Promise Comments: Quieting Down the Promise SmartStor NS4300N and NS4300N Review!

[PromiseNasDude]

Since the review by Tim in December/January we have continued to make improvements and enhancements to the product. Before we getting to the details, I just want to convey that we truly APPRECIATE EVERYONES BUSINESS (good or bad). I am dead serious! :)

The Fan Noise Issue - We are aware of this issue (naturally), we APOLOGIZE and we are working to release a new model of the NS4300N with "Fan Control" in the next few months (yes "Fan Control). The refresh NS4300N fan idles at roughly 1200 RPM instead of the current (and locked) 2800+ RPM. The difference in noise is "Night and Day". In fact, I have one of the new units on my desk in the office and I easily forgot the unit is there (beyond the fact I am running Digital Media testing 24/7). Those of you who are bothered by the noise can call support, ask for me (Billy) and I will place you on a list for exchange once the new units are available. Naturally you MUST return the old unit (turn around will be very fast, I Promise - No pun intended). Again, we apologize for the inconvenience and annoyance the noise issue has caused.

Here are a few updates on key enhancements:

XBOX 360 Support - Microsoft does NOT support Generic UPnP or DLNA on the 360. The PS3 on the other hand is UPnP and DLNA Certified (smart move by Sony) therefore the PS3 works with no issue. Basically Microsoft only allows the 360 to "discover" Windows PCs (of course) leaving us to implement Windows Media Connect to support 360. Good news is we are about to release our new DLNA Plug-In that features XBOX 360 Support (I am testing NOW), Media Tagging (so Digital Media Players will display correct Album, Artist and Title info), Fix for the Timeout issue with the Popcornhour and a fix for the Media Scan issue (sometimes Media Scanning fails, requiring a reboot). The new Plug-In will also support MOV, MP4 and M4V files. We are trying to include MKV support in this release as well (no Promises as it might have to come shortly after - again no pun intended).

iTunes Server Plug-In – We are working to implement Video Support for the iTunes Plug-In. You will be able to stream and playback MOV, MP4 and M4V files using iTunes Client on MAC and Windows (instead of just being able to playback music only). :)

SmartNAVI GUI for Windows and MAC – We recently released a cutting edge Management GUI for Windows called SmartNAVI. SmartNAVI allows for many tasks to be handled at the Desktop instead of always needing to access the embedded Web Management. Features include the ability to Access Shares Directly, Manage Users, Manage Volumes and Permissions, Configure Plug-Ins, Configure Network Settings (basic), download Torrents, HTTP/FTP Downloads via Download Center and more. See screenshots attached.

Constant Service Releases – We are VERY dedicated to resolving bugs reported and also to enhancing and adding features to the product (unlike other companies) as you can see from my comments above. We are currently working to release SR5 FW (and Plug-Ins) and have no plan to stop releasing updates anytime soon. Continued support of the product is number 1 for “MYSELF and for the PROMISE TEAM. I will be glad to assist on any questions or issues in addition to accepting feedback on features or possible enhancements.

Enough rambling from me.. I am available anytime and welcome (as I mentioned before), any and all feedback. :D

Thanks.


UPDATE ON NS4300N Rev B EXCHANGE, SEPTEMBER 17th, 2008 - We will be ending "sign-ups" for the Exchange Program in one week on September 24th (Midnight). We would love to run the offer for ever but managing cost and inventory will eventually become an issue. Please send PM or contact support @ support.promise.com by midnight of the 24th. :)

[rotrav]

Hi, Billy!

I'm from Romania and I wish to know if by any chance my unit can also be exchange when the the new more silent units will be available. Thank you for your support!

Best regards!

rotrav

[iwod]

Any speed improvement?

[PromiseNasDude]

Yes, but for AFP ONLY (MAC). Writes for AFP improve by rougly 70 to 80 percent. The firmware is still in test and things could change (either way). Read Performance remains the same. ;)


As for SMB, I will discuss this in the near future.

Thanks.

[mgraves]

When might these new, quieter units be available at retail?

Michael

[PromiseNasDude]

When might these new, quieter units be available at retail?

Michael

To be honest, I do not have the exact date but this does NOT mean it is a long way out. The golden sample is ready (see image - notice LEDs are brighter green and actually wrap around the light pipe) and will go to manufacturing soon pending some final reviews (process is nearly done). I will keep everyone in the loop. If you own one now and desire the change, remember to contact me via PM or via Technical Support (using on-line support is fine - no need to call). :)

[iwod]

i hope this new unit will get smb a retest as well

[PromiseNasDude]

Yes, I am working with SNB to retest. Thiggins will keep you guys updated. :)

[Alan Page]

I used an Antec SmartCool, but noticed that the fan speed was reported as below 1,800 rpm. I soldered a 10 k-ohm resistor across the Antec fan thermistor and now the fan is consistently above 1,800 rpm. Noise is still significantly reduced.

[khambati]

I just bought one of these and I am happy with the NAS. I also have to say that your customer service is excellent.

Here are a few things (not so good) which I noticed in the 2 weeks I have used it.

1. Performance with gigabit network running a compatible disk drive (Seagate SATAII 1TB drives) is a maximum of 25MB/s (read) with RAID 5 setup. I was expecting more when reading data from the NAS to a Macbook Pro. Is performance improvements possible via updated FW? I am on v1.04 with JUMBO frame enabled. I have also removed the jumper cables on the Seagate drives to speed them up.

2. Fan noise. If I take you up on your offer for a replacement, how do I transfer all my data to the new unit. Will I be able to just move the drives from the original unit to the new unit and keep all the data intact? I currently do not have the data backed up.

3. DLNA setup: There is no documentation on how to setup and access the data on the PS3. I can see the top level folders (music, video, pictures) on the PS3 but they are all empty when viewed on the PS3. I have put a sample (MP3, JPEG, AVI) file in each of these folders on the NAS.

[PromiseNasDude]

I just bought one of these and I am happy with the NAS. I also have to say that your customer service is excellent.

Here are a few things (not so good) which I noticed in the 2 weeks I have used it.

1. Performance with gigabit network running a compatible disk drive (Seagate SATAII 1TB drives) is a maximum of 25MB/s (read) with RAID 5 setup. I was expecting more when reading data from the NAS to a Macbook Pro. Is performance improvements possible via updated FW? I am on v1.04 with JUMBO frame enabled. I have also removed the jumper cables on the Seagate drives to speed them up.

2. Fan noise. If I take you up on your offer for a replacement, how do I transfer all my data to the new unit. Will I be able to just move the drives from the original unit to the new unit and keep all the data intact? I currently do not have the data backed up.

3. DLNA setup: There is no documentation on how to setup and access the data on the PS3. I can see the top level folders (music, video, pictures) on the PS3 but they are all empty when viewed on the PS3. I have put a sample (MP3, JPEG, AVI) file in each of these folders on the NAS.


Hi khambati, appreciate it the feeback. :)

1. The performance you are experiencing is right on par. The average performance for reads via SMB and AFP is around 15 to 25 MB/s. Writes under AFP will be improved in the next FW for the NS4300N and NS2300N. SMB reads and writes will see no improvement. NAS products are limited by their SoCs and even the Thecus 5200 Pro with the 1.2 GHZ Celeron reads and writes (real world performance) at 40 to 45 MB/s. But this product cost 800 bones. Our next gen NAS will MORE than double in read performance and MORE than triple in write at the same price point (MSRP 499.00). :)

2. Send me a PM with your details so I can add you to the exchange list.

3. The manual has some info on loading Plug-Ins such as the DLNA Plug-In. Our website is about to see a major overhaul and once that is done, I will have tons of DLNA - Media Streaming content up. You can load the DLNA Plug-In using the Web Interface (PASM) or SmartNAVI. Is using SmartNAVI the Plug-In can be loaded under NAS Management. Once Plug-In is loaded, enable the Plug-In. At this point the service will be to scan the media in the Music, Pictures and Video Directories. Our new DLNA Plug-In I discussed earlier post is now available for download. One item I forgot to mention was that we fix a PS3 Divx issue as well.

Need anything else, let me know.

Thanks

[khambati]

Hi khambati, appreciate it the feeback. :)

1. The performance you are experiencing is right on par. The average performance for reads via SMB and AFP is around 15 to 25 MB/s. Writes under AFP will be improved in the next FW for the NS4300N and NS2300N. SMB reads and writes will see no improvement. NAS products are limited by their SoCs and even the Thecus 5200 Pro with the 1.2 GHZ Celeron reads and writes (real world performance) at 40 to 45 MB/s. But this product cost 800 bones. Our next gen NAS will MORE than double in read performance and MORE than triple in write at the same price point (MSRP 499.00). :)

2. Send me a PM with your details so I can add you to the exchange list.

3. The manual has some info on loading Plug-Ins such as the DLNA Plug-In. Our website is about to see a major overhaul and once that is done, I will have tons of DLNA - Media Streaming content up. You can load the DLNA Plug-In using the Web Interface (PASM) or SmartNAVI. Is using SmartNAVI the Plug-In can be loaded under NAS Management. Once Plug-In is loaded, enable the Plug-In. At this point the service will be to scan the media in the Music, Pictures and Video Directories. Our new DLNA Plug-In I discussed earlier post is now available for download. One item I forgot to mention was that we fix a PS3 Divx issue as well.

