Replies

Thanks, Joe. I do not know any way to disable this on the NAS. There is no option in the browser-based menus, and I am not aware that I can address the underlying Linux system directly. I am not sure I would know how even if I could access the Linux system. This seems to be a very low level networking function.

I have more information on this issue, but no resolution yet. Basically, it appears that the NAS drives do not respond to link layer search messages preferred by Windows 7, so I can only see them using the older NetBIOS type of discovery or NetBIOS over IP. Apparently, since I turn off my computers every night and leave the network and NASs turned on, my Thecus N7700PRO ends up establishing itself as the master browser for NetBIOS commands (this can be determined using the Nbtstat command). However, perhaps because the Thecus is a Linux system, it does not respond as preferred by Windows 7. If I reboot the Thecus while a Win 7 computer is on, or start the computer with the Thecus turned off, then the Win 7 computer takes over master browser and finds all the devices just fine. However, if I turn off the computer, but let the Thecus run all night, it will be back as it was by the next morning. I have found no way to fix this behavior. Frankly, it gets into a level of detail with networking that I wish I did not need any knowledge of, and I just barely know what it means.

If this gives anyone some suggestions, please let me know. Thecus, by the way, said that one should not use the Thecus as the master browser on a Windows network since it is a Linux system. They suggested mapping each NAS to the computer so it will seach for and connect to them on bootup.

Thanks for the suggestions. On the NIC drivers, my computers are all laptops, and I generally don’t download hardwire drivers from Windows Update but use the vendor download sites. However, Windows Update is not offering any new NIC drivers, and I have installed the latest drivers from the laptop vendor sites. (I now have two Win 7 laptops, one Dell and one Asus, both demonstrating the same behavior.) Your comment about making the links is an interesting one. As I read it, I am essentially making a shortcut to typing the names of the devices into the Explorer search bar. That should work, as I have generally not had any issues finding the devices when I explicitly search for them. That has been my workaround. I could also probably map the drives so Windows would try to connect on bootup, but since the laptops are used away from the office network that is not a great workaround for me. I still believe, as I suggested in my last post, that there is some Win 7 service or protocol that is not started automatically that is needed. Perhaps my NAS drives only respond to inquiries in some earlier discovery protocol that Wiin 7 does not use normally or something of that nature. I just wish I could find out what that is so I can enable it.

After checking all my network carefully, and even upgrading my router to a Cisco small business series, I still have the problem — but I have the symptoms more defined. Basically, when the Win 7 computer initially scans the network, it finds only my computer (and that because I set its broadcast service to be automatic). So I expand the network in Windows Explorer, and I see only this computer. However, I typed an invalid name into search bar, and all of a sudden both of my NAS drives appeared under Network in Explorer. This strongly suggests to me that whatever network scanning service or protocol Win 7 uses by default does not find these devices on my unmanaged office network. However, when Explorer is asked to locate a device by name, it apparently starts an additional service or protocol that finds the devices. If I could just understand what Win 7 does differently when searching for a specific named device, I could try to enable it all the time. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

I said earlier that I prefer the user interface of Acronis True Image Home 2010, and I still do. However, in getting some tech support for a new Dell laptop, I discovered that TI 2010 does not support what are called “e” drives. These are apparently newer disk drives with 4 KB sectors to handle the increasing sizes of disks. Since my laptop has an e drive, Acronis 2010 will let me make a backup, but I cannot count on it to recover properly to the e type disk. Only TI 2011 (and later) have the needed drivers. That is just a warning for others.

Tigerbeetle, Welcome to the world of networks. There are a lot of things going on behind the scenes that can go wrong. I still have not figured out my issue with not being able to discover devices on my wired network. On your issue, I am not familiar at all with U-verse. However, I assume it is something like cable. When you lose the connection, the normal step is to reboot (power off /on) the modem or interface device. This would be your gateway device. The reboot of the interface will cause the it to go through its cycle of finding a channel on the U-verse system, connecting with the headend, and getting assigned an IP connection to the Internet. However, now the gateway needs to have an IP connection to the Netgear router. Normally, if you reboot the modem (gateway), it will request a new local IP connection from the router. Sometimes you need to reboot the router, also, to get it to start over again and establish the connection.

