V2 Network issue

[mwat]

Hi, I am having a curious issue that has only recently come to light.

I record using the USB HDD on my Beyonce V2 and, up untill today, have been manually transferring files for keeping from Beyonce V2 onto my NAS using drag & drop via Explorer (Win10 Pro).
This has worked fine until today, when I noticed that I could not see the Beyonce box on my network (see attached Network.jpg).
Checking the network settings on the Beyonce V2 showed that all was ok and indeed I can ping the Beyonce box from all locations (see Ping Beyonce V2.jpg)
However, it fails to show up as an attached Networked device.
The Beyonce is ethernet connected (see attached Home Network Cabling Diagram.pdf)
Can anybody shed some light on this issue?
I was thinking that maybe something got changed after the latest update?

Cheers,
Martin

[Grumpy_Geoff]

It's not the chick from Destiny's Child.

Is the issue that it doesn't show up in the "Network" section of Windows Explorer in the left pane?
If so, don't sweat it. At times it can take a while for Windows to show a Wiz. Sometimes I need to open the Network tree and Refresh/F5 to see one of my boxes get discovered. At other times it's just there.

You can always open an Explorer pane of the Wiz by entering it as \\beyonwizv2 or \\192.168.1.26 into the Explorer address bar.
Similarly, entering the same server address into the Windows run prompt, or as a 'start \\beyonwizv2' in a command prompt window.

I see you've mapped the V2 as "Z:" drive - is that mapping functioning?

Is the V2 being given a "static" address (192.168.1.26) by your DHCP server?
Which box is providing that service, the VR1600 or the USG? Have you got double-NAT in play?

Master Browser?
I'm cueing MrQuade or Paul_oz53 here...

[mwat]

Hi Geoff,
Who the hell is Destiny's Child???
I am more Dhafer Youssef...
Anyway I have tried all the usual addressing without success unfortunately.
The mapping to Z: drive is just the drive allocated on my NAS to store the files I (used to) transfer from the Beyonce box.
I used to see (and be able to access) the B V2 box in my Network listing.
Sadly, at the moment, it is missing in action, which is probably where Destiny's Child went as well..?

Cheers,
Martin

[Paul_oz53]

Hi Geoff,
Who the hell is Destiny's Child???
...
Cheers,
Martin

The band that once featured Beyonce...

Autocorrect plays havoc with your wiz references, unless you actually named it Beyonce!

Grumpy_Geoff's cue is to a lecture by me on the evils of SMB master browser issues. The short version is your symptoms are typical of the master browser has changed (as it can all by itself) and the new master device is doing a poor job.

Samba devices compete to be the master browser by holding periodic elections. The list of active devices is held by the master browser and all other devices rely on the master list being properly maintained.

Samba is quite fragile and I spent many hours getting it to a reliable state on my home network, which is similar in scale to yours. The other factor in all this is MS updates that tighten security settings but I haven't had any recent problems due to MS updates.

I too use a VR1600 Archer modem and I set it to allocate preset IP addresses by device MAC to prevent the magically vanishing wizzes. If you don't do this already, I strongly recommend it.

The first thing we need to know is how your wiz gets its IP address. If you manually set it in the Wiz, it's better to swap to pre-setting it in the router or, if it's always on - the NAS. Linking it to the wiz MAC address is an essential part of the setup to minimize the problem.

[raymondjpg]

This has worked fine until today, when I noticed that I could not see the Beyonce box on my network (see attached Network.jpg).

Try changing the hostname of the V2. In the U4 it is found under Setup|Network|Mount manager|Change hostname - that is with the latest public firmware release. Previously I think it was located somewhere else under Mount manager; I don't remember exactly where.

If after renaming it shows up under Network in the Windows 10 file explorer, then you can re-rename it back to what it was before.

After going through this procedure I have had no further issues with a T2 that persistently went AWOL on my (now totally) Win10 network.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Anyway I have tried all the usual addressing without success unfortunately.
The mapping to Z: drive is just the drive allocated on my NAS to store the files I (used to) transfer from the Beyonce box.

Yes, I incorrectly assumed the "Z:" drive mapping was for the V2. I hadn't paid attention to the ping results to see it was a different IP address.