Need anything else, let me know.

Thanks

Thanks for your reply.

Some clarification.

1. You answered this question to my satisfaction.
2. What is PM? Also you did not answer my question about transfer of data to the new unit if I just replace the disk drives.
3. I had already installed the DLNA plugin as per the install directions. Everytime I populate the VIDEO/PICTURES/MUSIC folders, do I have to go back into the PASM and toggle the enable button? Is this when it reads those folders and make them available? Additionally, does it only make files available at the top level of the folders available or does it scan sub folders as well.

Thanks once again.

[PromiseNasDude]

Thanks for your reply.

Some clarification.

1. You answered this question to my satisfaction.
2. What is PM? Also you did not answer my question about transfer of data to the new unit if I just replace the disk drives.
3. I had already installed the DLNA plugin as per the install directions. Everytime I populate the VIDEO/PICTURES/MUSIC folders, do I have to go back into the PASM and toggle the enable button? Is this when it reads those folders and make them available? Additionally, does it only make files available at the top level of the folders available or does it scan sub folders as well.

Thanks once again.

Sorry for missing the question. We have a featured called Recover. The Recover feature will import an array that is new to the Enclosure. We store the array and config information in the Flash and on the drives. If the NAS needs to be RMA, you can recover array and config settings by using the recover feature under RAID Management.

For the DLNA Plug-In, once the Plug-In is loaded and enabled, you are done. What version are you using? Build 12 has Scan issues that sometimes required NAS to be rebooted. The new version (see link below) resolves the issue. We support a ton of formats and containers: MOV, MP4, MP3, MPEG, AVI, DIVX, WMV, M4V, JPEG, WAV and others. We are working on MKV and m2ts support which will be added in the near future. Make sure PS3 is also on latest FW. You can also use SmartNAVI to load and enable Plug-Ins (much easier). What version of FW are you on?

http://www.promise.com/support/download/download2_eng.asp?productId=177&category=firmware&os=0&go=GO

Please let me know.

Thanks.

[iwod]

Nice i cant wait for your Next Gen NAS. If CPU really is the bottlneck then i can see Dual Core Atom will solve this problem is the near future.

[sonicstorm]

Hey Billy,

I have a question about the DLNA plugin. Is there a limit on the number of files and folders that it can recognize? I have a fairly large collection of music, pictures and videos all placed in the appropriate volumes (Music, Pictures and Videos), and they are organized into several nested folders, e.g. MUSIC VOLUME > Albums > A > Artist - Album > Music Files.

The reason why I ask about the limit of files is because when viewing available media using DLNA on the PS3, the list of music only goes to the letter S (nothing between T and Z), and not all the music in the S folder is shown. Also, the Video volume does not show up on the PS3.

I am currently using version 01.01.0000.01 of the DLNA plugin.

Any suggestions or tips to get the full library listed?

Thanks!

[PromiseNasDude]

Hey Billy,

I have a question about the DLNA plugin. Is there a limit on the number of files and folders that it can recognize? I have a fairly large collection of music, pictures and videos all placed in the appropriate volumes (Music, Pictures and Videos), and they are organized into several nested folders, e.g. MUSIC VOLUME > Albums > A > Artist - Album > Music Files.

The reason why I ask about the limit of files is because when viewing available media using DLNA on the PS3, the list of music only goes to the letter S (nothing between T and Z), and not all the music in the S folder is shown. Also, the Video volume does not show up on the PS3.

I am currently using version 01.01.0000.01 of the DLNA plugin.

Any suggestions or tips to get the full library listed?

Thanks!

Hi Sonic, sorry for the delay..

Did you install the Plug-In over the previous Plug-In or did you install clean removing the old Plug-In first?

If so, please let me know the directory structure and the number of files (by content) so I can compare to other issues we have seen? You can send PM if you like. A few of you have experienced similar issues and I have asked the Engineering Lab to investigate.

Let me know.

Thanks.

[jimmyjam]

Is there a way to move files from one folder on the the NAS to another without copying the files over the network? Basically I want to move my TV and Movie folders into the Video folder without taking hours of copying all the files from each folder over the network. Just a quick move like windows does.

[PromiseNasDude]

Is there a way to move files from one folder on the the NAS to another without copying the files over the network? Basically I want to move my TV and Movie folders into the Video folder without taking hours of copying all the files from each folder over the network. Just a quick move like windows does.

Hi Jam, sorry for the delay. Yes, you can. Use "Cut" instead of "Copy" to quickly move files from one directly to another. :) I do this often. Should work fine.

Thanks..

[iwod]

Am i correct that the new with Variable Fan Speed Control NAS is 4300N. While the one without is 4300 without the "N" in the end.

If they are both "4300N" Model, how could i tell which one is new version and which one is not. The place i live in all have blue box and no red as mentioned.
Does that mean they are all new?

Also wondering why the review only concentrate on Raid 5. How about non Raid pure read and write test?

[thiggins]

That is not correct. The product is the NS4300N, with original and "Rev B" versions. I was told by Billy that the Rev B product will come in the Blue box. He will need to clarify.

As noted in the review, I retested RAID 0, 5 and 10 with 100Mbps, 1000 Mbps and 1000 Mbps 4k jumbo frame LAN connections. I cited just a few examples. Hit the NAS Charts (http://smallnetbuilder.com/nas-charts/) to look at the other results.

[PromiseNasDude]

Am i correct that the new with Variable Fan Speed Control NAS is 4300N. While the one without is 4300 without the "N" in the end.

If they are both "4300N" Model, how could i tell which one is new version and which one is not. The place i live in all have blue box and no red as mentioned.
Does that mean they are all new?

Also wondering why the review only concentrate on Raid 5. How about non Raid pure read and write test?


Hello iwod, original we were going to change the model number but we agreed that it would give the impression that it was a "new" product therefore we decided to leave the name the same and delay the transition of the new packaging (currently used by NS2300N) until the Rev B model was ready.

For online purchasing, I will be working with our sales team on a way to clear old inventory before the new one hits. The new model also features improved LED (brighter green like NS2300N with the light actually wrapping around the lightpipe).

I will keep everyone updated. This just one of the small things that are still be worked out and that also delayed the release.

Here is a list of FW changes for NS4300N Rev A and Rev B plus NS2300N. NS4300N Rev A and Rev B FW will be SR5 while the NS2300N will hit SR1. Tim will cover NS2300N soon. =)

__________________________________________________ ________

Changes coming in SR1 FW for NS2300N and SR5 FW for NS4300N (this list is subject to change, meaning more features and or fixes, not less):


Remove join AD domain and NIS domain Feature (NS2300N ONLY)
Remove RAID1 migrate to RAID0 feature on NS2300N and remove RAID 5 /RAID 1 to RAID 0 Migration
Support 32 online clients to access NS2300N at the same time.
Add recycle bin feature (customer will be able to disable and enable)
Add DDNS feature (Dynamic DNS)
Supports read and write an USB drive with NTFS format.
Support port settings for SMTP (many ISP block port 25 so some may need to customize)
Disable the directory “PLUGINAPP” (directory will still exist but will be hidden)
Turn on the system led to red color when using locate feature with NAS.
Add a status bar in WebPASM when system is busy.
Support Bonjour Discovery and Printer Service (Such as AFP / iTunes /Printer Service / SMB / FTP)
Improve AFP performance. (The same as SMB protocol – Performance will increase 25 to 50 percent)
Add File System Check function to resolve file system errors.
Add AFP particular setting page for share folder permission. (Default setting is R/W)
Add AFP protocol particular setting page (user can customize welcome message)
Add a test button for email notification in WebPASM.
Add Hard Drive Spin-down and also turn off the HDD led when HDD is spin down (This applies to NS2300N for hard drive spin and turning off HDD led applies to both NS2300N and NS4300N.
Fix Special Characters with AD Domain
Ability to disable Guest Access on the Public Directory
Fan Control Optimizations (NS4300N Rev B ONLY)

__________________________________________________ _______________

Any other questions or concerns, please let me know. ;)

Thanks.

[jimmyjam]

Hi Jam, sorry for the delay. Yes, you can. Use "Cut" instead of "Copy" to quickly move files from one directly to another. :) I do this often. Should work fine.

Thanks..

It works for a folder if its within the same shared folder. But I am trying to move all the files from one shared folder (Movies) to another shared folder (Media\Movies) on the NAS and it is taking about 5-6 minutes to move each file that are approximately 1.5 GB.
It would be nice to have some type of file management utility within the storage manager that would allow you to move files and Shared folders around.

[PromiseNasDude]

It works for a folder if its within the same shared folder. But I am trying to move all the files from one shared folder (Movies) to another shared folder (Media\Movies) on the NAS and it is taking about 5-6 minutes to move each file that are approximately 1.5 GB.
It would be nice to have some type of file management utility within the storage manager that would allow you to move files and Shared folders around.


Yes, this is true.. I will discuss with team and see what the possibilities are.. Give me some time and I will let you know one way or another. ;)

Thanks..

[Tinga]

Hi, I just bought myself an NS2300N and first test was to ftp transfer 300Gb into the public share, it took 5 hours. Now I have loaded the DLNA plugin (latest firmware) and tried moving files into the video folder, it took over an hour to move (cut and paste) a 700Mb file into the video dir. Very slow. Also, the playstation3 can start playing the divx files but is stuttering its way through them, all are connected via a 100mb wired network.
Any ideas why it is very slow to do a move and or copy?
Any ideas why the playstation3 can't stream the divx very well at all?
FTP seems to be good with a max reported inflow of 190Mb/sec.

