Re: NAS Issue
 

Maybe you should start by saying what format the address is and the results of the basic connectivity test mentioned above. Twice.

Re: NAS Issue
 

I can connect to the web interface using http://192.168.1.250 without a problem in Firefox/IE.

Using the UI I can add various user accounts under the samba server settings. I can see these directories if I unplug the HDD and look at it as a USB drive. I can also see the drives under XP.

When I try and connect using Win 7 explorer as \\192.168.1.250\any of the accounts..

I get the same error that Windows cannot access \\192.168.1.250\any of the accounts.

TIA

Re: NAS Issue
 

What about if you go straight to a subfolder instead of the root like I said in my previous post?
e.g. \\192.168.1.250\mp3\
Assuming there is an mp3 folder on the drive. If the drive is empty use one of the windows XP machines to create a folder and try to access it in the way I described above.

Re: NAS Issue
 

I'm thinking this sounds similar to problems I've run into when networking 2 pcs together.

If you can create a passworded user account on the NAS via the samba server then next try creating an identical user account on the Win7 pc.

You don't have to log on with that account, it just has to exist. Once that's done, reboot and try connecting again.

That's fixed Win7 -> XP issues for me in the past.

Re: NAS Issue
 

Please try opening a command prompt, then type:

net use \\192.168.1.250

If there is a username/password required, you'll need to do:

net use \\192.168.1.250 /user:<name-of-NAS>\<username here>

and enter password when prompted. May also be worthwhile checking Windows' user account settings in case it saved a wrong password somewhere and keeps trying to use it. Before you do either of these, just do "net use" on it's own, and press enter, and take note of the output.

You could also try \\localhost to see if the SMB client in Windows is b0rked, if so that's a different issue.

Finally, also worth trying telnet/putty to connect to port 445 on the NAS to see if your computer can establish a connection at all.

Windows 7 has some more strict defaults for network protocol security, and if the settings don't match all sorts of funny things can happen.

P.S. A quick search suggests some people have fixed it by turning on network discovery. Do you have network discovery turned on? The settings you should use on Advanced sharing settings page are:

Network discovery - On
File and printer sharing - Either - should have no effect on this
Public folder sharing - Either - should have no effect on this
File sharing connections - Enable file sharing for devices that use 40- or 56-bit encryption
Pasword protected sharing - On
Homegroup connections - Use user accounts and passwords to connect to other computers.