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I have a Toshiba laptop and a wireless linksys WRT54G router. I have my DNS-323 plugged into the router. I finally got it up and working on the weekend and downloaded about 150 GB to the D-link and then lost my wireless connection. It took me until tonight to establish the connection, but I am unable to connect to the D-Link again. I did assign it a drive letter, but it does not show up in My Computer. I tried running the Easy Search Utility and the D-Link doesn't even show up anymore under network storage devices.
I tried rebooting my computer and the dlink with no success.
Any ideas?
Thanks.
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This sounds like you could have a problem with the IP address of your laptop and DNS-323.
Can you check the router to see what DHCP assigned IP address the DNS-323 is getting?
If you are statically assigning the DNS-323 an IP address, make sure your laptop and DNS
are on the same subnet - same first three groups of numbers in the IP address (192.168.100.x
for example).
Last edited by mig (2007-10-31 07:59:14)
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Thanks for the reply, Mig.
I am not statically assigning an address.
I have the assigned address I believe. Any thoughts on what to do now?
Thanks.
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Believe is not good enough - you need to know for certain - if you're wrong it doesn't work. If you're not using static addressing, what makes you believe that you have the "assigned" address? Dynamic addresses (the alternative to static) can and do change.
I suggest you plug your laptop into the router and try again - this will eliminate the wireless aspect as a possible cause, and then follow that up by powering the DNS-323 off and back on, it should get a new address from the router and that just might solve your problem.
Consider using static addressing.
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Well, to be honest, when it comes to computers nothing is for certain with me. I may be an engineer, but certainly not a computer engineer!
I know for sure it is not a static address because I did not set one up.
Logging on to my router I can see an IP address on it, it is the only one I can find and for all I know it is the IP address of the router....
I will try plugging the laptop into the router and see what happens. Failing that I will just reset the D-link since I've already tried the power on/off thing.
Why do recommend static addressing? Is it more stable?
Thanks for the help!
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Briefly - there are two ways to set ip addresses, static and dynamic.
With static addressing the ip address is manually set on the device and remains fixed until the device is reconfigured, with dynamic addressing, the device temporarily leases the ip address from a DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) server, with the DHCP server determining the address and the duration of the lease. You can configure the DHCP server to reserve a particular ip address for a particular device, using DHCP reservations - sometimes incorrectly called static DHCP.
The problem with dynamic addressing, especially for servers, is that dynamic addresses can change, making it difficult to find the server - DHCP reservation is one way around this, BUT, if the DHCP server fails, or becomes disconnected from the network, EVERY OTHER DEVICE that uses DHCP will lose it's ip address when the DHCP lease expires.
Right now you are trying to determine where your problem lies - is the DNS-323 defective? is it at an incorrect ip address? is your laptop at an incorrect ip address? is the network itself working?
If you knew the ip address of the DNS-323 you could rapidly find the answers to these questions, and the only way to know the ip address is to use static addressing.
Ok - all of the above is simply in answer to your question as to why I recommend static addressing - none of it really helps you solve your problem - let's see what we can do in that direction.
I'm going to assume that you have a typical consumer router, that it is working, that you're using it to get internet access, and that it provides DHCP services, because most of them do so by default - I hate making assumptions, but I have to start somewhere.
Your router should have "LAN" or link leds that light when a device is plugged into one of the ports, the DNS-323 also has one - start by making sure these lights are both on. Reset the DNS-323 and when the power indicator stops flashing, log into the router and find it's attached devices list - look for the DNS-323 and see what ip address it has (if any), put that address into your browser and you should be able to bring up the config screens.
Set a static ip address in the same range as the one it shows - for example - it may show 192.168.1.10x (if you have a Linksys router, because they start issuing addresses from 192.168.1.100) you can set it to 192.168.1.99.
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I really appreciate the help, fordem.
You are right, the router is a consumer one, a linksys WRT54G.
The router is working.
