your router to use 192.168.1.1 as your gateway
2) uninstall the NAS software from the computer
3) make sure you computer is using DHCP, and turn it off -- disconnect all other computers except this one.
4) hold the reset button on the NAS server and turn it on -- holding the reset button for at least 5 seconds after it turns on. -- this will reset the NAS to the default IP 192.168.1.100, and the default admin password.
5) turn on your computer
6) re-install NAS software

that should get you into the NAS server.

once you do that you can change the subnet of the server, but you'll then need to change it on the router and computer to match in order for them to talk to each other correctly.

hope that helps.

Yes, he meant the internal address (192.168.0.1) for the router.

Can you browse to 192.168.0.193 and see if you get a prompt to logon or even a webpage? You might be able to do some pre-config from that end to get the machine up and running.

Another thing you can do is if the NAS server has a hard-coded default IP like Steve says, you can add an additional IP to your desktop/laptop (say 192.168.1.50). At this point, technically your computer "lives" on two networks at once. You should then be able to connect to it and manage it, change the IP address of the NAS to one that is on your network (say 192.168.0.20) that matches your original network addresses and then go from there.

I'm assuming the client handles backups and automatic uploads to the NAS for you.

If you want a hand with this, let me know.

Oh, to add an additional IP in Vista (should be close to the same as Win7):

- Go to your main control panel. Set it to Small Icons if needed, not categories. (I hate that setting).

- Select Network and Sharing Center.

- Click "Change Adapter Settings"

You'll get a list of network cards installed in your system.

[attachment=261]

- Double-click your active network card. Click the Properties button.
[attachment=262]

Select IPv4 and click Properties again.

[attachment=263]

Click the Alternate Configuration tab.

- Choose the Specify Alternate Address radio button. Type in the IP address as suggested above by me - 192.168.1.50 with a subnet mask of 255.255.255.0 and NO gateway.

[attachment=264]

- Clear the checkbox for "Validate Settings" if present.

- OK and Close as needed (never Cancel) until you're back at the Network Adapters control panel. Close that if you wish.

Now try pinging the default if you have performed the reset and it does indeed go to the IP of 192.168.1.100.

Try your NAS tool.