Buffalo Forums

I'm a long-time Buffalo NAS user, finally wore out the old Terastation (on its second set of drives) and decided to replace it with a Linkstation Duo LS-WX4.0TL/R1 a couple of years ago. No issues with installation or setup, and I even managed to salvage everything (very slowly) from the dying Terastation. Good stuff.

Everything has been fine until about two months ago, when my Windows network (mostly wireless on a Cisco router) stopped 'seeing the NAS when viewing the network in Explorer. NAS Navigator sees it, and I've created a desktop shortcut that gets me temporary access to the shares on the NAS; but as soon as I go to a non-NAS folder anywhere on the network, the NAS disappears from the network map. The NAS is 'hard-wired' to the router.

For what it's worth, my Android tablet not only sees the NAS, it knows that the 'name' of the NAS on this network is 'Tera2'.

How do I fix this?

Thanks in advance.

It may be a firewall issue.  Try temporarily turning off your firewall and see if that allows you to see the NAS.  If so, you will need to adjust your firewall settings to define the device as accessible.

Thanks, and I wish it was that easy. Sadly, it isn't. This is either something buried in a Win 7 update or something buried in a firmware update on the LinkStation, perhaps even a bug nobody wants to talk about.

Nobody else has seen this problem?

Very odd indeed.

So the issue cant be with the Nas if your tablet see its. That would imply that you Router should see it if you login to your routers UI. If so can windows ping the ip? If yes then it is a firewall issue or even a security policy issue. Not sure if you have but start windows in safe mode with networking, can you access it now? if yes this proves its a firewall or security policy issue. Time to disable all firewall/anti-virus/internet security/what ever kind of anti security you have and see if that helps. If not you can try the download for you unit that will change the NTLM setting.

http://www.buffalotech.com/products/network-storage/home-and-small-office/linkstation-duo

Find the download that states this or is the longest in the notes LOL

"Tool for Changing the File-sharing Security Level. Before delegating authority to an external SMB server on your LinkStation or TeraStation, use this utility to change the file sharing security level of your Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2003, or Windows Server 2008 computer."

Run it and it will change it. This is easier then me telling you how in the security policy or registry.

Thanks for the detail. I'll give the 'safe boot' a try, and will also check the Router utility. The interesting thing about the problem is that it suddenly appeared on all of our Win 7 computers, and although I can't get to a sufficient level of detail at this point, it seemed to be within a 24 hour period. It might be one of the (many) Windows updates that is causing this. We have five Win 7 machines, all with the same problem.

We've run into another problem with software that suddenly had issues, and correcting the problem required us to uninstall one of the Windows updates.

Turns out this was a security issue in my Cisco router, perhaps resulting from an auto firmware update. The two firewalls (IPV4 and IPV6) were not matched (one enabled, the other disabled). I matched them, disabling the IPV6 firewall, and the problem seeing the LinkStation went away. Not sure I'm thrilled at that solution, with the disabled firewalls in the router; but all of the machines on the network are running MSE with the Windows firewall enabled so I'll keep an eye on things for now.

Again, thanks for the help!

I dont usually ever see a router cause the issue.. hmmmm..... Kind of makes no sense because the router should treat them as PCs for regular use... I have used like 10 different routers, linksys, cisco, belkin, netgear, buffalo, tp-link, dlink, and off brands and never had that issue. what is the model of the router?

It's a Cisco/Linksys E3200