Multiple share workaround - this is a joke right??

[wintensive]

   

Linkstation Quad - 2TB

Firmware: 1.05

RAID 5 

All network computers are XP Pro SP2

 

 

I have run into the multiple shares problem.  The workaround is to map all shares with the same username and password.  So the obvious question is...what's the purpose of having different passwords on different shares.  Not to mention that when you place access restrictions on any share, then all shares will require a password.

 

Furthermore, even after I release all access restrictions and delete the one user that has a password in the control panel for the NAS, I still get the password window when trying to access the share??? I have to return the device to its default factory settings to fix this.

 

When I purchsed this device, going off the way in which it was advertised, I envisioned adding several shares, and creating users with different passwords.  Any user on any given computer on our network would click on a share, and they would be asked for the share password.  IF it was a resource they were allowed to see their password would work. For shares they were not given access to...they would not be able to access with their password.  I do not think that is an unreasonable expectation considering the way this product is advertised.

 

Instead, now that I have it installed, I understand that this product cannot possibly work this way.  Windows XP forbids this to work this way.  So what's the point?  (said another way:  How can I get my money back...Fry's only has a 15-day return policy, and we're beyond that now that I have spent that time trying to get it to work).  Altogether I am thoroughly disappointed with this product.  I am interested in any real way to get it to work as expected and I am open to suggestions, but based on what's been shown so far....I'm not sure.  Is there a way to do this with the shares if we don't map any of them in My Computer but instead just access them form the My Network Places?  Is there a different linkstation model that would work the way I hoped?

 

Thanks to anyone who has input on the subject.

Message Edited by wintensive on 04-16-2009 02:05 AM

[Dustrega]

The truth is you don't have different passwords on different shares. If you're username is user1 for example and you have the ability to access folders A, B and C but not D, then when you try to access D you're going to get restricted from D, but the cached credentials will work with A, B or C.

 

In what way are you accessing the share? By IP or hostname? Answers to these questions are the foundation of building the solution to this problem. Please post back :)

 

E: I am looking into any firmware issues with the NAS that we have with 1.05 on this end :)

 

Update: Consequently this is a Windows limitation in that for a single user it caches the creadentials that successfully grant access to a folder. I'm sure instead of initializing the NAS that if you rebooted the computer or logged in as a different user you could access the other shares with different credentials. Again, this is an OS limitation as this did work on my end :)

Message Edited by Dustrega on 04-16-2009 07:21 PM

[wintensive]

   

Dustrega - thanks for the reply and willingness to help me sort this out.

 

To be specific, I have the LS-QL/R5

 

I have tried accessing the shares both ways - currently using IP address, but it works via hostname also.  (when there is no access restrictions).  You are correct that I should just be able to delete the access restrictioons and reboot to fix the problem of undoing any access restriction changes, but I cannot.  I tried several times and gave up and reinitialized it. That worked.

 

The main problem here:  the advertising material very much makes it look like you have the ability to create share level access to certain shares on the NAS, much like we used to be able to do in Windows 98.  (Not that I'm still a fan of Win98, but share level access was the one thing I miss about win98).  Many offices today don't require complex user based logins and domain based login credentials.  But they could use the ability to simply create a shared network folder, apply a password to it,and distribute the shared resource password to those that should be able to access it.  Then anyone, or any user, could just access it and be prompted for the password for that item.  The actual user didn't matter. For instance, create an accounting folder for Quickbooks files, assign a password to it, anmd only give that password to the bookkeeper.

 

So when I saw this product I thought, great! Finally a way to get back to basic resource level, or share level passwords.  I can create a few shares, apply a password to some of them, and give appropriate passwords to each user.  That's just what we need.  And just what it sounds like we could do with it.  But in reality, due to the inherent way Windows XP is setup for user level access only (there is no shared level access to anything anymore) this whole idea is nullified from the beginning.  If you are going to map any share, then you must use the same password for all of them!!  I thought this NAS would get around this limitation...in fact I thought that was the whole point of it.  Otherwise....why bother.  Just create a RAID array in any system you already have and do the normal user level passwords everyone has to deal with now.

 

Worse, imagine a scenario where you setup all the office computers (5 of them) with the 7 shares you created and ran them all without access restrictions to get a feel for the product and make sure everything works.  Then you decide that works OK and its time to introduce some access restriction to 1 or 2 of the shares....well, the whole thing breaks.  All users are bumped from any share they used to have and the office is chaos for a few minutes while you try to figure out an easy fix.  Then you realize that you have to go to EVERY system and delete the shares, reboot all systems, and recreate the users, shares and mapped drives in a specific order, and map everything to the same password for all shares??