I was able to find the IP address (finally) and change it to static 192.168.1.99
So, another question which is probably out of the realm of this forum, but I will ask anyway.
I see on my router that it is still assigning an address of 192.168.1.100 to the DNS-323. So I am assuming I have to change that to the static address I assigned to it.
I'm not sure how to go about that.
It's ok if it is out of the scope of this forum, just let me know and I will try a forum for the router.
I'm just glad I can at least "see" the dlink now, the next step is just to be able to use it.
Thanks.
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not sure about changing what? the router IP or the DNS IP?
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I changed the DNS IP, but was not able to figure out how to change the IP for the DNS on the router.
I have changed the DNS IP to ###.99 by accessing it directly from your instructions, but the router is still looking for ###.100.
I need to change the router to the static IP of ######.99
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You set a static ip address on the DNS-323 through the LAN setup screen - when you go into config, select SETUP from the horizontal menu and then select LAN from the vertical menu - you need to set an ip address (192.168.1.99) and a subnet mask (255.255.255.0) - the gateway ip and DNS entries may be left blank or you may want to put your router's ip address (192.168.1.1), these entries are only required if you're going to be connecting to the DNS-323 remotely (from outside your LAN) and using the email alerts. Click save settings and I believe the unit reboots itself, and you're done.
I'm not certain what your last question is about - there is no need to change anything at the router.
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If you statically set your DNS to ###.99 then thats the ip address you use. The router doesn't "look" for anything.
Its possible that the router's DHCP lease is still active for ###.100 and thats why it still shows in your DHCP list on the router. If this is the case, then the ###.100 address will dissapear when the lease expires. A reboot of your router will certainly clear it so that you won't see any reference to the DNS in the DHCP list of the router, but you will know that the ###.99 is the address for your DNS, and thats how you will continue to address it.
The acid test is when you http://###.99. If this is working, then everything is OK. http://###.100 should fail.
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I did everything as you said and I can access the DNS setup through the .99 address. But ultimately I want the DNS just to show up with as a drive letter in my My Computor folder so I can drag and drop to it. The only way I know how to do that is to run the Easy Search Utility, but when I run it, no storage devices show up, so I can't set a drive letter. I assumed it was because the router still shows .100 as the address of the router. If I http the .100 it does fail, so is is changed to the .99.
So I thought the logic was the laptop routes through the router to the DNS, and if the router still shows .100 then my laptop is unable to "see" the DNS for me to run the Easy Search Utility until the router shows .99 as the IP address. And by the post from kymlp, it seems my only recourse is to reset the router? I thought I would have to tell the router I had a static address for the DNS and set that within the router.
Just checking before I really start to screw things up!
Thanks again....
fordem wrote:
You set a static ip address on the DNS-323 through the LAN setup screen - when you go into config, select SETUP from the horizontal menu and then select LAN from the vertical menu - you need to set an ip address (192.168.1.99) and a subnet mask (255.255.255.0) - the gateway ip and DNS entries may be left blank or you may want to put your router's ip address (192.168.1.1), these entries are only required if you're going to be connecting to the DNS-323 remotely (from outside your LAN) and using the email alerts. Click save settings and I believe the unit reboots itself, and you're done.
I'm not certain what your last question is about - there is no need to change anything at the router.
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Well, I went into network connections on my laptop on windows XP and created a new connection to the DNS. Not sure if that was what I was supposed to do, but it seems to work. So now when I click on My Network Places, the DNS shows up and I can read and write to it.
I'd still like to set it up under My Computor as my H drive (just happens to match my personal drive letter at work for consistency).
Is there a way to do that?
Thanks for all the help, by the way. I really appreciate it and couldn't have figured it out on my own......
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Open your windows explorer and
under the 'tools' menu, select 'map network drive'
pick your drive letter -- H,
then browse to the DNS-323
check the 'Reconnect at login' box
click the finish button
That should do it.
Last edited by mig (2007-11-01 20:49:52)
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Thanks, Mig. That worked and I am all set up.
Thanks to all that helped!
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