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The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => D-Link Storage => DNS-323 => Topic started by: bobkat on December 19, 2009, 01:21:11 PM

Title: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: bobkat on December 19, 2009, 01:21:11 PM
Hi All:

I bought a DNS-323 and two Western Digital Caviar Green 1 TB drives for backing up our office data.

Everything went together fine and the initial backup (using Memeo backup software included with the 323) took about 6 hours.

The system ran fine for about three weeks and then sometimes in the morning when we come in to work the 323 is not found on the network. The Memeo software still gathers new/changed files for backing up but can't write them to the 323.

The only way to get the 323 back on the network is to unplug the power cord and reboot it. Then all is well until the next time it goes off line - which seems to be at random. But only after a long period of inactivity (ie: when we all go home for the evening).

The DNS is using version 1.04 firmware.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: gunrunnerjohn on December 19, 2009, 01:46:44 PM
What are the indication when you look at the drive?  Is the network light still flashing?  Can you access it using the web interface?  Is this a RAID-1 configuration?

I'd consider two things.

1. Upgrade the firmware to at least the latest released version, 1.07.  I'm running the 1.08b8 here, and it's working fine.

2. Reset to factory defaults and reconfigure the unit.  This will not affect the stored data, but may solve the issue if the configuration has somehow become corrupted.


Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: bobkat on December 20, 2009, 11:51:34 AM
Thanks for the reply.

It went off again this morning and this time I could not get it back again by powering off.

The network light is flashing randomly. It is a RAID 1 configuration, yes.

The 323 is connected to our Linksys RV-016 16 port VPN router - the router works fine and all computers still have network access even though the 323 is off line - however, when the 323 goes off line I notice that all the router LEDs flash together at the same time. It does not do this when the 323 is on line.

Just now I tried looking around at "My Network Places" and I clicked on "web_page on DNS-323" in the shared folders - and right after I did that, the computer "rediscovered" the 323 and now it works again. Strange stuff indeed...



Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: gunrunnerjohn on December 20, 2009, 12:04:39 PM
I'd try the factory reset I mentioned, that sounds like the unit is getting confused for some reason.
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: bobkat on December 20, 2009, 12:21:33 PM
OK thanks gunrunnerjohn.

I will try the factory reset and see if that rectifies the problem - if not I will upgrade the firmware.

Thanks again for your help.

Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: gunrunnerjohn on December 20, 2009, 01:17:37 PM
Good luck. :)
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: Chill on December 20, 2009, 03:45:17 PM
This happened to me also but I may have a different problem compared to yours. The solution I did was to give the DNS323 a static IP address that belongs to my network (mine is 192.168.XXX.XXX/255.255.255.0)
Once i made its IP address static, i always see the NAS without having to powercycle the NAS.
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: gunrunnerjohn on December 20, 2009, 03:47:14 PM
I always recommend a static IP address for any server like this.  Both of my NAS units have a static IP address.
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: AKFubar on December 22, 2009, 01:50:44 AM
Something like this happened to me this morning after having my computer off overnite.  When I booted up this morning, I could see the 323 drives still mapped in WinXP but couldn't access them.  The 323 did not show in Easy Search.  The message I get from WinXP was drives were disconnected.  I have wd caviar green drives installed in the 323 and I have hibernation set on the 323.  I am using the latest beta fw for the 323 (1.08).

I rebooted the 323 and eventually the drives were accessible.

The caviar green drives, if inactive, will normally spin down on their own by design to save power.  My theory at this point is that when hibernation is set on the 323 and the caviar drives spin down on their own, for some reason it later becomes impossible to reconnect to the drives when both hibernations kick in without a reboot on the 323.   ???

