Yup, had pretty much the same problem a year ago or so. Had to go back to dynamic and modem mode. The main pain of that is its for a customer with a group of offices, and they tend to have inter office VPNs setup. So without the static IP you can't easily accept incoming VPN connections.
Yes it did connect to another wireless network. I am with Virgin and it connected to a Sky wireless, although I should add not to all websites but I think thats a lesser issue and possibly firewall or something.
So, as I pondered, it could be a compatibility issue, one that has possibly manifested itself since a VM update.
Or browser, from your previous messages.
So, assuming you can predict that you won't come across another VM router on your travels with that netbook, you have a few options.
Have a look at the options in the VM router / HUB options to see if you make it more friendly to your Netbook (maybe John could help you with that again). eg. I think I've disabled the 5GHz network or somesuch and stuff has worked again (even though it's illogical etc).
Try a different network adaptor in the Netbook, maybe an Intel model. Sometimes they are accessible though a panel in the bottom or on a netbook, often the whole base comes off (several screws) and the Mini PCI adaptors aren't expensive on eBay.
Depending on how well the test goes (booting Linux from a USB stick and seeing it *that* will connect to your router) and what you actually need to do with this Netbook, install Linux (you could even do it dual boot, XP / Linux) and enjoy an up-to-date OS and browser etc. ;-)
The point I'm making is unless you need XP for some reason or Linux doesn't run on that hardware, for basic web browsing, email and office duties, Linux could be a good solution. Ironically, if you aren't 'technical' I predict it would be easier for you to install Linux than re-installing XP (especially).
Cheers, T i m
Running XP means running old browsers, old browsers don't support modern encryption, some sites that don't really need to be encrypted are anyway because somebody thought it would be a good idea, so you end up with inaccessible web sites ...
FWIW, I'm still running XP (here) and Firefox and can't remember having any trouble accessing any web sites?
I don't necessarily get everything as intended (like the odd embedded video won't run) and some eMails don't open embedded images but will normally open ok 'in browser'.
I have actually built a replacement box to this MacMini, quad core Atom, silent (passive cooling), SSD, (full size) BD, W10-64 but haven't got round to plumbing it in ... and a Quad core, passively cooled Shuttle, also with an SSD and running W7-64 that will probably go along side it.
I'm still think about a NAS to supplement my aging WHS. A mate has just given me an old Buffalo TeraStation with 4 x 2TB drives but it seems one drive has failed (probably why he took it offline and in his loft a few years ago). As it's RAID5 I'm happy to find a replacement drive and give it a good run and might leave it online here for a while, prior to giving it to our daughter.
I'm still looking at Synology boxen, DS218J or just a DS119j (I think it is, single drive) and maybe use a RPi running OMV to act as a backup to that?
The TeraStation draws ~40W when running and ~15W idle, versus the DS218j which I think is 17W running and 4W idle?
Cheers, T i m
Win XP will only run IE versions up to 8 usually - and that is a bit long in the tooth. However you can run relatively recent versions of firefox, which will cope with most sites, but you will be a bit more at risk since you won't have fixes for the most recent critical browser vulnerabilities.
Can't say I was that impressed with the Baffalo NAS I saw. If you want "simple and works" Netgear readynas are good. For more features Synology or QNAP.
Update:
Netbook now back on line, I cant be sure but suspect it was router issues.
Thanks to all for the time and input given.
Oh ... a not very satisfying end, but glad it's working.
what was the fix?
Thats the frustrating part....I dont really know. This is what I can remember from the last 24 hours. You can come to your own conclusion, my bet is the Virgin router.
...." Ok I will give this in the correct order as best I can remember .
Along the way my wifes iphone and the TV stopped connecting to the internet as I know even less on that side she phoned Virgin and pushed them to have a look, they messed for nearly an hour doing whatever they do, trying to claim a loose cable but eventually wife got her connections back, but no reason from Virgin why. So tried this netbook and still no joy.
I then uninstalled Avira / Malware and AVG or whatever remnants were on the system as best I could, I couldn?t get in to safe mode, it started then stalled. Tried netbook again ?no joy.
Then using msconfig tried some options and nearly lost it, (surprise surprise, I shouldnt go near that with my knowledge) I put back to where it was and kept getting an Asus issue and recommending a shutdown, so then done a system restore back to June (forgot to do one before uninstalls of AVs), that got me up and running again with no internet connection.
Unplugged AC unit, removed battery for a few hours.?date & time stamps still correct in bios. Tried internet again?.no joy.
Looked again at wireless connections not really knowing what I am looking for but double checked the passwords etc.
Done another reboot, must be about 15 by now.
5 minutes later I get a connection.I have shut down and rebooted 3 times and it still connects now to the internet. Left for another couple of hours tried again and it is still connecting ok.
It looks like whatever the issue was it is now resolved.
It is frustrating not knowing what the issue was but I am suspicious the phone call to Virgin fixed something although it was a couple of hours after that before it connected".......
In this case 'beggars can't be choosers' John. ;-)
Ok. I have seen them on eBay. (Just trying not to go there again), could it have been a D-Link NAS that required (forced) you to create an online account and the NAS was linked to it or might that be an option on most of them for remote access?