Cheers, Tinga

[VirtualEdge]

I recently discovered this website and I'm finding it very informative - thanks Tim!

Billy - I must say, I am impressed by yoru response and active postings. It does appear that Promise is listening to its customers and it's critics. Not only are you listening, it appears that Promise is actually DOING something to improve its' products. Your active posts give me great hope.

I have been struggling to find a decent as close to business class NAS that I can find without shelling out tons of $$. the XBox steaming support is a sweet bonus, but I am more concern about the read/write performance. NFS support is a minimum with iSCSI being the covetted (sp?) jewel. I want to be able to run XenServer and ESX and use the NAS for the datastores/VM storage. Obviously iSCSI provides more flexibility and would like to know if it is even on the horizon for Promise for the 4300N?

I recently dumped (sold) my Dlink-323 becasue I got too tired of the slow performance and lack of NFS support. I visited our local Fry's and picked up the 4300N. I got home, turned it on and immediately packed it back up. it was way too loud. In my search, I found SNB!

When are the Rev B going to be available retail? Are they already released? This next gen... I take it that you were referring to something post Rev B. Do you have an ETA for it? Should I just suffer and wait?

Last question why is there such a speed/performance differnce between the 4300N and the 2300N; outside the # of drives supported? One more... any plan for having a unit attached as a DAS through eSATA and act as a NAS via gigabit ethernet at the same time? This seems so obvious and easy to do, yet I haven't seen anyone do this. They only seem to use the other ports for either printing or additional storage expansion. Okay, woud liek 2 eSATA ports - one for DAS and one for expansion. :D

Thanks Tim and Billy!

[thiggins]

Last question why is there such a speed/performance differnce between the 4300N and the 2300N; outside the # of drives supported?
The NS4300N uses a Freescale MPC8343 (no clock rate specified) and Promise PDC40719 SATA controller, while the NS2300N uses a Freescale MPC8313 @ 333MHz and Promise PDC20771 SATA controller . Both have 128 MB of RAM.

[PromiseNasDude]

I recently discovered this website and I'm finding it very informative - thanks Tim!

Billy - I must say, I am impressed by your response and active postings. It does appear that Promise is listening to its customers and it's critics. Not only are you listening, it appears that Promise is actually DOING something to improve its' products. Your active posts give me great hope.

I have been struggling to find a decent as close to business class NAS that I can find without shelling out tons of $$. the XBox steaming support is a sweet bonus, but I am more concern about the read/write performance. NFS support is a minimum with iSCSI being the covetted (sp?) jewel. I want to be able to run XenServer and ESX and use the NAS for the datastores/VM storage. Obviously iSCSI provides more flexibility and would like to know if it is even on the horizon for Promise for the 4300N?

I recently dumped (sold) my Dlink-323 becasue I got too tired of the slow performance and lack of NFS support. I visited our local Fry's and picked up the 4300N. I got home, turned it on and immediately packed it back up. it was way too loud. In my search, I found SNB!

When are the Rev B going to be available retail? Are they already released? This next gen... I take it that you were referring to something post Rev B. Do you have an ETA for it? Should I just suffer and wait?

Last question why is there such a speed/performance difference between the 4300N and the 2300N; outside the # of drives supported? One more... any plan for having a unit attached as a DAS through eSATA and act as a NAS via gigabit ethernet at the same time? This seems so obvious and easy to do, yet I haven't seen anyone do this. They only seem to use the other ports for either printing or additional storage expansion. Okay, woud liek 2 eSATA ports - one for DAS and one for expansion. :D

Thanks Tim and Billy!



Hi Virtual, glad to answer your questions. :)

Yes, we are coming with an iSCSI model. This will come after the successor to the NS4300N. It will be part of the Next-Gen family and will leverage our extensive knowledge from our iSCSI 2U and 3U Subsystems. I am do not have an ETA on this product yet but I will let you know once we have the roadmap finalized.

Rev B will become available end of October, early November. We are working the product into manufacturing now. The exchange will involving sending in the old unit for the new unit. I am still working on the exact process for the "special exchange", so stay tuned for more details. =) And no worries, you will be able to move the array/volume from Rev A to Rev B.

The Next Gen is slated for late Q1. How patient are you? ;)

As for performance, the Freescale processors we used do not perform as well as we wanted thus we are making major change in Next Gen. The NS4300N uses a 400MHZ Freescale SoC while the N2300N uses a 333 MHZ (as Tim pointed out) Soc. This accounts for the difference in performance. Again, in the Next Gen, the 2 drive successor will also boast a lot more performance.

As for DAS and NAS Connectivity, I cannot say too much (as I do not want to give our plans away) but you are headed in the right direction. Stay Tuned.. =)

Need more, let me know.

Thanks.

[barrybishop2001]

PromiseNasDude,
Im currently looking for a NAS system and the Promise has shown significant improvements with its firmware updates. Would you consider letting me test out the new NS4300 on my popcornhour? (Im in Fremont, just a stones throw away). I would be more then happy to post results on our forum http://www.networkmediatank.com for others to see its practicality, as I know there are many like me awaiting such a unit as yours.

[PromiseNasDude]

PromiseNasDude,
Im currently looking for a NAS system and the Promise has shown significant improvements with its firmware updates. Would you consider letting me test out the new NS4300 on my popcornhour? (Im in Fremont, just a stones throw away). I would be more then happy to post results on our forum http://www.networkmediatank.com for others to see its practicality, as I know there are many like me awaiting such a unit as yours.


Hi Barry, not really necessary as we currently Test the PCH in R&D, Test Lab and in my Lab. :)

I work very closely with Syabas on interop and we are getting together to work on some future stuff. ;)

Our new DLNA Plug-In will add Mkv and m2ts support (coming soon). I am currently testing a beta version now exclusively with the PCH using 6GB to 8GB H.264 Mkv Encodes I created. Testing is done with Rev A and Rev B (no functionality differences between Rev A and Rev B).

If you still would like to come down I could arrange something.. Send me a PM..

Thanks.

[diggityDawg]

Hi Barry, not really necessary as we currently Test the PCH in R&D, Test Lab and in my Lab. :)
Hey PromiseNasDude,

Is there a way to set up an alias for the video share in the DLNA plugin? Could I possibly put a file out there that would point to other folders with video? Reason I ask is, before the DLNA plugin ever came out I put all my video in other shares on the NS4300N ("movies", "tv",etc) and now that My Movies and myTV are pointing to those folders, I couldn't move them just to get the DLNA plugin to work. But, I have a PCH and would love to be able to use the DLNA feature to connect to it and view the same video... I can connect to it now, but since there's nothing in the "video" folder, no video is shown.

Can you help with setting up an alias to the other folders on the NS4300N?

Thanks!

Eddie

[roustabout]

Hi Billy --

Thanks for turning up and taking questions!

Here's why I'm here tonight: I'm seriously considering moving off of the Promise and into a Thecus. When I first started in on this, I hadn't really gotten my head around how much of the cost was going to be in the harddrives (now available for half what I paid....)

In the last two weeks, my Smartstor has become very unreliable. I've needed to reboot it several times, and it takes a lot of patience before it reboots. I've waited > 1 hour for a reboot.

Since I have little things like my documents primarily resident on the box, this is killing me. I only reboot when the thing becomes unresponsive, but that's been happening a lot.

The biggest thing I can think of that I changed was at one point, I tried enabling snapshotting. My box became read-only for about a workday. I finally figured out what was up, disabled snapshotting again, but it took roughtly an hour for the change to "take."

Reading your comments I decided to take a spin to the website and check (if the box ever finishes its reboot) on the current release of various firmware elements.

I see something in the notes for the DLNA plugin about a "popcorn hour timeout" but can't locate the phrase in the knowledgebase.

Can you fill us in on that?

Also, if you guys could build an ssh client for this box? Oooooh, that'd be sweet. I spent some time trying to get a toolchain working on an ubuntu box and wound up bogged down on being able to get the toolchain the crypto tools it needed to even try to crosscompile. So I don't even know if the binaries I'd have built would work for this CPU or OS.

I'm regularly using rsync rather than drag and drop or your utility for my backups, as it preserves the folder creation dates. Also, if you could get NFS support up to the level where you're supporting modern NFS, that would be super helpful to those as need it. I'm not seeing my notes on this, but my memory is that when I tried NFS I was only able to get UDP NFS to work, which is not great for data integrity.

I'm still sitting here waiting on the reboot. Things is ugly, but I know exactly whose fault it is. I've rsynced files into the /data directory to run this as a syslog server for my home network by modifying the sysklogd system, for instance.

Bonus info for those of you who know some rsync:

there's a valid rsync user name of promise. The password is also promise. rsync is enabled when you tell the box that it's a target box for backing up a second Smartstor. Take a good look at the /data directory structure and files - its a read/writeable area of the system that is copied back over on reboot.

-R

[hacyaman]

I'm glad to find this thread.

