Author Topic: Lost Connection - any ideas?  (Read 5179 times)

bk6662

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Lost Connection - any ideas?
« on: April 26, 2017, 01:40:01 PM »
Hi all!

I'm a new member here, but definitely not new to computers.  I have a Linkstation Quad (LS-Q4) that I've been using for years.  I have it set to RAID 5, and do monthly RAID rebuilds.  Never considered I'd have any problems, other than maybe a drive going out on me.

I'm out of town, and regularly connect home over VPN to grab files, or whatever.  Yesterday I was doing a search of the NAS filesystem, and suddenly lost connection.  My VPN was ok, but I notice that the LinkStation is no longer responding.  Attempts to PING result in response "Destination Host Unreachable".  (Interestingly from another internal host I'm getting "No response"). 

After reading over some of the posts I was wondering if maybe the device dropped into EM mode.  To test this I placed a VM into the 192.168.11.x subnet, and then attempted a PING to 192.168.11.150 (theoretically the address the LS would default to) but still no response.

I'm still a few days before I'll be able to get eyes on the unit and see if any indicators (maybe just lost power).  Any ideas what else I can do remotely?  Oh BTW I did install the Navigator program on the VM, in the hopes it would detect it (even though it's not reachable by IP).  But still no go.

One other thing I noticed. From an internal host I did an arp -a command, and saw it still had the buffalo MAC in it's ARP cache.  So that leads me to believe it's probably still powered on.

Thanks for any suggestions!!

-Brian

MiG174

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Re: Lost Connection - any ideas?
« Reply #1 on: April 27, 2017, 04:47:47 AM »
attempted a PING to 192.168.11.150 (theoretically the address the LS would default to) but still no response.
NO, this is the address of mode receive TFTP. EM Mode without DHCP - random 169.х.х.х
« Last Edit: April 27, 2017, 04:57:25 AM by MiG174 »

bk6662

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Re: Lost Connection - any ideas?
« Reply #2 on: April 27, 2017, 08:24:37 AM »
Thanks for pointing this out - I didn't catch that.  And the article I was looking at about EM mode (http://buffalo.nas-central.org/wiki/EM_Mode) didn't mention anything about the LS initially receiving an apipa address.

Now I'm a bit confused though.  In order to be able to connect to a tftp server it needs to be in the same subnet as the server (server won't assign it an IP address).  Since I can't connect to it how would I give it an IP, so it can connect to the TFTP server (I'm making the assumption that it's in EM mode currently).

Thanks

MiG174

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Re: Lost Connection - any ideas?
« Reply #3 on: April 27, 2017, 08:51:27 AM »
Now I'm a bit confused though.  In order to be able to connect to a tftp server it needs to be in the same subnet as the server (server won't assign it an IP address).  Since I can't connect to it how would I give it an IP, so it can connect to the TFTP server
Thanks

TFTP mode is activated only physically or through the serial console, in this mode, the device is a client and only accepts image files u-boot.bin, initrd.buffalo, ulmage.buffalo. Another thing, if you have previously "installed" NC (network console) in loader u-boot  .
Then in "TFTP mode" you can connect over network.

(I'm making the assumption that it's in EM mode currently).
See its address in the router

Can you make a visual contact with another person with device? Maybe there is a power supply dead

« Last Edit: April 27, 2017, 09:10:20 AM by MiG174 »

bk6662

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Re: Lost Connection - any ideas?
« Reply #4 on: April 27, 2017, 10:37:50 AM »
I have to admit your reply led to more questions for me.  I admit I'm no expert with the LinkStation, but thought I sort of understood what's involved here.  Now I'm not so sure.  I was tempted to just wait until I get back home next week to see exactly what's going on.  (And to answer your question unfortunately nobody there to take a look for me :(  )  Yes I'm hoping it's just a power issue, or maybe it attempted a reboot and is stuck along the way.  But on the other hand I really like to be prepared for the worst-case scenario.

You stated "TFTP mode is activated only physically or through the serial console".  My device doesn't have a serial console...only LAN & USB interfaces.  If I can't reach it via the network, then my question again - how do I set an IP so I can connect to the tftp server?

Thanks for spelling out the specific files I will need.  Any idea where I can find these files for my device?  I know where I can get the firmware, but not to sure about the boot image files.

I've never seen or installed NC - so guessing I won't have that option available.  If I'm able to get this resolved then will definitely look into that.

Your last statement was that I can "See the device IP address in the router".  Could you please clarify this for me?  I suppose it's possible that if it still had a DHCP assigned address, then I would see at the DHCP server.  But far as I know I have a long way to go in order to get to that point.  (I had previously set a static IP, so it was not previously set for DHCP).

Thanks again for your input - really looking forward to any clarification you can provide to my questions!  I apologize in advance for being so dense - really trying to understand :)

-Brian

MiG174

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Re: Lost Connection - any ideas?
« Reply #5 on: April 28, 2017, 01:05:32 AM »
I have to admit your reply led to more questions for me.  I admit I'm no expert with the LinkStation, but thought I sort of understood what's involved here.  Now I'm not so sure.  I was tempted to just wait until I get back home next week to see exactly what's going on.  (And to answer your question unfortunately nobody there to take a look for me :(  )  Yes I'm hoping it's just a power issue, or maybe it attempted a reboot and is stuck along the way.  But on the other hand I really like to be prepared for the worst-case scenario.

This is the only correct decision. It makes no sense to guess.

Read here http://forum.buffalo.nas-central.org/viewforum.php?f=66

bk6662

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Re: Lost Connection - any ideas?
« Reply #6 on: May 03, 2017, 05:46:48 PM »
Ok this item has been resolved....sort of.

When I returned home I found the unit completely frozen.  No flashing LEDs- it looked like it was in normal operation except nothing was flashing.

In the past I've run into problems whenever multiple accesses are attempted.  The unit will freeze temporarily (10-15 seconds) and then come back to life.  Well this appears to be the same case, except it never recovered.  I was, however, able to perform a hard reset.  It came back fine.

I've now backed everything up, in case it happens again!  I'd be curious to know if anybody here knows of a resolution for that "freeze" issue.  If so please let me know.  Otherwise as far as I'm concerned this request can be closed.

Thanks again!
-Brian

bk6662

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Re: Lost Connection - any ideas?
« Reply #7 on: May 04, 2017, 11:12:39 AM »
I have to admit your reply led to more questions for me.  I admit I'm no expert with the LinkStation, but thought I sort of understood what's involved here.  Now I'm not so sure.  I was tempted to just wait until I get back home next week to see exactly what's going on.  (And to answer your question unfortunately nobody there to take a look for me :(  )  Yes I'm hoping it's just a power issue, or maybe it attempted a reboot and is stuck along the way.  But on the other hand I really like to be prepared for the worst-case scenario.

This is the only correct decision. It makes no sense to guess.

Read here http://forum.buffalo.nas-central.org/viewforum.php?f=66

Just curious do you know if this board is still active?  It looks like the moderators left a couple years ago.  I attempted to sign up last week but no acceptance message (and still no access).  Tried contacting the administrator but that form no longer works.  I'm guessing that ppl who already have access are ok, but no new users.

MiG174

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Re: Lost Connection - any ideas?
« Reply #8 on: May 05, 2017, 05:27:49 AM »
Just curious do you know if this board is still active?  It looks like the moderators left a couple years ago.  I attempted to sign up last week but no acceptance message (and still no access).  Tried contacting the administrator but that form no longer works.  I'm guessing that ppl who already have access are ok, but no new users.

Maine page http://forum.buffalo.nas-central.org/index.php