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Author Topic: Running two D-Link NAS on a mac network  (Read 6698 times)

Duffledorf

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Running two D-Link NAS on a mac network
« on: April 23, 2014, 08:54:46 AM »

Firstly apologies, if this is not the right place for this question, it is my first post and after days of searching I cannot find an answer (probably not phrasing the question correctly).

I have been running a D-Link 325 for sometime and have now added a D-Link 320LW to the network. I am a Mac user and am now having trouble with my mac distinguishing between the two NAS as they both have a Volume_1 and Volume_2. I understand from my searches that it is not possible to rename the volumes, and I have looked to create a new SMB mount point within the volume, but cannot figure out how to do this.

Has anyone got any suggestions how I can get around the problem?

thanks
Duff
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JavaLawyer

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Re: Running two D-Link NAS on a mac network
« Reply #1 on: April 23, 2014, 08:57:57 AM »

Can you map them by IP address and use the IP address to distinguish the two volumes?
. . . Or create aliases?
« Last Edit: April 23, 2014, 09:06:52 AM by JavaLawyer »
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Her_Kitty_Daddy

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Re: Running two D-Link NAS on a mac network
« Reply #2 on: April 23, 2014, 09:33:09 AM »

[...]
I am a Mac user and am now having trouble with my mac distinguishing between the two NAS as they both have a Volume_1 and Volume_2.
[...]

Mac user here too. (Maybe one day I'll be able to afford a second NAS.) ;)

Anyway, I think you've got your configuration incorrect.

I am doing this from MEMORY which is never anything you should hang your life on. I'd have to look at my unit at home to confirm it but under "Account Management" -> "Network Shares", you have the ability to change the outward representation of the share being advertised.

If you create a share and name it "NAS-A-Share-1" you then assign that to the path "Volume_1" on the first unit. When you finish, you'll have your shares visible by this new name and you'll be able to differentiate between them.

So, if you have two NAS units NAS-A and NAS-B each with a Volume_1 and a Volume_2, you could end up with "NAS-A-Share-1" and "NAS-A-Share-2" and "NAS-B-Share-1" and "NAS-B-Share-2" each of which are easy to identify and mount separately.

Does that help? If not, like I said, I'd have to look at my unit at home and I can't right now. :(
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Duffledorf

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Re: Running two D-Link NAS on a mac network
« Reply #3 on: April 23, 2014, 10:35:28 AM »

Can you map them by IP address and use the IP address to distinguish the two volumes?
. . . Or create aliases?

Hi JL - it doesn't seem so, each of the NAS have a dedicated IP address, but when you connect to the NAS's IP it just offers the two volumes to choose to mount - there doesn't seem to be anyway to change the name.

I have tried aliases, but they only point to the desktop icon of the drive and therefore when the mac is restarted they can get confused where they are short-cutting to. Also aliases are not helpful when trying to set up archiving software and auto mounting in sys prefs.



... under "Account Management" -> "Network Shares", you have the ability to change the outward representation of the share being advertised.

If you create a share and name it "NAS-A-Share-1" you then assign that to the path "Volume_1" on the first unit. When you finish, you'll have your shares visible by this new name and you'll be able to differentiate between them.

Hi HKD

What you are saying sounds reasonable, that is what I expected to be able to do, but when I go to Network shares I don't have the ability to drill down to a folder or name a share, I can only select/deselect Volume_1 or Volume_2. It is quite possible I have missed a setting somewhere on the netdrive, but I can't find it and I have tried both on the 325 and the 320LW.

I would really appreciate you taking a look at your settings and if possible giving me a click by click guide so I can identify the difference.

Cheers
Duff
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Her_Kitty_Daddy

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Re: Running two D-Link NAS on a mac network
« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2014, 04:08:29 PM »

[...]
I would really appreciate you taking a look at your settings and if possible giving me a click by click guide so I can identify the difference.

Okay kids. I did some screen shots. This is going to be a LONG post. (And just for clarification, I'm going to be removing the screenshots from my dropbox in about two months so if you need them, hang onto them.)

Some basics. I'm using an older version of OSX 6 dot 8 (those three chars acted funny) and I've just reloaded my DNS-325 to run 1.03 so it's pretty barren and that's why I was able to just make all these changes.

First off, pulled up the network browser and looked at what's available:

Now, I go into the "Management" screen and choose "Network Shares" from the left side menu and then choose "New". That's the begining of this sequence of steps...