 

At this point I don't even see the point of adding any restrictions if all mapped drives now have the same password, and no one has to ever enter a password anymore?  Even if you get the shares access restricted, no one ever has to enter a password again, and anyone on any of the systems can just map to any share with their own user that the other shares use.  AND, you now have to use one of the passwords even on the shares that have NO restriction.

 

I fail to see the point of all this.  I must be unclear on the concept. 

 

Finally,  I thought is was kinda funny that the troubleshooting steps for dealing with multiple shares was kind of buried in the manual as an aside.  Kind of like...Oh yeah, and if you happen to run into this problem here's how you fix it.....it should be on the front page of the setup part....who could possibly have set this NAS up and not needed to know that as a fundamental aspect of the setup of this NAS? And by fix it we mean...set everything up with the same password!?

 

Again I apologize...but I have totally missed the point, and maybe this just wasn't the product I was looking for. Was I wrong to expect the product to be able to do what I thought it would do?

[wintensive]

   

Even after re initializing the device, today I am still getting password credential boxes popping up when I map some of the other shares.  This box no longer has any access credentials, and there are not even any users (other than admin) in it.  Yet still, when the password box shows up, I have to type in the user and password for a user that I created on the box that DOESN'T EVEN EXIST on it.  It is an old user that was deleted and then the box was reinitialized.

 

How is that even possible.  All the computers have been restarted several times.

 

This thing is defective.  Will Buffalo offer me a refund?

[wintensive]

   

This Nas has cost me another day of productivity at work.

 

I have disconnected every mapped drive, restarted everything, and reinitialized the NAS after removing all access restrictions and al users from it.

 

Yet all day, various access to various shares prompts for a password. The only one that works is for the phantom user I originally setup on the NAS and have long since removed and reinitialized.  At this point, our office can no longer get any work done without me showing up at a users desk to run through all the steps to try to get access to the file.

 

When we do connect, we sometimes get DELAYED WRITE FAILURES on files we are using, most notably Outlook files.

 

I am no longer interested in fixing this as I have used up 3 days of productivity by mapping, unmapping, remapping, restarting, reinitializing on every machine here.  The NAS is actually preventing everyone from getting their work done.  My only option is to move all the data back off and remove this thing from my network entirely.

 

So the final question is, since Fry's only allows returns for 15 days, and that has passed while troubleshooting, will Buffalo stand behind this thing with a money back guarantee?  I think I deserve a refund ASAP.

 

It's the least I could ask for since I still have to deal with the aftermath of lost data due to delayed write failures and rebuilding Outlook databases...  Buffalo....please help me.

[wintensive]

   

Are these boards moderated by staff at Buffalo?  There has been no response for over 24 hours on this issue and I think that's wierd because it is a big deal to me to have these problems.  I assume it is of concern to Buffalo when customers are having problems.  Can anyone help me or respond to my request.  I need to know if you'll stand behind your product with a refund for the troubles I'm having.

 

I am assuming that people make their purchasing decisions based on the kind of response they get from the company when they are having trouble.

[Dustrega]

For all refund questions I would submit an e-mail. Thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter.

Message Edited by Dustrega on 04-20-2009 04:08 PM

[wintensive]

   Thanks for the reply. An email has been sent to info@buffalotech.com.  I'll await their response. Thanks again.

[Colin137]

wintensive wrote:
 

Even after re initializing the device, today I am still getting password credential boxes popping up when I map some of the other shares.  This box no longer has any access credentials, and there are not even any users (other than admin) in it.  Yet still, when the password box shows up, I have to type in the user and password for a user that I created on the box that DOESN'T EVEN EXIST on it.  It is an old user that was deleted and then the box was reinitialized.

 

How is that even possible.  All the computers have been restarted several times.

That particular issue is very strange. The probable solution is to force the firmware update with delete user config, then in the web interface, reset it to defaults from Maintenance->Initialization, Restore.

 

As far as the Delayed Write Failures, enabling Jumbo Frames may alleviate the issue.

 

The Windows limitation of only allowing one username/password for an entire network device instead of per-share is frustrating, unfortunately there is no way around it that I know of.

Message Edited by Colin137 on 04-18-2009 07:10 PM

[disputator]

   

Hmmm, I can understand the problem. Part of the problem is Windows. It is in fact a Windows limitation that you can't have network connections with as much users as you want. Try command line and you will get the message from windows can't mount bla bla...

 

Use command line CMD then: net use r: \\[LS IP]\share /user:[user name] See what happens. I'm not one of the militant Linux users who speak on every opportunity of their hatret of Windows but in this case I have to say on a Linux you can connect what ever you want with ever user you want without having the trouble with 3 or more different users. On theMS page there is no hint of it but as I said- the command line gives usually some more useful feedback.

 

Another work around I know is use FTP and with some work on the lmhost you can even map FTP drives on a XP.

 

That you have an unprotected share with login request is another problem. That should not happen I think.