I am not sure what your 1wire159 means. Normally, a wireless router sets up a named wireless network that you then search out with your computer and connect to. The name of this network can be configured in the router, and there are usually defaults like “netgear.” Perhaps your U-verse either has different defaults, or even engages and configures the router when the gateway connects. Anyway, once you have a named wireless network, you should be able to connect to it. However, most wireless networks use encryption so others cannot pick up your information over the air. You won’t be able to connect unless you know the key assigned to the wireless network. If you open the wireless setup program in Windows, it should list all networks in range, and it should show if those networks are secure. Assuming that your U-verse gateway configured the name of the wireless network, I would guess that it also created the security key using some formula. I would expect you to have been given instructions for how to determine that key. If not, assuming U-verse did not also change the router access codes, you may be able to log on to the Netgear router and look for the network name and security code. I understand the default address for Netgear is 192.168.0.1. That means if you type http://192.168.0.1 in your browser from the computer that is working you should connect to the Netgear admin program and give a log on screen. The default account for Netgear is UN: admin PW: password. If you get into the router, look under configuring the wireless network, and you should see the name of the network and the security key. If may be that U-verse changes those default account criteria (you really should not use defaults in a wireless network). If so, you will need to get the information from AT&T. If the router has an Ethernet connection, I would connect a computer temporarily to that wired connection to access the router. This will eliminate possible issues.

The final thing is that your computer needs to have an IP address that is on the same subnet as the wireless router. Normally, that means that the first three numbers in the address, e.g. 192.168.0.n must be the same as those on the router. That last number (n) distinguishes which device. I would open the network connection on your computer and make sure it is set for DNS, which instructs it to get an IP address from the DNS server in the router.

I don’t know if this helps. Perhaps someone with U-verse experience can give you more precise advice.

Thanks. While I am using a wireless capable router, all the network connections are wired Gigabit Ethernet. No wireless devices are connected at this time.

Thanks, Joe. Excellent advice. I am using only Windows Firewall, and I have already tried turning it off briefly to see if it would make a difference. I did not see any changes. Again, the strange thing is that the discovery will start working from time to time, e.g. I will begin to see all my NAS drives and computers under Explorer. The last time I saw this I was checking different configurations on my different networked devices and it started working. Kept working through several reboots. However, the next morning it was no longer working. I have not been able to get it working for any period of time since then. Something is changing, but it does not appear to be any setting because it will work and then not work without changing any settings. I am guessing it could have something to do with the order that certain things occur. I do have a reply on another message board from someone else saying his Win 7 Home Premium laptop works fine, but his Win 7 x64 Ultimate desktop does not work — all on the same network. I have Win 7 x64 Ultimate.

Any other suggestions are appreciated. Thanks.

NIC is set for Client for Microsoft Networks, QoS Packet Scheduler, File and Print Sharing for Microsoft Networks, TCP?IP v6, TCP/ip v4, Link Layer Topology Discovery Mapper IO Driver, and Link Layer Topology Discovery Responder. I turned off the TCP/IPv6, and it made no difference. Are these the settings you were suggesting? Thanks.

Mark

I am with Fred. I have been using Acronis since TI 11. I am now on TI 2010, which is working well for me. Last year when TI2011 was offered for a special upgrade price, I took the offer. I had trouble installing it (Plus Pack), and it had all kinds of bugs in it. The user interface made it difficult to determine which what backups I had made on what dates, and also to pick the right one for a restore. I uninstalled and went back to TI 2010, which seemed to be more stable. Perhaps Acronis has fixed the problems in TI2011, but I would not upgrade until it has been in the field for quite a while, and then only if there is a feature I need. This yearly upgrade does not make sense.

