LinkStation/Mcafee Total Protection/ WiFi compatibility issue

[RedHeadPeter]

We have a home network with 6 PCs, 2 connected by ethernet cable, 4 by wifi.  We also have a Buffalo LinkStation LS-WS1.0TGL/R1 running firmware 1.05, configured Raid1.

 

Until a couple of weeks ago all PCs were running McAfee Internet SEcurity and everything was working great.  3 pf the PCs run the Mcafee product as provided by our ISP 'free of charge and subscription' - for the other 3 I bought a 3-user licence.

 

As it is cheaper to buy new McAfee product with 12 months subscription than it is to renew subscription I purchased a 3-user licence for McAfee Total Protection.

 

And immediately the PCs that had Mcafee Total Protection, and were connected to the network by wifi lost the ability to access files on the LinkStation.  I say specifically 'access files' because they can see the Link Station and the list of shares, and in one share they can go down one directory level. But that's it - on the other shares they can't go down one level and they can't access any files on any share.

 

They can access files on other PCs on the network.

 

The one PC that has Total Protection and is connected by ethernet has no trouble, and if the others are connected by ethernet AND the wifi disabled - the problem goes away.

 

Have tried disabling the Mcafee firewall AND the router firewall - no change.

Uninstall Mcafee - problem goes away.

 

Mcafee 2.5 level support are clearly struggling.

 

Has anyone else had a similar problem?

[tanjl]

Tell me abt it! My clients who install McAfee or Symantec also had the same problems.

In the end, out of frustration, they simply uninstalled those softwares and voilà! They are able to access their Buffalo NAS without any problems.

[RedHeadPeter]

In my case it turned out to be the router, a Thomson 780WL.  First clue was when a new PC running Windows 7, but no Mcafee, had EXACTLY the same problem.  Digging around it turns out that router, on the wireless side, has some problems with the standard mtu of 1500 (at least changing the mtu to 1460 in Windows 7 solved the problem).  See this link:

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7network/thread/57957f7f-7718-4026-83f5-4a462e2f3d14?prof=required" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7network/thread/57957f7f-7718-4026-83f5-4a462e2f3d14?prof=required

 

A new router from my ISP also solved the Mcafee problem.

[tanjl]

Ok, have changed the router from Buffalo to a Netgear and same problems exist. Change from Netgear to Cisco and still same problem. My clients are using Windows 7 & Vista. Have tried the same scenario back in my office and still same problem. Unless I uninstall the software, I cannot see my share folders at all.