I have disabled hibernation on the 323 to see if this makes a difference.
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: gunrunnerjohn on December 22, 2009, 05:34:20 AM
I have Seagate drives in my DNS-321 and Samsung drives in my DNS-323, neither have any issues recovering from hibernation.  Hard to believe that WD has a special issue.  I did have a pair of 500gig WD drives in my DNS-323 before the upgrade to 1.5TB, and they had no issues at all recovering from hibernation either.
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: AKFubar on December 22, 2009, 05:39:51 AM
Thanks gunrunnerjohn.  Just a theory above.  Just going to see for my curiosity if it makes a difference.  The other thing I will try after trying this is setting a static IP.
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: gunrunnerjohn on December 22, 2009, 05:48:13 AM
Not sure why a static IP address would change it, but I've always run mine that way, so it is a difference in the configurations. :)
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: awarnach on December 22, 2009, 01:33:02 PM
I've got the same problem, I'm running the following configuration:

Total Drive(s):    2

Volume Name:    Volume_1
Volume Type:    RAID 1
Sync Time Remaining:    Completed
Total Hard Drive Capacity:    737717 MB
Used Space:    440369 MB
Unused Space:    297347 MB

Volume Name:    Volume_2
Volume Type:    JBOD
Total Hard Drive Capacity:    491470 MB
Used Space:    21768 MB
Unused Space:    469702 MB

Firmware: 1.05

It ran fine for months until a couple of weeks ago. Didn't change anything. It randomly isn't accessible though my network. Even the shutdown button on the front side doesn't work when it happens. The only thing that works is to unplug the plug. Wait a little en put the plug back in. Then it works for a couple of minutes 'till a couple of hours and I have to do a hard reset again :(

Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: gunrunnerjohn on December 22, 2009, 02:03:30 PM
Sad to say, your sounds like a hardware issue with the box.
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: peevish on December 28, 2009, 05:28:35 AM
Did you come up with a solution for this? I am having the same issue with the same setup (2 1TB caviar green drives in RAID 1) - and my nas keeps disconnecting. It even happes in the middle of using it - it happened again yesterday while streaming my music through itunes. Sometimes unplugging and replugging the nas works, after remapping the drive, sometimes it doesnt. Very frustrating! Just want to check if it is a simple fix before I go through the joys of D-link return.
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: AKFubar on December 28, 2009, 07:13:52 AM
I ended up removing the hibernation on the 323 and also setting a static IP for the 323.  It seems have remedied the problem so far. :)
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: mo009042 on January 17, 2010, 07:29:51 AM
Hi all, I been having the same issue and saw these posts - so here I am. I've got the 323 with two 1TB cavier black HD's - bought this about a week ago and have them mirrored. I somehow got it to not disconnect for a few days but again this morning the NAS was disconnected via my computer. However, I'm able to view all of the files if I used the network magic 5.5 software that came with my Linksys router, even when it's disconnected from the network  ???. Does anybody else have this software or another like it? If so see if you can view your NAS from there as well. In order to view it again with my computer I to remap each time. I changed my hibernation time from 10 to 30 mins which I'm sure won't make a difference but I gotta try and my IP address has always been static.
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: darthjulian on May 12, 2010, 10:50:16 AM
I've been having the same problem. I have two DNS-323's and one constantly pops off the network and presently — won't go back on. I had upgraded the firmware to 1.08 hoping that would fix the problem, but it may have made it worse? It's got two 2 TB drives (one Seagate and one WD) in a RAID 1 configuration. Power cycling doesn't help, although it had in the recent past; nor does plugging and unplugging the network cable. I'm sort of out of ideas at this point.

Julian
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: ECF on May 12, 2010, 11:19:01 AM
See if this behavior is the same on if viewed from another PC on your network. It may be Anti-virus software or Windows firewall having an issue.
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: darthjulian on May 12, 2010, 11:51:47 AM
Okay — I don't have a "PC" if by that you mean a machine running Windows. But — viewed from two different OS X machines, it is indeed not there.

