Solved: Unable To Access Folders On Network Drive

[r1ck111]

Hi

First thing first I know this is a long question so thank you for reading!

I am absolutely tearing my hair out with this one. I think I am way out of my depth trying to solve it on my own so any help would be appreciated.

I have Windows Vista Home Basic on my laptop, I purchased a Network HDD case and installed my own spare hard drive.

I set it up (the network HDD) through the web based program and made a password protected shared folder and a non protected shared folder. XP recognized everything and I can access both folders.

Vista however, shows everything in the "network" folder, but, I then click on the password protected folder, it prompts me as you would expect for a password and a user name I entered the user name and password. No matter what I tried it wouldn't work, after hours and hours of searching on the net, I found out that I need to change LmCompatibilityLevel in the registry. It was on 3 so I changed it to 2, I went to the folder in question clicked on it, it prompted me, I entered the user name and password and to my surprise it worked!

I tried to open one of the sub-folders, clicked on it, it starts to load, it continues loading and does absolutely nothing! Roughly for about 10-15 minutes. The HDD is not working (by that I mean not loading files or anything else) while Vista is supposedly loading, as I can tell from the usage lights on the back.

So I try to open the other folder without a password on it, I can get into the folder then as with the password protected folder when I click on one of the sub-folders it just loads and loads, it never opens it. I thought well hold on it did before it must be the LmCompatibilityLevel setting that I changed, so I changed it back to 3, and for good measure re-booted the system and it made no difference. So I went from passwords not working to not working at all!

I don't know if changing the LmCompatibilityLevel could have then altered some other setting in Vista somehow.

But any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Rick

 

[JohnWill]

I think you'll find that you need to get a firmware upgrade for the NAS. Many of those units use Linux as their software base, and the older SAMBA versions have problems with Vista.

In the meantime, give this a try.

Changes that may help to increase the compatibility of Vista with older networking devices:



Disable the IP Helper service:

1. Hold the Windows key and type R, enter "services.msc" (without the quotes) and press Enter
2. Scroll down to the IP Helper service, right click on it and select Properties
3. In the dropdown box that says "Automatic" or "Manual", set it to Disabled and then click on "Apply"
4. Then click on "Stop" to stop the service from running in the current session
5. Click OK to exit the dialog



Disable IPv6:

1. Hold the Windows key and type R, enter "ncpa.cpl" (without the quotes) and press Enter
2. Right click on each network connection and select "Properties"
3. Remove the checkmark from the box next to "Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)
4. Click OK to exit the dialog

NOTE: You should do this for each network connection.



Disable the DHCP Broadcast Flag:

Link: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/928233

1. Hold the Windows key and type R, enter regedit and press Enter.
2. Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
3. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters\Interfaces\{GUID}
4. In this registry path, click the (GUID) subkey to be updated.
5. If the key DhcpConnForceBroadcastFlag does not exist, use the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD (32-bit) Value. In the New Value #1 box, type DhcpConnForceBroadcastFlag, and then press ENTER. If the key exists, skip this step.
6. Right-click DhcpConnForceBroadcastFlag, and then click Modify.
7. In the Value data box, type 0, and then click OK.
8. Close Registry Editor.

NOTE: You should do this for each and every GUID subkey.
NOTE2: (GUID) is a mnemonic for the individual subkeys, the actual text "GUID" does not appaer.




The only program I'm aware of that currently relies on IPv6 is the new Windows Meeting Space. The first 2 changes will cause that program not to work - but will leave all of your normal (IPv4) connections unaffected. If it causes problems that you can't overcome, simply revert back to the original settings.



You also should change the LMCompatibilityLevel to 1, not 2.

On your Vista machine: Hold the Windows key and type R, enter regedit

Navigate to the following folder:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa

In the right, double-click "LmCompatibilityLevel"

Change the value to 1 (probably currently 3)

Restart your computer


FYI, here's the chart of what the various values indicate: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/windows2000serv/reskit/regentry/76052.mspx?mfr=true

 

[r1ck111]

Firstly I would like to thank you for getting back to me and I can't tell you how relieved I am to find someone with obviouse extensive knowledge.

I have actually been in contact with the company who made the case cp technologies I believe, and they have sent me a firmware upgrade which as far as as I could see didn't even include the NTLM 2 protocol because I changed the lm compatability level back to 3 and I could no longer access the shared folder at all.

I have sent them several emails and they don't have a clue which is pretty poor for the manufacturer of the device, telling me that "here is all the firmware upgrades I have we are phasing this device out so there won't be any more" lol from that I could tell they wouldn't be much help.

So I am currently just working on your advice, I am at the point of changing the registery value in Interfaces. There are several keys (GUID) within Interfaces and about five of them contain a 32bit DWORD value the only one that doesn't is a key that is all in lower case. There are no values actually contained within the Interface key.

So my quetion is which do I change all of them or a select few?

 

[r1ck111]

Ok forget that question John. I need to find the key that corresponds to the appropiate network adapter.

 

[r1ck111]

Also I didn't see you said to do it for all of them oops!

Well I followed each step and I'm still getting the same problem.

I really can't understand it because I could access the files before I changed the compatability level. Also just to throw something strange into the mix, I downloaded a file sync program called Allway Sync and if I don't try and open anything to do with the NAS in the Windows network folder the program seems to work and access the drive and syncronise files and folders onto my laptop and the actual sync program is on my laptop which is what is running Vista!!??

ANy other ideas at all John?

 

[JohnWill]

This is also something I've noticed with Vista. I have an older Hawking HNAS1 that hasn't had a firmware update since 2006. I can't access it using Vista's native file manager, but I can fire up a 3rd party shell and access it just fine. I'm not sure what Vista's Windows Explorer is doing that's different, but that's another way to get at the issue. The one that worked for me is 2xExplorer

 

[r1ck111]

Thank you John!! 2xexplorer worked!

It's unbelievable that Microsoft havn't tested Vista with a variety of NAS drives, or could this be a complication of Vista's over exagerated security measures, who knows? I'm assuming though that the problem lies in explorer.exe?


Maybe if they get their act together this could be included in one of their next updates, stranger things have happened lol!

 

[JohnWill]

I don't know what they were thinking, but I stumbled on this a few months ago when I was trying to get my NAS connected. The other two NAS units have updated firmware and are fully Vista compatible, it disappoints me that Hawking didn't supply a working version of software for their unit.



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[r1ck111]

Yeh me too, I'm in the same boat as you. Ah well, maybe Microsoft will make that fix at some point.

Thanks once again John, your help is appreciated.

 

[JohnWill]

Glad to help.