I don't think we would want 'more features' (than a reliable / basic NAS, possibly with the option of RAID1) and those we would want we aren't likely to get ... like the sort of client machine backup we get as std on WHS?
I was looking for another 2TB drive to replay the third drive on this TeraStation that is currently in RAID5. Given I was considering a DS218j (two drive bays) I have since thought of just pulling one of the 3 remaining drives in the TeraStation and turning the remaining two drives into a RAID1 pair and still have a 2TB drive to hold as a spare, or set up as backup drive in the TS, or as an independent backup by putting it in an external / USB drive case [1], either plugged into the NAS directly or running on a RPi / OMV. I wouldn't know (yet) how I would get the drives mirrored across the two boxes, if I went that way (whereas I believe the Synology boxes have their own Backup solution)?
Cheers, T i m
[1] It would be handy if the backup drive could be read on any or Linux boxes ... in an emergency.
You probably want a reliable incremental backup to another device/cloud service. This is so if you do get an infection on your PC/laptop and it starts encrypting stuff on the shared drive you can get it back by going back in time.
Browser for Win XP still updated a fork of firefox>Palemoon >
Agreed.
I've been playing more with the TeraStation tonight and found it quite good. Certainly much much easier to configure than OMV. ;-)
Full factory reset.
When logging back into the web admin page it prompted me that a firmware update was available and I applied it (it did all the work).
I then removed the dead drive and one of the others (< the date code worked out to 2009 but the NAS has been offline for quite a few years).
I rebuilt the remaining two drives as RAID1 (LED's by each bay reflects what's going on).
Created two shares, Public and Private and put a username and password on Private.
The front backlit LCD display cycles though various status functions which are user settable (with user settable backlight brightness and sleep period).
Copied a wodge of files (176MB) to it and they went ok.
25 seconds to the OMV running on a RPi2 20 Seconds to the TeraStation 10 Seconds to the WHS (on the same Gb switch as PC)Did it all with hardly any reference to the manual [1] (that it also provides in a SMB share and from a network link on the admin page), just how such hardware should be. ;-)
I've enabled disk spindown and will play with the other timer / sleep settings.
It also has two Gb Ethernet ports and if you use one to connect to another TS, you can duplex the NAS's. ;-)
Cheers, T i m
[1] I flicked though it whilst waiting for stuff to see what else it did. ;-)
I have wasted enough time working with not quite good enough kit to be quite a choosy beggar!
You can join them to their ready cloud setup if you want remote access and don't want to roll your own via VPN etc. However you can set them up the old fashioned way just pointing a browser at the built in web interface.
Handy, I had not seen that. Thanks.
Understood. The thing is, I understand these TeraStations (4 bay) were quite expensive when new (over £1000) and I'm not sure I could justify such a thing for home use. The thought being I would therefore have a business grade NAS that might (in itself) be more reliable than a consumer grade NAS?
Thanks for that John, as long as their is an option. As it happens, for daughter, the ability to access work photos that she may have been processing at home, from work (or anywhere) might actually be useful to her.
I was looking at this base model:
By comparison, the TeraStation was very straightforward (but potentially less flexible etc). I think I quite like the old Menu way of doing things (rather than GUI apps), much quicker to explore and use (if well designed). System > Storage > Drives > RAID > Create / Delete etc.
One thing the above tech spec isn't clear about is the standby power consumption and how you wake it from standby? It mentions the WOL power consumption but would that mean you would have to send it a WOL packet to regain access to the shares?
I've just had a quick Google and it looks like the RN10200 (empty chassis) is around £250 (V the DS218j at £155) so that's probably decided that. ;-)
Would you know if the Synology box is as easy to access remotely John (I believe I can via their 'QuickConnect' facility)?
Cheers, T i m
I don't know if the 4 bay ones are any better - but the thing that really let down the 2 bay ones I have seen is the software. It might be they have improved in the last couple of years.
(also the price when new is not an overall indication of comparative quality - you could buy a new QNAP 453A for ~£360 now)
The whole "personal cloud" thing is something they push these days.
I have a dozen or more of that class of machine installed in various client's offices. Some have been running now 24/7 for 8 years. They all have WD "Red" drives. In that time we have had zero failures, and I have only needed to do a forced restart perhaps a couple of times between them. So based on that limited sample size, I would rate the reliability as very good.
(Note that although they are superficially similar, the internal architecture of them has evolved quite substantially over the years. The early ones were SPARC based, then later ARM, and some Intel ATOM).
I think they have all suffered the same "progress" to an extent. They started with very simple GUIs which were basically hierarchical lists of tasks, and have got more elaborate with time. My current QNAP has a full blown windowing GUI running inside a browser window.
You can schedule power on times. Normally they will wake when something tries to access them though.
They do seem to have gone up market price wise - the entry level 2 bay units were around £100 to start with.
Not tried TBH - the last 2 bay Synology I played with seemed easy enough to use locally - but that was before cloudy was big!
They run a dynamic DNS service so it can be found if you have a dynamic address.
I use the Synolgy VPN server when I go away so I can still backup stuff.
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