I have used WOT for more than a year with Firefox. I really like that it tags links in Google searches, which has almost entirely prevented me from ever encountering suspicious websites. Occasionally, I have gone to a specific website referred by someone when WOT shows its ominous red message that is site has a poor reputation. If I am pretty sure of the person who referred me, I click on the link in the message that takes you to the WOT page on that site. This gives information about who rated the site that led to the warning, usually with comments about their concern. I have generally found that only 1 or 2 people had problems with a site from a trusted source, and sometimes for reasons that don’t make sense to me, so I can proceed with confidence.

Not sure if this will help, but you might try temporarily removing any plugins you have installed in Thunderbird. I am working with the vendor on an antispam plugin I use that is very effective (Cloudmark), and they told me not to upgrade to TB 5 because it breaks their plugin toolbar. So Mozilla must have changed those interfaces.

Just an update. I recently installed another update using Windows update, and I had exactly the same symptoms. I therefore assume that there was nothing connected to this particular update that was causing the problem, but rather something wrong with Windows Update itself — even though I had seen no other anomalous behavior. Unfortunately, I am not sure when the problem occurred. I decided to restore to a time two months ago when I know I had run Windows Update successfully. This was a major task because I had made many changes on the computer since then. Just to be safe, I did remove the What’s My Computer Doing program, and I turned off Microsoft Security Essentials when I ran updates. However, since I did the rebuild, I have had no problems with KB2482017 or any other updates I have done. Everything seems to be fine now. I just wish Windows had better protection to prevent programs damaging key system files like that or at least something that would recognize the problems as soon as they happened. Thanks again for the advice.

Thanks for the input. I am running 64 bit Windows 7 Ultimate (x64). The only A/V software I have is Microsoft Security Essentials. I did not try disabling that because it is a Microsoft product I assumed would play well with Windows Update — but I can. I don’t use IE8 regularly. I don’t believe I explicitly tried to run IE 8 after I had the issue. However, as far as I could tell, programs would run kind of OK. As I noted, if I started Whats My Computer Doing from its Desktop icon, it would run fine. It was one of those situations where things work most of the time, but from time to time strange things happen with a number of programs and will not work without rebooting. That made me think it was not really the WMCD program or any other program (including IE) that is an issue, but some kind of conflict occurred during the update that corrupted the system. For some reason, perhaps order of startup, that WMCD icon symptom showed up immediately. The abnormal behavior beyond that was noticed only as I tried to work normally and continued to see strange things happening. I had not heard of rebuilding the icon cache, but I will try that.

Since I don’t like using a computer that is corrupted, I restored again to before the update — so I cannot explore the specific state of the problem. Unfortunately, my Windows 7 came with my Asus Laptop, so I have to call Asus rather than Microsoft for support. Asus tends to say to reinstall the operating system any time there is a strange problem like this, which does not make sense to me now since I have a restore before the update that has had no issues. I don’t know if I wait for a while and just install Win 7 SP1 if that will cover me. At this point, I had to take the time to restore twice, and I am gun shy about trying the IE update again.

Thanks again. Any other ideas are appreciated.

Ksmall1998,
I may have missed something here, but I thought you said that all you have are the recovery disks that came with your laptop. In my experience, you cannot use the slipstream process or other links suggested unless you have an original Windows install disk. The recovery disks that come with most laptops have only an image that does not have the install files needed to create a customized install disk. You would also need a disk with the drivers for your specific computer, which also is not normally supplied with most laptops. However, those drivers can usually be downloaded from the vendor’s website. I tried to do just what you are saying with my Windows XP laptop, and this is what I found. When I recently bought a new laptop, I ordered a regular Windows 7 install disk — but I had to pay extra even though the laptop included a Windows 7 license, and I also had to obtain a separate driver disk from the vendor (in my case Asus).