Synology NAS - can't always find it in Windows

[davek_964]

I had a new laptop delivered yesterday, and one of the first things I did was try to map a drive to my NAS - not the shared drive, but my personal directory.

Initially, it seemed to refuse my username / password - but eventually it accepted them (not sure why) - and I could browse the NAS from Windows Explorer. However - half an hour later, the mapped drive didn't work - and if I click on Network the NAS is not shown.

A reboot makes no difference - sometimes, the mapped drive works / NAS is shown in Network - often it's not. There seems to be no pattern. My Tab S7+ can see the NAS all the time, and connects fine - I can browse directories even when the PC cannot see the NAS.
My old PC didn't have a mapping to the NAS in my current setup.

I can always see the NAS in a web browser via the synology "find" or by using the IP Address.

Any ideas?

[eeLee]

go into your network card advanced settings for TCP/IP v4 and on the WINS tab, enable NetBios.
this may well solve your discovery issues (I assume if you open the File Explorer and go to network you see only your computer?)

[davek_964]

I'll try it - but no, if I view the network in Windows explorer I do see a few other things (a TV and another pc), just not the NAS

[Whoozit]

How old is the NAS and is it accessible via IP address in the browser? If it is, I had similar problems using an old ReadyNAS. Newer laptops refused to see it on the network in spite of being able to connect to the IP address. Finally sorted out by enabling SMB 1.0.

[davek_964]

Strangely - without changing anything - it seems to be working perfectly for the last couple of hours. For now, I'll put it down to teething issues and worry about it if / when it plays up again.

[m30dus]

Could be possible DNS resolution issue. Suggest making sure the NAS has an assigned static IP and that you manually add that IP to the hosts file within Windows.

See guide here - https://petri.com/easily-edit-the-hosts-file-in-wi...

[Mars]

Whoozit said:

How old is the NAS and is it accessible via IP address in the browser? If it is, I had similar problems using an old ReadyNAS. Newer laptops refused to see it on the network in spite of being able to connect to the IP address. Finally sorted out by enabling SMB 1.0.

This was a constant issue with every Windows update disabling SMB 1.0 for me for a while. Lately they seem to have stopped it but this was the reason my (very old) NAS stopped working from time to time. I only use it as a music store for my Sonos system so it's not worth replacing - works perfectly as that now Microsoft has decided to leave it alone.