First the "wizard" screen appears prompting me for the information needed.

Click Next and we arrive here:
I susupect that this is the problem you've been having. It is FAR from obvious that you click the NAME of the volume (or upper level folder) in order to create a subfolder/subdirectory. So. we click the name and we get this screen:
(I obscured what was already there to make this easier to follow.)
Here again, click the word "New" and not the plus then click "Next"

I'm then prompted for what name I want to give my new share:
I chose this "Share_1" name only to remain consistant with the example we'd worked with before in this thread.

Click "Ok" and move on giving us this screen:

Again, we click next and then we get asked about the access rights.
For the sake of brevity I've not gone through all the steps needed to secure this share properly, I'm just using "All Accounts" and "Read/Write" access.

Leaving us at this confirmation screen:

and lastly, our access methods screen:

So, we click "Next" and we're brought back to the screen we left before we started the "Wizard" (I HATE that name.) and we can see our new share:

My final step is to then use the network browser to see what shares are exported:

Here's one more thing I would do, this is, *I* think an important step that isn't covered anywhere that I've seen yet. In the first screen, "Management" screen I choose "Network Shares" from the left side menu and then select "Volume_1" by clicking on it once (it will turn red) and then I "Delete" that share. Yes, I delete that share. By default, it shouldn't be exported (In my not-so-humble opinion.)

Now, if you want something to be seen from your NAS, you have to create it explicitly.

How's that?

2014-05-02-Changed images to photobucket links.
« Last Edit: May 02, 2014, 10:58:47 AM by Her_Kitty_Daddy »
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Her_Kitty_Daddy

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Re: Running two D-Link NAS on a mac network
« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2014, 04:23:13 PM »

Since I've gone through all that, here's a finishing touch.

The shares can be complicated and diverse. Here's an example of a reasonable development tree that a small company might be using:

So, now I've chosen to expose only a couple of parts of the tree, and from the outside it looks like this:

In actuality, here's what I've exposed:

I'm not saying that this is a bug but under "normal" situations, you should be able to change the "Share Name" to something you want that is independant from the final component of the "Path".

This would allow you to further identify each share.

Okay... *NOW* I'm done. :)
« Last Edit: May 02, 2014, 11:00:33 AM by Her_Kitty_Daddy »
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Duffledorf

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Re: Running two D-Link NAS on a mac network
« Reply #6 on: April 24, 2014, 08:26:01 AM »


...

Click Next and we arrive here:
I suspect that this is the problem you've been having. It is FAR from obvious that you click the NAME of the volume (or upper level folder) in order to create a subfolder/subdirectory. So. we click the name and we get this screen:
(I obscured what was already there to make this easier to follow.)
Here again, click the word "New" and not the plus then click "Next"

...

How's that?

Hi HKD
That is absolutely brilliant! thank you so much for going to all that trouble setting up and collecting screenshots. And you are spot on, I missed the ability to click on the name of the volume (I think I must have clicked everywhere else but there!).

I am so grateful, I now have it set up exactly as I was expecting and everything seems to work correctly.

You are a five star member in my eyes!

keep up the good work

Duff
« Last Edit: April 24, 2014, 08:36:10 AM by Duffledorf »
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Her_Kitty_Daddy

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Re: Running two D-Link NAS on a mac network
« Reply #7 on: April 24, 2014, 08:38:35 AM »

That is absolutely brilliant! thank you so much
You're very welcome. I'm glad to have been able to help.

I am so grateful,
That's wonderful. I'm very glad to have been able to help.
Now. Your responsibility is to share it with someone else. ;)

You should've seen what I used to do in my old job when someone handed me proceedures like this before sending them to the customer. No one liked my red pen. ;)

Here's another thing. The "Browse" network option allows you to see what the NAS is advertising but you can also connect to the shares via the CMD-K menu by using an explicit URL.

In a sample configuration, if I wanted to have a router development area that is only accessable by the user "router", I could mount that share via CMD-K then in "Server Address" type in smb://router@192.168.7.2/router and select "Connect".

I will get prompted for the password for the user "router" and then the share will be mounted and available to me.

So, in short, you COULD have used:
smb://someipaddress/Volume_1
and
smb://someotheripaddress/Volume_1
without any problems thereby mounting both volumes without any conflict.

Now I'm going back to work. :)
« Last Edit: May 02, 2014, 03:16:21 AM by Her_Kitty_Daddy »
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