I really wanted spin down feature on my NS2300 and I found out it'll be supported in the next FW. I can't wait it. I was almost to sell NS2300 and purchase other NAS.:D

I want one more nice to have feature in iTunes plag-in. iPhone and iPodTouch can access iTunes server with pin-code. Is it possible to implement the feature on SmartStor iTunes plag-in? It would be great for home users.:)

[diggityDawg]

One other question:

Anyone know if it's possible to get SwissCenter (http://www.swisscenter.co.uk) installed on the NS4300N? Do any instructions exist? I did a search on their forums and NS4300N isn't mentioned in any posts...

[roustabout]

So, I issued a restart request about half an hour ago, and the system hasn't done anything with it yet.

I'm still able to read and write to the system, which is good.

I've gotten rid of the telnet plugin but have left my syslog writing full detail to one of my shares. This seems to be improving my life.

However, I'm seeing some really odd syslog kernel messages - hence the decision to try a restart:

Sep 13 05:32:56 terabox kernel: oom-killer: gfp_mask=0xd2
Sep 13 07:02:49 terabox kernel: DMA per-cpu:
Sep 13 08:33:33 terabox kernel: cpu 0 hot: low 16, high 48, batch 8
Sep 13 09:58:23 terabox kernel: cpu 0 cold: low 0, high 16, batch 8
Sep 13 11:27:35 terabox kernel: Normal per-cpu: empty
Sep 13 12:44:28 terabox kernel: HighMem per-cpu: empty

From what I can see in google, these point towards a memory leak, and right now, at least, the web interface is very unresponsive.

The firmware I'm using reports as
Version: 01.04.0000.11

The DLNA I'm using reports as
01.01.0000.01 from the ns4300_010411.upg file posted on the Promise site.

I'll delete it and see if that helps clear these incredibly long reboot times. I would like to be able to keep logging, as the logging facility provided by the system <cough>

-R

[PromiseNasDude]

Hey PromiseNasDude,

Is there a way to set up an alias for the video share in the DLNA plugin? Could I possibly put a file out there that would point to other folders with video? Reason I ask is, before the DLNA plugin ever came out I put all my video in other shares on the NS4300N ("movies", "tv",etc) and now that My Movies and myTV are pointing to those folders, I couldn't move them just to get the DLNA plugin to work. But, I have a PCH and would love to be able to use the DLNA feature to connect to it and view the same video... I can connect to it now, but since there's nothing in the "video" folder, no video is shown.

Can you help with setting up an alias to the other folders on the NS4300N?

Thanks!

Eddie


Hi Eddie, sorry for delay..

That is a tough one.. Shortcuts are not recognized by the scan engine as Sub Directories are.. I can see if it is possible to add this feature (no Promises as I need to check on UPnP and DLNA Guidelines) and let you know...

You have had the NAS since last spring - summer (2007)? We released the Plug-In in the Fall of last year. :)

[diggityDawg]

I can see if it is possible to add this feature (no Promises as I need to check on UPnP and DLNA Guidelines) and let you know...

That would be awesome, thanks!

You have had the NAS since last spring - summer (2007)? We released the Plug-In in the Fall of last year. :)

I don't remember when I got it right now... I know I downloaded and installed the DLNA plugin when it was first released, as I usually do all of the updates and plugins, and haven't been able to make much use of it due to this issue of having video in other shares on the NAS. I guess I'm not sure what your point is? :confused:

[PromiseNasDude]

That would be awesome, thanks!



I don't remember when I got it right now... I know I downloaded and installed the DLNA plugin when it was first released, as I usually do all of the updates and plugins, and haven't been able to make much use of it due to this issue of having video in other shares on the NAS. I guess I'm not sure what your point is? :confused:

Was just curious... :)

Will get back to you later..

Thanks..

[diggityDawg]

Was just curious... :)

Ok, no worries. One other thing I forgot to mention: if I can't set up an alias for video, can I just edit some config file so that the video share for DLNA is pointing to a different folder on the NAS? This wouldn't pick up all of my video, but at least I would have a large percentage of my movies covered...

Thanks again for your great support!

[PromiseNasDude]

Ok, no worries. One other thing I forgot to mention: if I can't set up an alias for video, can I just edit some config file so that the video share for DLNA is pointing to a different folder on the NAS? This wouldn't pick up all of my video, but at least I would have a large percentage of my movies covered...

Thanks again for your great support!

Hey Dawg, the Config is a part of the Plug-In and stored in the OS. Not user configurable file. After discussing with the team this week I will let you know what we can do. :)

[rbhalla]

Hi All,

I have the NS4300 but i cannot get it to work in gigabit mode. I have recently purchased a gigabit router and also a gigabit 5 port switch to which the NAS is connected. My computers are now working at 1.0gbps but the nas still shows as working at 100mbps. I went on to see the jumbo framse setting but i could not change anything on there.

Any ideas?

[PromiseNasDude]

Hi All,

I have the NS4300 but i cannot get it to work in gigabit mode. I have recently purchased a gigabit router and also a gigabit 5 port switch to which the NAS is connected. My computers are now working at 1.0gbps but the nas still shows as working at 100mbps. I went on to see the jumbo framse setting but i could not change anything on there.

Any ideas?

Hey Dude, first thing that comes to mind is cable.. This is one symptom of bad cable. I assume you are using the supplied cable? Please try another cable if possible. :) I can send you a cable if needed.

Also, what router?

Get back to me...

Thanks

[wolfirr]

Hey everybody,
did I see wrong, that there is a possibility to read the SMART info of the disks in the NAS? Can not find the menu botton in the PASM web config.

Thanks
Wolfgang

[rbhalla]

Hi Billy,

Thanks for the Advice. i did use the cable that came with the NAs. I bought a new Cat 6 cable and now its working fine at 1000Mbps with 1500bytes MTU. Do i need to change these MTU settings to get a better performance ?

Thanks once Again,
Raj

[PromiseNasDude]

Hey everybody,
did I see wrong, that there is a possibility to read the SMART info of the disks in the NAS? Can not find the menu botton in the PASM web config.

Thanks
Wolfgang

Hi Wolfgang, We report the feature as being enabled or disabled but we do not report the SMART data to the PASM or SmartNAVI event log as we only use the information for error handling (internally) and determining if a disk is healthy or unhealthy. We only need to expose and not mask the information (as we do now). In the future we will expose more information but the schedule is not in place at the moment. I can probably set an expectation in a few weeks. :)

Other questions, let me know..

[PromiseNasDude]

Hi Billy,

Thanks for the Advice. i did use the cable that came with the NAs. I bought a new Cat 6 cable and now its working fine at 1000Mbps with 1500bytes MTU. Do i need to change these MTU settings to get a better performance ?

Thanks once Again,
Raj

No problem Rbhalla.. :) Since the original is bad, send me a PM with your shipping address and I will have support send out a cable to replace.

You can modify the MTU of Jumbo Frames if your GNIC and Router and or Switch supports Jumbo Frames. Jumbo frames can provide a nominal to modest increase in performance depending on compatibility/interop of the products being used together. Unforunately we are talking about a minimum of 3 products working together and possibly more. ;) Play with the various MTU sizes to see which provides the best performance and stability (I have had GNICs that look up a system when JB is enabled) for you.

Talk to you soon.

Thanks.

[aauxta]

Hi PromiseNasDude,

I sent the exchange request to the support@ email but got bounced back. I also sent you a PM yesterday and haven't heard back from you. Just want to make sure I am still qualified for it since I notified you before the deadline.

Thanks!

[PromiseNasDude]

Hi PromiseNasDude,

I sent the exchange request to the support@ email but got bounced back. I also sent you a PM yesterday and haven't heard back from you. Just want to make sure I am still qualified for it since I notified you before the deadline.

Thanks!

No worries.. :)

All support incidents are logged via the online support center at support.promise.com. Anyway, you are taken care of..

Thanks..

[Strongarm]

Hello!
Sorry for my english... I want to use my NAS4300N as torrent downloader, but can't change port number. Now SmartStore's bittorrentclient uses port 6881, and I want use other number. How can I change it? And can I configure another plugin settings?

Thanks.
PS: Works SmartStore only as downloader, or it can upload too?

[PromiseNasDude]

Hello!
Sorry for my english... I want to use my NAS4300N as torrent downloader, but can't change port number. Now SmartStore's bittorrentclient uses port 6881, and I want use other number. How can I change it? And can I configure another plugin settings?

Thanks.
PS: Works SmartStore only as downloader, or it can upload too?

Hi Strongarm, everything you are asking for will come in a future version. We are in the process of defining new features for the Download Station. :) Give me some time and I can try to let you know when (not this next service release though).

Thanks.

[Strongarm]

Hi!
One more question: You said about firmware update SR5, but on Promise's download page exists only SR4. What it means?
Thanks.

[Unregistered]

arggh!!! does i come too late for the exchange? i have two ns4300n and i am on the edge of the cliff to open them to change fan with silent one... and lost my warranty


one more question: do you think is it possible to use a system like SIS ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Instance_Storage ) on them?

[rbhalla]

Hi Billy,
Thanks for offering me the replacement cable. Please do not worry about it as i have already purchased a cat6 now. Also, I am in the UK now. Please can you let us know though when you guysd plan to start sending out replacements ?
Regards,
Raj

[andymemo]

Hi PromiseNasDude,

Good on ye for interacting with the end users of the product in the way you are and actually using the feedback you get to better the product. Its heartening to see.