Is Samba running on the V2? Check at MENU>>Setup>>Network>>Samba. Is Autostart set to Enabled and is Current Status showing as Running? Does BLUE/Show Log show any errors?

You should be able to start a Windows Explorer session of the V2 from a command prompt by entering start \\192.168.1.106 at the prompt.
Or, by entering \\192.168.1.106 in the Windows Explorer address bar.

Usually, one can use the V2's device name in place of the IP address as well (so \\beyonwizv2 by default), but I think that depends on how the local network is setup.
I don't know if having two routers on your network would impact that.

[mwat]

It is always the simple things that trick you!
It was indeed Samba that was not cooperating, disabled and not running.
Now up and running and my box is back in the Network tree where it belongs
Thanks all for your help, much appreciated!

[MrQuade]

Any idea how that turned off? It generally doesn't do that by itself.

[mwat]

Any idea how that turned off? It generally doesn't do that by itself.

No idea
I have a habit of leaving things alone when they work, as I do not really know what I am doing most of the time
That is why I thought this might have happened with the latest V2 update?

[Paul_oz53]

Any idea how that turned off? It generally doesn't do that by itself.

No idea
I have a habit of leaving things alone when they work, as I do not really know what I am doing most of the time
That is why I thought this might have happened with the latest V2 update?

Certainly explains why it disappeared but, as MrQuade notes, SAMBA's default is on. Good pickup Grumpy_Geoff!

No idea why you had to manually start it.

If it doesn't recur then put it down to random chance. Rarely, a firmware update doesn't complete correctly at the first attempt. If nothing else is affected then the "let sleeping dogs lie"approach is fine. Reflash otherwise if needed.

[raymondjpg]

Certainly explains why it disappeared but, as MrQuade notes, SAMBA's default is on. Good pickup Grumpy_Geoff!

No idea why you had to manually start it.

If it doesn't recur then put it down to random chance. Rarely, a firmware update doesn't complete correctly at the first attempt. If nothing else is affected then the "let sleeping dogs lie"approach is fine. Reflash otherwise if needed.

Maybe something peculiar to the V2? I've never seen any reports of SAMBA turning itself off in the T/U series, unless I just wasn't paying attention. Also, if it is something inherent to the V2 I wouldn't be so sanguine as to consider it might just be a random event. I'd be keeping my eye out for it.

[Jan]

Any idea how that turned off? It generally doesn't do that by itself.

Samba turned itself off for me too after the update!

[Paul_oz53]

Certainly explains why it disappeared but, as MrQuade notes, SAMBA's default is on. Good pickup Grumpy_Geoff!

No idea why you had to manually start it.

If it doesn't recur then put it down to random chance. Rarely, a firmware update doesn't complete correctly at the first attempt. If nothing else is affected then the "let sleeping dogs lie"approach is fine. Reflash otherwise if needed.

Maybe something peculiar to the V2? I've never seen any reports of SAMBA turning itself off in the T/U series, unless I just wasn't paying attention. Also, if it is something inherent to the V2 I wouldn't be so sanguine as to consider it might just be a random event. I'd be keeping my eye out for it.

With Jan reporting a similar issue, I agree!

It appears to be a new behaviour on V2s at least. If it affected T/Us I'd expect a flurry of queries to have appeared by now. Didn't occur with my T or U upgrades.

[prl]

I assume that when people say "Samba turned itself off", they mean that Samba autostart was disabled. Is that right?

If so, it's a bit puzzling that the problem would be confined to only V2s, because the autostart mechanism is the same for all models. Perhaps there's some difference in exactly what the online updates do across models, but that would seem odd in this case.

Also, "after an upgrade" doesn't really help much with trying to track down the cause of the problem. USB or online upgrade? Were settings restored? Had the configuration of which files are backed up been changed? Upgrade from which version to which version?

The settings restore question is a bit tricky, though. It's possible to add the file that is responsible for enabling autostart to the settings backup, but disabling autostart simply removes the file (actually a symbolic link), and there's no way for the settings backup to reflect the removal of a file.

I wouldn't recommend trying to back up the Samba autostart status, anyway.

That would mean that it should be possible to set up a settings backup to ensure that Samba autostart is enabled on restore, but not to ensure that it is disabled on restore.

I haven't had any recent update disable Samba on my test V2.