OTish - network permissions issue

[Lobster]

I am being driven completely nuts by a weird network permissions problem and wonder whether anyone here could help. I'm really at the limit of my 'expertise' here.

I have a NAS at home (Netgear ReadyNAS Duo) on which I store all my data files. We access these from either a desktop or laptop (I using those as terminals essentially), and use the NAS to stream content to TV/music players; working like a dream for several years. But a few months ago I replaced the laptop with a second-hand Lenovo, running Windows 7 XP Pro, and ever since have been having problems over write access to the NAS, from the laptop only. The weird thing is that it's intermittent (ie some days I boot it up and ir plays ball perfectly; other days it gives problems). The sort of stuff I'm getting is as follows:

I have my data folder on the NAS configured as drive P:\. Some subfolders of that never give problems (eg I have a folder entitled "P: \Data\Misc files from laptop for filing on NAS" which always works!) but other subfolders often don't; giving me messsages like "You don't have permission to save in this location - Contact the administrator to obtain permission". Documents (Word/Excel etc) will often open as read- only (sometimes pre-warning me that another user already has the document open, which is a lie!); whereas that same document will opens fine on the desktop.

I've tried creating new NAS sub folders from the laptop/desktop but neither seems to help.

And which 'administrator' am I supposed to 'contact' - the laptop's or NAS? (The laptop has one user account, which is administrator level obviously).

I've tried looking at the Properties of the various folders and they all look the same to me. I'd happily globally reset all the subfolders in P: \Data to give full RW access...

Really stumped here; not least because of the intermittent nature of the problem. I'm assuming the problem is with the lapto rather than the NAS but can't be 100% certain. Is it worth reinstalling Windows on it? I really need to start from scratch and troubleshoot this problem from the top down - Anybody? :)

Oh BTW: on a separate issue (trying to minimise my OT posts here!), anyone care to recommend a file searching utility that will work on my network drive? The Windows search tool is complete pants... I've googled a few possibles but would prefer personal recommendation.

[Andy Burns]

Microsoft began changing their search utility rather too often for my liking, so I have used FileLocatorPro since Win7, they do a freebie FileLocatorLite

[Peter Johnson]

Copernic Desktop Search

- download and install the free version (which doesn't work on network drives) then when you try to add the network drive it will offer you the full version (which does) at a reduced price. I have used it for several years and find it reliable.

[Richard]

Have you tried the Netgear forums?

If you want a quick file indexer: Everything Search Engine

[Adrian Caspersz]

Through the web admin interface you have many options in CIFS to add users, change read/write access (of existing _or_ new files/folders), set host access rules (filtering by IP address), etc...etc...

I got bitten once by setting an IP filter rule then forgetting about it...

There is a direct mapping of windows username to unix username, and that user may be an owner of a file/folder, or be a member of a group that has access to the items. You may have been using different usernames from windows previously.

If you have an understanding of the unix CLI, it probably would be easier to diagnose what's going on by ssh'ing to the unit, and checking ownership and permissions of each item (ls -l etc...).

Or simply add your windows username to the admin group...

Documents (Word/Excel etc) will often open as read-

Check that opportunistic locking is enabled. Can be done in the web interface.

[Brian-Gaff]

Are you connected via wireless on the laptop. Does the problem go away if its a direct bit of wire? I ask as I've had a similar weirdness with folders ok one minute not the other on a Dell laptop, and if you plumb it in, its fine. As to why this should be an issue however.. Momentary lapse of connectivity being read as some kind of denial of entry, but if that is the case how come some work all the time. No idea. This is what happens when we, the user are not party to exactly how things are done in windoze. Anything is possible, from corruption at creation time to it being much later in the file allocation table and times out. Brian

[dennis]

On mine there was a problem with mapping of user names.. by default windows uses \ and my NAS just didn't like it. I had to tick the windows login box to say use another ID and enter the and password created on the NAS before it worked seamlessly.

That was a linux based NAS not a readyNas that doesn't use linux so it may be a different problem.

[cl]

Do readyNas really not use Linux or is it just hidden?

[Bob Eager]

According to what I've seen, it uses Debian.

[dennis]

It's not open source so probably not.

[The Natural Philosopher]

another gotcha with cifs based file servers is that they may or may not implement locking and may or may not clear it if the client that acquires the lock disconnects.

[John Rumm]

There are several different versions of the duo - the original SPARC based ones, and later versions with different CPUs. There are also three different classes of RAIDiator (the OS) on them, which means the web interface changes about a bit depending on which you have. Which version do you have?

Was this previously a "business" owned lenovo that may have been connected to a domain style network? (you may have non default sharing options enabled as a result)

You can log into the web management interface of the NAS, and check the CIFS (aka SMB) network options. You want to ensure that guest access is ticked. Oplocks on is also good.