I just got delivered another NS4300N (this time for myself!) and am wondering if it will support 3 x 1.5TB Seagate drives in RAID 5? Have you tested disks larger than 1TB?
Also wondering if there is any planned support for an encrypted container / volume on a disk? At present I achieve encryption by using the Mac HDD Util to create an encrypted sparse disk image and storing it on the NAS, however native support would be cool.

Am looking forward to getting SR5 as im sure alot of my customers are!

Thanks for being here.

Andy

[nusul]

hi PromiseNasDude,

Do you know if is it possible to know the fragmentation of the nas? And in the end is it possible defragment it?

Because between two same nas i have not the same speed for the same files.

[wolfirr]

Hi PromiseNASDude,
you are my last help to rebuilt my NS4300N from a mistake I made in 'engmode'. Had problems to mount and read/write to NFS-shares from my digital SAT-receivers and wanted to go into root by telnet on the NAS to change owners/rights of the files on my RAID-5 with 3x 1TB drives.
did this, and the RAID-5 was gone:

NAS400N ##> peinfo
Physical Disk Extend Information
ID LD Size(MB) StartLBA MainStatus FuncStatus AssignStatus SmartStatus
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 0 953805.71 0.00 Idle Functional Assigned Work
1 0 953805.71 0.00 Idle Functional Assigned Work
2 0 953805.71 0.00 Idle Functional Assigned Work
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAS400N ##> pdinfo
Physical Disk Information
ID CH Size(MB) Model Serial F/W
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 0 953869.71 ST31000340NS 9QJ172S0 SN05
1 1 953869.71 ST31000340NS 9QJ1HCNQ SN05
2 2 953869.71 ST31000340NS 9QJ1CL96 SN05
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAS400N ##> pdtest
This test may take some times. Please wait ...
Logical volume "lv001" successfully removed
Logical volume "nsswap" successfully removed
Volume group "vg001" successfully removed
Labels on physical volume "/dev/sda1" successfully wiped

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SATA Channel test pass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAS400N ##> pdinfo
Physical Disk Information
ID CH Size(MB) Model Serial F/W
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 0 953869.71 ST31000340NS 9QJ172S0 SN05
1 1 953869.71 ST31000340NS 9QJ1HCNQ SN05
2 2 953869.71 ST31000340NS 9QJ1CL96 SN05
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAS400N ##> peinfo
Physical Disk Extend Information
ID LD Size(MB) StartLBA MainStatus FuncStatus AssignStatus SmartStatus
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 0 953805.71 0.00 Idle Functional Assigned Work
1 1 953805.71 0.00 Idle Functional Assigned Work
2 2 953805.71 0.00 Idle Functional Assigned Work
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAS400N ##> ldinfo
RAID Information
ID Name Level Size(MB) Status Activity PDs
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 RAID-218355 RAID0 953805 Functional Idle [ 0 ]
1 RAID-218509 RAID0 953805 Functional Idle [ 1 ]
2 RAID-218517 RAID0 953805 Functional Idle [ 2 ]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAS400N ##> logout

Can you give me an advise, whether there is a chance to rebuilt the RAID?
many thanks
Wolfirr

[vfulco]

Hey PromiseNasDude,

Don't mean to hijack the thread but I'm having some terrible problems with a fairly easy setup. Is e-support responsive and the best approach to take?

TIA,

Vince Fulco

[vwphaeton]

I just receieved my 4300N and 4 seagate 1.5TB drives

After doing the setup everything runs fine until i do a reboot. After the reboot the system tells me the file system needs rebuilit.

I have opened a trouble ticket.. Called in for support and was told sorry only use the drives that are compatible and we dont know when they will be tested..

I have been running into a road block. I called in and was told to only use the drives that are supported. I didnt realize the drives would make that big of a difference and have opened them and installed them.. I have 4 at 220 and cannot return them. I really dont want to waste that money is there anything i can do to make this work?

[nusul]

I just receieved my 4300N and 4 seagate 1.5TB drives

After doing the setup everything runs fine until i do a reboot. After the reboot the system tells me the file system needs rebuilit.

I have opened a trouble ticket.. Called in for support and was told sorry only use the drives that are compatible and we dont know when they will be tested..

I have been running into a road block. I called in and was told to only use the drives that are supported. I didnt realize the drives would make that big of a difference and have opened them and installed them.. I have 4 at 220 and cannot return them. I really dont want to waste that money is there anything i can do to make this work?


it could be long before there is a new firmware to correct this. Peharps you must sell them to buy some compatible in exchange?

[Ruff_MT]

I just bought my NS4300N a couple of days ago. I only have 1 * 1TB drive in it and started to copy all my media files onto it. SO far so good. NS4300N is configured as RAID 0

The next day I inserted a second similar hard drive and using PASM, I noticed that VOLUME1 now has Disk 1 and Disk 2

When I select RAID Management I see the following:

RAID Name RAID-1348906
RAID Level RAID 0 (Striping) (x1)
Capacity 931.45 GB
RAID Status Functional
Action Status Migrating
Background Activity Running
Progress 42%

It has taken 36 hours so far to reach 42%. Is this normal?

Thanks

[conor]

promisenasdude i sent you a pm

my nas is still under warranty. please let me know

[vwphaeton]

I just bought my NS4300N a couple of days ago. I only have 1 * 1TB drive in it and started to copy all my media files onto it. SO far so good. NS4300N is configured as RAID 0

The next day I inserted a second similar hard drive and using PASM, I noticed that VOLUME1 now has Disk 1 and Disk 2

When I select RAID Management I see the following:

RAID Name RAID-1348906
RAID Level RAID 0 (Striping) (x1)
Capacity 931.45 GB
RAID Status Functional
Action Status Migrating
Background Activity Running
Progress 42%

It has taken 36 hours so far to reach 42%. Is this normal?

Thanks

Mine took 3 days to expand from 2 1 tb drives to 4.. then it took 5 hours after that to rebuild the file system, i dont think nasdude is answering anymore his mailbox if full..

My experience so far with their support is less than I would expect.. I would love to hear from someone that has received a positive response from their support.

I keep noticing they are closing my ticket each time i respond so i have to add a line to my request to open it up..

Why cant they support 1.5 TB drives? what is the technical hold up?

When is SR5 coming?

How does the DLNA server decide when to index?

Why cant we get some FTP logging? Wouldnt you like to know who has ftpd to your box?

[nusul]

Mine took 3 days to expand from 2 1 tb drives to 4.. then it took 5 hours after that to rebuild the file system, i dont think nasdude is answering anymore his mailbox if full..

My experience so far with their support is less than I would expect.. I would love to hear from someone that has received a positive response from their support.

I keep noticing they are closing my ticket each time i respond so i have to add a line to my request to open it up..

Why cant they support 1.5 TB drives? what is the technical hold up?

When is SR5 coming?

How does the DLNA server decide when to index?

Why cant we get some FTP logging? Wouldnt you like to know who has ftpd to your box?

Somes companies does not put a lot of money in there support activity or doesn't want to help powerusers if the overall function are working.

Peharps it's the case with promise? But they have made a lot of progress in the SR. And i prefer to have a SR very sure with no bug at all, than lost all my data! (i have Two of them, and soon 3)

[andymemo]

Hi,

I have 1x 1.5TB drive in my NS4300N (awaiting another 2 drives from the supplier), it works fine for me at the moment - quick too!

On the 8/10/08 promise e-support advised SR5 will be released in '2 weeks'. watch this space I guess!

[RUff_MT]

Mine took 3 days to expand from 2 1 tb drives to 4.. then it took 5 hours after that to rebuild the file system, i dont think nasdude is answering anymore his mailbox if full..

My experience so far with their support is less than I would expect.. I would love to hear from someone that has received a positive response from their support.

I keep noticing they are closing my ticket each time i respond so i have to add a line to my request to open it up..

Why cant they support 1.5 TB drives? what is the technical hold up?

When is SR5 coming?

How does the DLNA server decide when to index?

Why cant we get some FTP logging? Wouldnt you like to know who has ftpd to your box?

Finally someone replies. I wish the support team replied but hey, I'm not complaining.

I've lost all my data with an SMC NAS a few months back, TWICE!!. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on ME, so you can imagine how careful I am now. I have twice the number of hard drives than I use online, just to XCOPY the lot onto the spare drives once a week. Back breaking job you might say and not cheap but one learns to be careful!!!

I'm quite happy with the box so far I must say. The speed is not bad at all even though I have a 10/100 router (got to change that)

Yes it took forever to finish the task mentioned above but it got there eventually. We'll see what happens when I add yet more drives to it !!! Time will tell, and again I say I am not complaining about you answering nor about the product itself. What encouraged me to get the nas4300n was the fact that there was someone from the support team actually answering this forum, but like everything else that is good, it comes to an abrupt end :(

Such is life!!

Oh yes, one last thing!!!

I hate the fact that NTFS is not supported when I connect a drive to the USB ports at the back of the NAS :( - I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!!

[npapanik]

Do we have a date estimation for the SR5 release?

[dirom]

Does anyone uses the dlna plugin on the ns2300n?

I can't get it to work. When i enable dlna plugin the status shows "ON", but some seconds (30- 40) after, the status shows "OFF". The status changes between "ON" and "OFF" every few seconds until i disable dlna....very stupid :-(

In the few seconds the status is "ON", the dlna works and i can play music on my xbox 360 but after few seconds the connection gets lost.