[time passes]

I've hard reset the device and fixed the IP address and it has come back for the time being. It's stayed on for a couple of hours which is much better than it had in the past. I don't know what might've caused it to disappear, but I'll report back if anything unusual happens.
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: tedfroop on May 12, 2010, 06:03:55 PM
Do you have the LLTD option on?  (Advanced, LLTD, Enable or disable)

Has anyone tried pinging the device when you cant see it?  (open a command prompt, type: ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx where the address of the device replaces the x's)  What does the return say?

If you are using a Windows pc I would also be tempted to run (also from the command prompt):

ipconfig /flushdns

This clears all cached DNS resolution info.  Could be there is bad or conflicting info for your device address.
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: Buhric on May 13, 2010, 04:48:38 AM
@darthjulian,

Since you are runniong OSX, did you installed the "Bonjour" application in the DNS-323 ?
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: gunrunnerjohn on May 13, 2010, 05:19:24 AM
I'm going to guess this is a master browser issue.  One problem with Windows workgroup networking is that when you have workstations turning on and off, sometimes the master browser elections get confused.  One solution to the issue is to simply use static IP addresses all around and construct a HOSTS file that maps all the names to devices and use that HOSTS file in every computer.  Some might think of this as a crutch, but the real crutch is NETBIOS browser elections. :D
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: mrsbeata on April 22, 2011, 12:52:45 PM
This happens to me too, and I have Win 7.

What happens is now that I restarted the NAS (the buzzing is driving me nuts) and it cant be found. Not on the network, not by the static IP, not by easy search. The other day it happened and after a few days it popped back.

Thankful if anyone has any ideas.
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: Steve Pitts on April 22, 2011, 02:06:08 PM
Not on the network, not by the static IP, not by easy search
Are you able to get an HTTP connection to the IP address via a web browser?? If so, then the most likely answer can be found in this post:

Re: Lost Volume_1, BT and Web Folder still there? (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=38156#msg125622)
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: fordem on April 22, 2011, 02:48:23 PM
This happens to me too, and I have Win 7.

What happens is now that I restarted the NAS (the buzzing is driving me nuts) and it cant be found. Not on the network, not by the static IP, not by easy search. The other day it happened and after a few days it popped back.

Thankful if anyone has any ideas.

Based on that single statement - what happened to you is not what happened to the ofther folks in the thread - and it might be a good idea to start a new thread.

If you had a static address set, and it could not be reached at that static address, it would suggest a network problem - were the link lights on ot off?
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: jtoddv on June 23, 2012, 06:47:45 AM
I just wanted to throw this out there for anyone else that may find this thread in their Google search.

If you have a static IP set for your DNS-323, ensure that it is a high enough IP. With all of the devices floating around our houses today which connect to our networks (PS3, mobile phones, tablets, etc.), you will need to make sure that there is no cross-over.

Example: If the power goes out. Network resets. Your devices begin connecting to your network. If your DNS-323 static IP is low enough, you might have another device connect to the network faster and take over the same static IP. This will cause the DNS-323 to show up/be accessible, but then disappear minutes later.
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: fordem on June 23, 2012, 07:52:36 AM
The only way for the scenario presented in the post above to occur is for the user to break one of the fundamental rules of ip addressing, and the solution offered is nothing more than a "band-aid" fix, becuse it too, breaks that fundamental rule.

You should NEVER set a static ip address within the DHCP server's lease pool.

The correct fix is not to set the static ip to an address high enough that it will not be leased, but either reduce the size of the DHCP lease pool or create an exclude zone - which ever your DHCP server allows - and set aside a range of ip addresses for static use.