Its possible... Sometimes you get daft problems if the PC fails to load its normal user profile at startup and instead creates a temporary one[1] (this is normally obvious because all your files etc will appear to have vanished because you have been given a different and empty home directory)

[1] Sometimes as a result of disk corruption, sometimes a race hazard with a virus scanner etc.

Are you always logging in as the same user on the laptop?

Start by checking all the file and ownership options in the NAS.

As others have mentioned the netgear forums can also be good places for information.

Astrogrep is free and not bad.

[Lobster]

Thanks to all for the helpful replies - I am working my way through proposed solutions!

On 02 Aug 2015, John Rumm grunted:

Oh yes - mine's the v2 which I believe is the ARM one?; running RAIDiator

5.3.11

Almost certainly was, but it came with a clean Windows install (with the seller's branding on the splash screen) so I'm assuming that's not relevant here?

I just started trying to type out all the settings under Shares, but decided a screenshot would be easier - if you have a minute to take a look at it I'd be very grateful; it's at

(or Is there anything there that jumps out at you!? (I certainly had trouble setting the thing up originally, a few years back, as the user instructions were as clear as mud and not at all comprehensive.)

So is it really more likely that it's the NAS configuration that's at fault? I don't understand why I have no problem accessing it from my desktop machine (or indeed my old XP laptop).

Seeing nothing lik that...

Yep

Thanks, might try them again - I have used them in the past without massive luck TBH!

[Lobster]

On 01 Aug 2015, Andy Burns grunted:

Thanks Andy; I went with that one yesterday - has been working a treat!

[John Rumm]

That's what I would call the "middle" version then - after SPARC but not the latest cloud connected version.

If it was a clean install, then its probably never been logged into a domain.

Two things...

One you have guest access off (allow anonymous access) is unticked. Second you have a defined user (david) listed explicitly rather than as part of the users group.

Also are there any members in the users group?

Do you login as that user on all machines?

(at its simplest setup, you don't need to define any users, can turn on guest access, and off it will go)

There ought to be practically no setup required beyond switching it to static IP (if that is the way you want it), and perhaps formatting the disks if you installed your own (you can buy them with disks in or empty)

[Lobster]

On 03 Aug 2015, John Rumm grunted:

AARGH! - well spotted, but sadly a red herring: when I fired it up this morning I couldn't access that share at all; it just kept asking for a password. I quickly found the guest access switched off and corrected that, whereupon I'm now back to normal (ie, with flaky write access again). Evidently I must have clicked that checkbox accidentally while preparing my screenshots yesterday! Apologies for confusing the isssue.

Just "David" - I think I set that up originally intending to set up specific areas on the NAS for myself but ran out of brain cells and never followed it up. One day maybe; but since most of my kids have left home since then TBH it's less of an issue!

User "David" is within the "users" group; I can see it there if I select "users" from the dropdown immediately under "Share Access" (it's the only entry there). In the screenshot, the dropdown's set to "All" though, so "David" is visible there alongside "users" - is that right?

All these settings long predate the current laptop which is giving me hassle, though.

No, currently I use anonymous access everywhere

[John Rumm]

Later versions of windows have required stricter security on network share than earlier ones (you can "wind it down" to match older versions though)

In which case I would be tempted to delete the david user, and override the file owenership back to "everyone"

[Lobster]

On 03 Aug 2015, John Rumm grunted:

And he's back...!

So, two days ago I took out user "David" as suggested, so that all my shares on the NAS now have just anonymous access. Since then, I've been delighted to find that the laptop has been reproducibly saving anywhere on the NAS without issues and I have been daring to hope my problems are behind me. But this afternoon, I was working on said laptop on a particular Word document, which had been saving fine all day, when without warning that same file suddenly refused to routinely save and overwrite its current version. Yes indeed - those folders are locked up again for write access. Unbelievable.

Investigating further, I'm now convinced that (as well as being intermittent) my problem is specific to particular folder trees on the NAS; and then only down at the bottom end of fairly long branches of those trees. Don't think it ever happens at the top couple of folder levels. Really weird.

(I did also try Brian's suggestion of connecting via a cable instead of wifi - sadly makes no difference)

[Johnny B Good]

Not really all that 'weird'. It sounds like *this* particular problem could be nothing more prosaic than "too long a folder path". Have you tried 'shortening' the path? There are various options you can choose to make a shorter path.

It's certainly worth experimenting with folder path length. If you really need those longer path lengths, you might have to adjust a NAS or client machine setting. For example, ISTR that Netware 3.11 and 3.12 had a default folder nesting limit of 10 which could be upped to a maximum of

1. Not the same as a path length character limit of, istr, 255 in windows 2000 or XP but a limit nonetheless.

[John Rumm]

That could be a phantom word process lurking. Sometimes word fail to close completely. Check task manager to see there is not a word.exe still lurking even though all normal signs of it have gone.