Does anyone have same issues?

P.S. : Sorry for my bad english...

[vwphaeton]

Hi,

I have 1x 1.5TB drive in my NS4300N (awaiting another 2 drives from the supplier), it works fine for me at the moment - quick too!

On the 8/10/08 promise e-support advised SR5 will be released in '2 weeks'. watch this space I guess!

They are telling me that it wont handle past 4TB so when you put drive 2 in you should be ok...

When i put drive 3 in, im doomed.

It runs fine until a reboot is needed which happens, then the file system is corrupted and nothing works to repair it.

Thats why Im hoping that SR5 will expand their 4 TB limit

[vwphaeton]

Does anyone uses the dlna plugin on the ns2300n?

I can't get it to work. When i enable dlna plugin the status shows "ON", but some seconds (30- 40) after, the status shows "OFF". The status changes between "ON" and "OFF" every few seconds until i disable dlna....very stupid :-(

In the few seconds the status is "ON", the dlna works and i can play music on my xbox 360 but after few seconds the connection gets lost.

Does anyone have same issues?

P.S. : Sorry for my bad english...

i have it running.. did you update to sr4 ver 11? Did you dload the recent dlna addin?

Thats what i did to make it work.

I wish i knew how to make it reindex or what makes it index.

I cant see my movies just music and pictures on my ps3

[Ruff_MT]

On a previously owned NAS, I could browse to my bittorrent client using internet explorer. Can this also be done on the NS4300N? How? :confused:

Thanks

[ciphermonk]

No word on when the next generation NAS will be out? The 4 drive bay model with the $499 price point.

[Unregistered]

99% of my entire music collection is .wma lossless but I cannot play any of them via the xbox 360, the music stutters badly. I have a few CD's that were ripped .mp3 and they play fine.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[Ruff_MT]

I have been trying to connect to my Active Directory on a Win2000 server without any luck. Keep getting told "Protocol Control - Service has started. And joined the AD domain failed."

Any ideas anyone please???

[michaels]

To configure the AD in your NAS you have to first configure the NTP server of your NAS to the IP address of your AD server, so it can syncronize the time with your AD... after this, you can add the NAS to your existing AD, like you're already doing... ;)

Regards,

Michael

[michaels]

About the plugins i've seen here, are they compatible with the Promise SmartStore NS2300N?
Is there any development in progress for a webserver plugin, that can support mysql, php, asp.net and ajax (this last two using the open source mono project - http://www.mono-project.com)?
This kind of plugin would be great! :)
I'm not talking for big websites, but it would be a good solution for low/mid enterprises that only need some basic homepage or even a simple intranet page...

Regards,

Michael

[diggityDawg]

PromiseNasDude, are you ever coming back? Last time you posted here was over a month ago...

It's been a few months now since you first let us know about the exchange for quieter NS4300N units and I was just wondering, what's the status of these new improved/quiet units?

Also, any idea when the next firmware version (SR5) will be released? There's been a lot of chatter about how it will fix a lot of things, but again, it's been months now and no sign that it's coming any time soon... It would be GREAT to get some kind of an update...

Thanks!

Eddie

[nusul]

i'm very sure in my heart that promise company kill promisedude for helping us.

Company don't like very much black sheep going outside the rules :)

Peharps he has some problem with hierachy after posting here?

[thiggins]

Sorry to disappoint your bad thoughts about Promise. But PromiseNASDude has been out sick. He will return soon.

[nusul]

Sorry to disappoint your bad thoughts about Promise. But PromiseNASDude has been out sick. He will return soon.

no no! i'm not disappoint! :rolleyes:

I relate only an personnal story, when i see a guy from nvidia get flamed because he was posting on a forum about some info.

I prefer to have someone like promisedude, but i'm know the reality of life :eek:

So i was saying some internal thinking :D

[Ruff_MT]

To configure the AD in your NAS you have to first configure the NTP server of your NAS to the IP address of your AD server, so it can syncronize the time with your AD... after this, you can add the NAS to your existing AD, like you're already doing... ;)

Regards,

Michael

Thanks for your answer but I'm still having the same problem :(

I set NTP to 192.168.1.19

Domain or Workgroup Name to GCBBS
Domain Controller GCBBS.LOC

Administrator as login and entered the correct password.

I tried upper case, lower case, Name Case and rEVERSE cASE but still failed :(

Any more ideas??

[nusul]

Thanks for your answer but I'm still having the same problem :(

I set NTP to 192.168.1.19

Domain or Workgroup Name to GCBBS
Domain Controller GCBBS.LOC

Administrator as login and entered the correct password.

I tried upper case, lower case, Name Case and rEVERSE cASE but still failed :(

Any more ideas??


di you try as login:
GCBBS\administrator
or
administrator@GCBBS.LOC

does "gcbbs.loc" is your fqdn ?
And do you have make your domain controller the dns server ?

[PromiseNasDude]

Hi PromiseNasDude,

Good on ye for interacting with the end users of the product in the way you are and actually using the feedback you get to better the product. Its heartening to see.

I just got delivered another NS4300N (this time for myself!) and am wondering if it will support 3 x 1.5TB Seagate drives in RAID 5? Have you tested disks larger than 1TB?
Also wondering if there is any planned support for an encrypted container / volume on a disk? At present I achieve encryption by using the Mac HDD Util to create an encrypted sparse disk image and storing it on the NAS, however native support would be cool.

Am looking forward to getting SR5 as im sure alot of my customers are!

Thanks for being here.

Andy

Hi Andy, sorry for delay on reply.. I have been out sick and recovering..

1.5TB support is available in SR5 FW. SR5 will be posted tomorrow. :)

The Encrypted Container support is a good request. We have no plans at the moment, but I will definitely consider. ;)

Need anthing else, let me know.

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

Hi PromiseNASDude,
you are my last help to rebuilt my NS4300N from a mistake I made in 'engmode'. Had problems to mount and read/write to NFS-shares from my digital SAT-receivers and wanted to go into root by telnet on the NAS to change owners/rights of the files on my RAID-5 with 3x 1TB drives.
did this, and the RAID-5 was gone:

NAS400N ##> peinfo
Physical Disk Extend Information
ID LD Size(MB) StartLBA MainStatus FuncStatus AssignStatus SmartStatus
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 0 953805.71 0.00 Idle Functional Assigned Work
1 0 953805.71 0.00 Idle Functional Assigned Work
2 0 953805.71 0.00 Idle Functional Assigned Work
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAS400N ##> pdinfo
Physical Disk Information
ID CH Size(MB) Model Serial F/W
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 0 953869.71 ST31000340NS 9QJ172S0 SN05
1 1 953869.71 ST31000340NS 9QJ1HCNQ SN05
2 2 953869.71 ST31000340NS 9QJ1CL96 SN05
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAS400N ##> pdtest
This test may take some times. Please wait ...
Logical volume "lv001" successfully removed
Logical volume "nsswap" successfully removed
Volume group "vg001" successfully removed
Labels on physical volume "/dev/sda1" successfully wiped

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SATA Channel test pass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAS400N ##> pdinfo
Physical Disk Information
ID CH Size(MB) Model Serial F/W
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 0 953869.71 ST31000340NS 9QJ172S0 SN05
1 1 953869.71 ST31000340NS 9QJ1HCNQ SN05
2 2 953869.71 ST31000340NS 9QJ1CL96 SN05
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAS400N ##> peinfo
Physical Disk Extend Information
ID LD Size(MB) StartLBA MainStatus FuncStatus AssignStatus SmartStatus
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 0 953805.71 0.00 Idle Functional Assigned Work
1 1 953805.71 0.00 Idle Functional Assigned Work
2 2 953805.71 0.00 Idle Functional Assigned Work
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAS400N ##> ldinfo
RAID Information
ID Name Level Size(MB) Status Activity PDs
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 RAID-218355 RAID0 953805 Functional Idle [ 0 ]
1 RAID-218509 RAID0 953805 Functional Idle [ 1 ]
2 RAID-218517 RAID0 953805 Functional Idle [ 2 ]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NAS400N ##> logout

Can you give me an advise, whether there is a chance to rebuilt the RAID?
many thanks
Wolfirr


Hi Wolf, sorry for delay..

This is not good. Engmode features can destroy data. Let me discuss this with engineering and get back to you.

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

Hey PromiseNasDude,

Don't mean to hijack the thread but I'm having some terrible problems with a fairly easy setup. Is e-support responsive and the best approach to take?

TIA,

Vince Fulco

Sorry for delay. I have been out sick and recovering. Do you contact support? All escalated stuff from support comes to me. Send me a PM if you still need help.

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

I just receieved my 4300N and 4 seagate 1.5TB drives

After doing the setup everything runs fine until i do a reboot. After the reboot the system tells me the file system needs rebuilit.

I have opened a trouble ticket.. Called in for support and was told sorry only use the drives that are compatible and we dont know when they will be tested..

I have been running into a road block. I called in and was told to only use the drives that are supported. I didnt realize the drives would make that big of a difference and have opened them and installed them.. I have 4 at 220 and cannot return them. I really dont want to waste that money is there anything i can do to make this work?