Have you ever noticed that some routers, by default, start the DHCP pool at a.b.c.101 - have you ever wondered why?  Well now you know - users can set static ip addresses in the range from a.b.c.2~a.b.c.100 without having to worry about ip conflicts.
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: Steve Pitts on June 27, 2012, 12:30:10 AM
You should NEVER set a static ip address within the DHCP server's lease pool
Unfortunately not all networking kit makes that easy. Here in the UK Virgin Media have started supplying their horribly misnamed SuperHub, which acts as both a cable modem and a router/switch but it only allows MAC reservations within the DHCP lease pool (and if you try to cheat by shrinking the pool once you've defined the reservations, it kindly deletes them all for you). I prefer to set up all devices within my home network with static IPs using MAC reservation and then to prevent the dynamic addresses from accessing the outside world, so this particular piece of junk aggravated me greatly.
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: ivan on June 27, 2012, 02:45:04 AM
OT.

Steve, I have friends in the UK with that unit and they too are having problems so I would like to pick your brain if I may.

Would it be possible to to switch off everything except the cable modem and use a separate switcg and the DNS-323 as the DHCP server?  Also is there a technical manual available for SuperHub?
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: fordem on June 27, 2012, 04:19:40 AM
Unfortunately not all networking kit makes that easy. Here in the UK Virgin Media have started supplying their horribly misnamed SuperHub, which acts as both a cable modem and a router/switch but it only allows MAC reservations within the DHCP lease pool (and if you try to cheat by shrinking the pool once you've defined the reservations, it kindly deletes them all for you). I prefer to set up all devices within my home network with static IPs using MAC reservation and then to prevent the dynamic addresses from accessing the outside world, so this particular piece of junk aggravated me greatly.

It sounds like you're confusing a static address and a DHCP reservation - they are similar in concept, but different in reality.  DHCP reservations will only work in the presence of the DHCP server on which they were set, static addresses, which have to be set at the device, will work even when there is no DHCP server.  Think about it this way - if the address is obtained using Dynamic Host Control Protocol, then it's a dynamic address, not static

Whilst I am aware that some devices allow you to set DHCP reservations outside of the lease pool, those devices are the ones that are not working correctly as as no DHCP server should be able to lease an address that's not within the pool, so if what you say, is correct, the Virgin Media  SuperHub works properly.

"Shrink" the lease pool, set your DHCP reservations within the lease pool, set your static addresses at the device, outside of the lease pool, and all will be well
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: Steve Pitts on June 30, 2012, 02:18:35 AM
Would it be possible to to switch off everything except the cable modem and use a separate switcg and the DNS-323 as the DHCP server?
I've no experience with using the DNS323 as a DHCP server, but I see no reason why switching the SuperHub to modem only mode and using the NAS to provide DHCP wouldn't work (although I cannot imagine that the DHCP in the DNS323 is going to be any better than the SuperHub, and is certainly less flexible). However, I believe that doing so also disables the wireless so that may not be a workable approach (the setting is designed to let folk with an existing router carry on doing so if they prefer) but cannot currently get into the web interface of the SuperHub to confirm what it says.

Also is there a technical manual available for SuperHub?
Not that I've been able to find. There are various bits scattered about the VM help pages, and this page:

Virgin Media Super Hub user guide (http://help.virginmedia.com/system/selfservice.controller?CMD=VIEW_ARTICLE&ARTICLE_ID=374698&CURRENT_CMD=SEARCH&CONFIGURATION=1002&PARTITION_ID=1&USERTYPE=1&LANGUAGE=en&COUNTY=us&VM_CUSTOMER_TYPE=Cable)

has a link to a PDF document that is basically just a quick-start guide to getting the unit up and running.
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: ivan on June 30, 2012, 03:40:26 AM
Thanks for that information Steve.

It sounds as if they can use their DI-624 in the same configuration that they had before which is good news and should solve their problems.
Title: Re: DNS-323 disappears from network
Post by: fordem on July 01, 2012, 04:00:21 PM
The DHCP server in the DNS-323 is a very basic DHCP server, only capable of leasing addresses - it does not offer DHCP scope options, such as default gateway or DNS server entries, so it is only suitable for the most basic of "stand alone" (ie, not inter connected) networks.