Internetbox-nas - no access to drive on USB

[Patrick M]

I have an internetbox plus and wish to use USB-connected drives. I have activated the NAS function on internetbox.home, and attached different drives (USB thumb drive, WD My Book). They show up in the management console, however I they don't appear under SHARED in Finder on several different macs on my home network (as it says in the user help: https://www.swisscom.ch/en/residential/help/internet/zentraler-speicher.html), or by trying to connect directly to them on \\internetbox-nas\USB2 or \\internetbox-nas\USB2 or \\internetbox-nas\My Book for example (by doing finder -> go -> connect to server). I have also tried to access as smb://internetbox-nas/USB2, and it tells me that the server internetbox-nas isn't responding. As mentioned, they are recognized by the internetbox and appear in the management console, but not on my macs.

[DomiP]

Hello,
maybe it could be a problem with the format of the storage media. Which format do you use? NTFS? ExFat?

Do you have the possibility to try once if it works on an Android device or a Windows device?

Friendly greetings,
Dominik

[Patrick M]

Thanks, I have tried NTFS, Fat32 and HFS+ (all quoted to be compatible on the swisscom internetbox information page), none work unfortunately. The keys are recognized by the internetbox, but don't seem to be available on the network even though they are activated through the router cockpit. Unfortunately no access to android or windows device

[ErichV]

When your computer is on a LAN and connected to a switch and not directly to the Internet-box you probably can't reach the NAS. Try it with a WLAN device connected to the Internet-box.

I had the same effect for a PC that I switched on to a switch that was connected to the internet-box. All devices connected via WLAN could access the \\internetbox-nas. When I connected the PC to the Internet-box directly, I could connect to it too.

[SkyBeam]

You might also try a complete reset of the inetnet box.

(Note: Do a backup of your settings before or re-configure after)

I noticed a couple of times that accessing LAN devices via WLAN-connected devices is impossible despite the fact the firewall was even turned off. After a box reset the box started forwarding traffic between LAN and WLAN again.

To be honest I never used the NAS functionality but I can imagine that the same issue might also cause inability to access the NAS functionality from LAN and/or WLAN.

Also you can try if you can ping the internetbox-nas host. First to check if the IP address is resolved properly (also you might try to access the NAS application IP directly rather than using hostname). If ICMP ping towards the NAS IP works fine you can try to telnet (or use nc or any other tool) on port 445 (SMB/CIFS) to check if it is accessible.

From the description above it's not clear to me if you can reach the NAS device and just fail to access the shares or if you cannot even access the NAS service. My recommendation above is assuming you can't even reach the NAS service.

If you can access the NAS service on \\internetbox-nas (no share give should open the browsing of provided shares if you can reach the service) and you still fail to open any shares then I would expect it's an issue with the drives (filesystem, size or similar problem). Also assure your Internet-Box is on a recent firmware.

[Patrick M]

Thanks, I have tried all of these, no change. Work-around: identified the IP address of the internet box & NAS, and I can connect directly to them. I have also set up a script in Keyboard Maestro to automatically reconnect on connection to my home Wifi.

[SkyBeam]

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@Patrick M wrote:

Thanks, I have tried all of these, no change. Work-around: identified the IP address of the internet box & NAS, and I can connect directly to them.

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So it works using the IP but not using the hostname.

Actually this indicates you might only have a name resolving issue. Assure your clients use the internet box as their DNS service.

This might also be caused by running multiple DHCP servers (with different settings) in your network. Like if there are multiple routers/wlan-routers connected to the LAN. Well, hard to say without knowing your exact network setup and all devices and configurations. If the problem also persists if you connect your client directly to the internet box with no other device connected then the problem might also be on the configuration of your client.