Hi VW, sorry for the delay, I have been out sick and recovering. What Hard Drives do you use? We have just about everything qualified? Sounds like File System Errors are occuring. Send me a PM so we can move forward (if needed). ;)

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

I just receieved my 4300N and 4 seagate 1.5TB drives

After doing the setup everything runs fine until i do a reboot. After the reboot the system tells me the file system needs rebuilit.

I have opened a trouble ticket.. Called in for support and was told sorry only use the drives that are compatible and we dont know when they will be tested..

I have been running into a road block. I called in and was told to only use the drives that are supported. I didnt realize the drives would make that big of a difference and have opened them and installed them.. I have 4 at 220 and cannot return them. I really dont want to waste that money is there anything i can do to make this work?

Sorry, I missed the 1.5TB part.. :( 1.5TB is support in SR5 FW. SR5 will be posted tomorrow. Send me a PM if you want sooner. :)

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

it could be long before there is a new firmware to correct this. Peharps you must sell them to buy some compatible in exchange?

Seagate 1.5TB Drives are now supported in SR5 FW. SR5 will be posted tomorrow. :)

Thanks..

[PromiseNasDude]

promisenasdude i sent you a pm

my nas is still under warranty. please let me know

Sorry for delay.. I will respond to your PM shortly..

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

[QUOTE=vwphaeton;3724]Mine took 3 days to expand from 2 1 tb drives to 4.. then it took 5 hours after that to rebuild the file system, i dont think nasdude is answering anymore his mailbox if full..

My experience so far with their support is less than I would expect.. I would love to hear from someone that has received a positive response from their support.

I keep noticing they are closing my ticket each time i respond so i have to add a line to my request to open it up..

Why cant they support 1.5 TB drives? what is the technical hold up?

1.5TB is now supported in SR5. SR5 will be posted tomorrow. In addition to product management I run our Strategic Technology Alliance Program. The 1.5TB Drive (Brinks) is a new family with new HDC and FW. Compatibilities happen which is why we maintain an AVL (Approved Vendors List). It is very important to use this list an changes and or bugs on either the Promise or Seagate side can resolve in undesirable behavior. This is the way of the world. :( We found this issue when I received the early engineering samples which has lead to the fix in SR5. :)

When is SR5 coming?

Posted tomorrow or send me a PM to get access now. :)

How does the DLNA server decide when to index?

Again the initial scan, the services scans every 2 minutes if there is activity on the unit.

Why cant we get some FTP logging? Wouldnt you like to know who has ftpd to your box?

I am considering this for future Service Release. Good feedback. :)

Anything, let me know.

/QUOTE]

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

Hi,

I have 1x 1.5TB drive in my NS4300N (awaiting another 2 drives from the supplier), it works fine for me at the moment - quick too!

On the 8/10/08 promise e-support advised SR5 will be released in '2 weeks'. watch this space I guess!

Hi Andy, SR5 will be posted tomorrow. For access now, please send me a PM.

Thanks.. :)

[PromiseNasDude]

Finally someone replies. I wish the support team replied but hey, I'm not complaining.

I've lost all my data with an SMC NAS a few months back, TWICE!!. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on ME, so you can imagine how careful I am now. I have twice the number of hard drives than I use online, just to XCOPY the lot onto the spare drives once a week. Back breaking job you might say and not cheap but one learns to be careful!!!

I'm quite happy with the box so far I must say. The speed is not bad at all even though I have a 10/100 router (got to change that)

Yes it took forever to finish the task mentioned above but it got there eventually. We'll see what happens when I add yet more drives to it !!! Time will tell, and again I say I am not complaining about you answering nor about the product itself. What encouraged me to get the nas4300n was the fact that there was someone from the support team actually answering this forum, but like everything else that is good, it comes to an abrupt end :(

Such is life!!

Oh yes, one last thing!!!

I hate the fact that NTFS is not supported when I connect a drive to the USB ports at the back of the NAS :( - I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!!

Sorry for delay.. I have been out sick and recovering.. I will be here for a long time. :) By the way, I am on the Product Manager/ ;)

NTFS with USB is not a bad request all. Let me see what can be found for SR6.

Anything else, let me know.

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

Do we have a date estimation for the SR5 release?

SR5 will be posted tomorrow evening or you can PM me for access now. :)

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

Does anyone uses the dlna plugin on the ns2300n?

I can't get it to work. When i enable dlna plugin the status shows "ON", but some seconds (30- 40) after, the status shows "OFF". The status changes between "ON" and "OFF" every few seconds until i disable dlna....very stupid :-(

In the few seconds the status is "ON", the dlna works and i can play music on my xbox 360 but after few seconds the connection gets lost.

Does anyone have same issues?

P.S. : Sorry for my bad english...

Sorry for delay in response.. I have been out sick and recovering. :)

This is a known bug and will be fixed in SR1 for NS2300N. If interested, I can get you a BETA version in a day or two. Please let me know.. Sorry for issue. :(

Thanks..

[PromiseNasDude]

They are telling me that it wont handle past 4TB so when you put drive 2 in you should be ok...

When i put drive 3 in, im doomed.

It runs fine until a reboot is needed which happens, then the file system is corrupted and nothing works to repair it.

Thats why Im hoping that SR5 will expand their 4 TB limit

Check my previous post to you.. SR5 is here.. :)

[PromiseNasDude]

On a previously owned NAS, I could browse to my bittorrent client using internet explorer. Can this also be done on the NS4300N? How? :confused:

Thanks

Hi Ruff, at the moment, you can browse using SmartNAVI (direct access to share which opens file explorer window) or the usual way of opening browser and file explorer (use network name or IP). We may add browsing support from the browser. I will work to see what we can do. ;)

Stay Tuned..

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

No word on when the next generation NAS will be out? The 4 drive bay model with the $499 price point.

Hi Cip, we are working on the NS4600 now. It will be released in Q1. More details to come in December/Jan. :)

Stay Tuned...

[PromiseNasDude]

99% of my entire music collection is .wma lossless but I cannot play any of them via the xbox 360, the music stutters badly. I have a few CD's that were ripped .mp3 and they play fine.

Any ideas?

Thanks

Hey dude, send me a PM and I can provide access to new BETA Plugin. Curious to see if this helps..

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

I have been trying to connect to my Active Directory on a Win2000 server without any luck. Keep getting told "Protocol Control - Service has started. And joined the AD domain failed."

Any ideas anyone please???


Sorry for delay.. We have a special character issue and a workaround. The issue is now resolved in SR5 so workaround is not necessary. SR5 will be posted tomorrow or you can PM me for access now. ;)

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

About the plugins i've seen here, are they compatible with the Promise SmartStore NS2300N?
Is there any development in progress for a webserver plugin, that can support mysql, php, asp.net and ajax (this last two using the open source mono project - http://www.mono-project.com)?
This kind of plugin would be great! :)
I'm not talking for big websites, but it would be a good solution for low/mid enterprises that only need some basic homepage or even a simple intranet page...

Regards,

Michael

Hi Michael, sorry for delay.. Been out sick and recovering..

Our plugins are for both the NS2300N and NS4300N.

We are working on a plan for Web Server support. Could be available in Q1. Please Stay Tuned..

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

PromiseNasDude, are you ever coming back? Last time you posted here was over a month ago...

It's been a few months now since you first let us know about the exchange for quieter NS4300N units and I was just wondering, what's the status of these new improved/quiet units?

Also, any idea when the next firmware version (SR5) will be released? There's been a lot of chatter about how it will fix a lot of things, but again, it's been months now and no sign that it's coming any time soon... It would be GREAT to get some kind of an update...

Thanks!

Eddie

Sorry for delay.. Been out sick with sinus infection and recovering. SR5 is out tomorrow. :)

I will post a list shortly.

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

i'm very sure in my heart that promise company kill promisedude for helping us.

Company don't like very much black sheep going outside the rules :)

Peharps he has some problem with hierachy after posting here?

No worries, I have been out sick.. Sorry for delay..

This is my show so no one has "killed" me for helping the community. :)

Need anything, let me know..

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

no no! i'm not disappoint! :rolleyes:

I relate only an personnal story, when i see a guy from nvidia get flamed because he was posting on a forum about some info.

I prefer to have someone like promisedude, but i'm know the reality of life :eek:

So i was saying some internal thinking :D

Thanks.. Sorry for the absence, but I have been out sick..

I will always be here.. Need anything, let me know.

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

Thanks for your answer but I'm still having the same problem :(

I set NTP to 192.168.1.19

Domain or Workgroup Name to GCBBS
Domain Controller GCBBS.LOC

Administrator as login and entered the correct password.

I tried upper case, lower case, Name Case and rEVERSE cASE but still failed :(

Any more ideas??

Please see my previous post to you on this... ;)


Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

Sorry to disappoint your bad thoughts about Promise. But PromiseNASDude has been out sick. He will return soon.

Thanks Tim! :D

[PromiseNasDude]

Hi Everyone, here is the SR5 Firmware Release Notes for the NS4300N. SR5 will be posted tomorrow evening. :)

Firmware Feature Enhancements

1. Support Bonjour on system service (Such as AFP / iTunes /Printer Service / SMB / FTP)
2. Improve AFP performance.
3. Add file system check function.
4. Add AFP folder permission setting in WebPASM.
5. Change default user permission of share folder to Read/Write.
6. Add AFP protocol particular setting page in WebPASM.
7. Add a test button for email notification in WebPASM.
8. Turn off the HDD led when HDD is spin down.
9. Add 1.5TB HDD support.
10. Remove RAID5 migrate to RAID0 and RAID1 migrate to RAID0 feature.
11. Add recycle bin feature.
12. Add DDNS feature
13. Ability to disable Guest Access on the Public Directory
14. Turn on the system led to red color when using locate feature with NAS
15. Support port settings for SMTP
16. Supports read and write an USB drive with NTFS format.
17. Fix Special Characters with AD Domain

Firmware Fixes

1. Fix Bug, User can not mount AFP share folder at Mac after AC power has been interrupted.

[andymemo]

Hey PromiseNasDude,

What can a say but 'WOW'. Whats a mission! You've been replying like a machine! (Are you human or a bot? :) )

Thanks for the replies and I hope your health is back on form now.

Unfortunately, I ended up returning my NS4300 (the fan noise was to just toooooo irritating) to our supplier, based on advise from eSupport. They advised that SR5 would be due around 'early to mid November' & whilst this will have lots of feature enhancements and fixes, eSupport advised it will not add variable fan control - for this I require Rev.B of the unit - due 'Mid November'...
Are you able to advise on an ETA of Rev.B as I currently have 3 x 1.5TB HDD's sat in bags :(

Thanks,

Andy

[nusul]

Hi Cip, we are working on the NS4600 now. It will be released in Q1. More details to come in December/Jan. :)

Stay Tuned...

Do you have a main killer new feature? Because I need a new one and peharps i must wait some months?

[nusul]

Promisedude:
- Is there no way to shutdown the fan when the hdd is spin down ? Without change the board?
- Is there a way to check the fragmentation?
- Do you know a resseller in france?

[PromiseNasDude]

Hey PromiseNasDude,

What can a say but 'WOW'. Whats a mission! You've been replying like a machine! (Are you human or a bot? :) )

Thanks for the replies and I hope your health is back on form now.

Unfortunately, I ended up returning my NS4300 (the fan noise was to just toooooo irritating) to our supplier, based on advise from eSupport. They advised that SR5 would be due around 'early to mid November' & whilst this will have lots of feature enhancements and fixes, eSupport advised it will not add variable fan control - for this I require Rev.B of the unit - due 'Mid November'...
Are you able to advise on an ETA of Rev.B as I currently have 3 x 1.5TB HDD's sat in bags :(

Thanks,

Andy

Hi Andy, Rev B will be available in early December. Units are in manufacturing now. :)

Thanks..

[PromiseNasDude]

Do you have a main killer new feature? Because I need a new one and peharps i must wait some months?


One thing I can say is performance. Expect performance of a 600 to 900 dollar product at less than 499.00. :) This product will not replace the NS4300N. More to come soon..

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

Promisedude:
- Is there no way to shutdown the fan when the hdd is spin down ? Without change the board?

Sorry, this is Rev B only..

- Is there a way to check the fragmentation?

SR5 FW has a manual File System Check option which checks for File System Errors (and repairs). No Defrag feature. You experiencing issues with Fragmentation such as an impact on performance?

- Do you know a resseller in france?

Yes, I will acquire a list for you this evening from our team in Europe.

Stay Tuned..

Thanks.

[nusul]

Thanks a lot for all.

For the fragmentation, i don't know because i cannot check it, but i think i have some loss in the performance

[j.hu]

I set up a Rev. A(?) for a friend earlier this year and he loves it - except the fan noise. He actually powers the unit down when not in use.

I am glad to hear you guys are releasing a Rev. B with quieter fans. I may have to pick one up for myself.

Thanks!

[Unregistered]

Where is SR5? I still do not see it posted... I only see the release notes posted.


Thanks!

[vwphaeton]

So does this mean those of us with Rev A boxes, will not get upgrades to Rev B? O man i missed the boat on this one.

[SasquatchPDX]

Has anyone gotten the NS4300n to read an NTFS USB drive successfully? I've got SR5 installed, but have had no luck.

[nusul]

where do you find it? i see only the release notes on the website

[vwphaeton]

So PromiseNasDude was kind enought to send me the link for SR5.. I downloaded it.

Moved all my stuff off of the 4 one TB drives i had in the ns4300. That took about 36 hours.

While that was going i cleared the 4 1.5TB drives that i had in raid on my desktop to a backup location. That took significantly less time around 14 hours.

I populated the 1.5s in the drive and powered it up ready to perform the sr5 upgrade...

One small snafu, i should have upgraded before plugging in the 1.5s its throwing me file system errors etc.

More to come

[vwphaeton]

My 4 1.5 TB drives in RAID 0 still create file system errors after upgrading to SR5. Creating a new volume worked great. Formatting went fine. When it came back up, like a dummy i started copying files.. luckily it was copying and not moving.. I decided to do a reboot and wham the RED light with check file system as the only option I can do.

Please tell me I did something wrong. I'm gonna PM Nasdude I hope hes around.,

[vwphaeton]

I have been able to keep the 4 1.5 TB drives in place but have to run them as two raid arrays so they are running raid 0. This has been rebooted and seems to run ok, the only issue i have is that i really wanted one array to keep the files together.

[wolfirr]

Hello PromiseNASDude,
just wanted to upgrade my NAS today to 1.05. As I wanted to connect a directory via CIFS, I recognised, that I could not. Checking with the web interface, I found the above message in most of the menu pictures of PASM.

Happily I found that my linux workstation was still connected via NFS and I could backup most of my data.

So what should I do now to remove the file system errors? And to upgrade to 1.05?

Regards
Wolfgang:confused:

[scurvies]

PromiseNASDude,
I just bought one of these from buy.com today. Then I read all over this forum (and others) about the apparently ridiculous fan noise. I'm wonderring is there any chance at all that I will receive the rev b versions or is it still too early?

thanks.

[Unregistered]

hi. PromiseNASDude,
is anyway you can turn NS4300n to a webserver?

[jasonsilzle]

HELP!!

I bought a NS4300n. I put in 3 1TB Samsung drives and it seems to be working fine except the iTunes pluggin and BT pluggin randomly stop working? I have requested help from Promise tech support and havn't heard back yet. I am running SR5.

Also is ther any way to throttle the Torrent downloads? - And once finished downloading do they seed for upload?

Any Ideas...?

NAS DUDE?!? you there?

Thank you,
Jason

[highstrings]

PromiseNasDude,

I've been having a lot of trouble getting iTunes to locate and find media through the plugin, as well as my iMac intel using the latest smartnavi to even show the 2300n in the smartnavi program. I've been logging into the unit on a pc with the latest smartnavi and using ip connection on mac 192.168.1.69

Can you help? Also, can you send the beta firmware update?

Thank you for your time!

Darren

[--Taz--]

I filled a support request a week ago; got the canned email I would get a response in one business day -- haven't heard anything back...

My problems is simple; with the lastest firmware (that alledgedly supports Seagate 1.5TB drives) if you put four of them into a RAID5 array when you reboot you get a corrupt file system... and the only way to recover it is to delete it (losing your data) and start again.

You can have up to THREE drives in a RAID5 array using 1.5TBs; but NOT FOUR drives... this happens on multiple units and also happens for a friend of mine so it's obviously something that was NEVER tested at Promise.

My finding is that the support is pathetic... and I can't say much about QA or Development there either!!!

The NS4300N might be an inexpensive solution, but I'm certainly in the market for another vendor...

[diggityDawg]

Well, I upgraded the firmware to R5 yesterday, and at first it seemed to be working great. But I had the issue where the BT service stopped, but in this case I couldn't restart it. Then the FireFly service stopped and I couldn't restart that either. So I sent a support request in to Promise.

After I submitted that request my system stopped responding. I couldn't get the Web PASM to load, and the device didn't show up in the SmartNAVI any more. I tried rebooting by holding down the power button, but it didn't work. It had crashed. So I pulled the plug. After a minute I plugged it back in and restarted it. That was five hours ago. I can now load the Web PASM and it shows up in SmartNAVI, but I can't access any of the shares. When I try to go to File System Management in the web PASM it says "System busy. Please wait..." and it seems stuck at 95%. The System Status light blinks orange (not sure if it's amber or red, seems orange) every second. The drive lights (on the side) blink green continuously and the drive lights on the front don't do anything.

The event log only shows "System is rebooting" and "System is starting to work" but nothing after that. RAID Management says RAID Status is Functional, Action Status is Idle, and Background Activity is None.

Is it rebuilding? Please tell me I haven't lost my data, I do not have a backup, since I thought using RAID5 would protect the data... ALL of my pictures for the last 6 years, as well as all of my music library is on that thing... It's a 4TB RAID5 (2.8TB capacity). I'm freakin out, and praying that when I get up tomorrow morning it will be back...

[thiggins]

Not to rub salt into the wound, but never, never, never trust your data to a single device, RAID or not. RAID is not a backup strategy.

Promise's participation here is occasional. I suggest contacting them directly.

[diggityDawg]

Not to rub salt into the wound, but never, never, never trust your data to a single device, RAID or not. RAID is not a backup strategy.

Of course I know you're right, just haven't been able to scrape together the funds to have another 4TB backup. No excuse, but given the amount of data, it's tough to keep a completely redundant set of drives running.

Luckily though, I woke up this morning and everything was back t the way it should be. The FireFly service was even running.

Thanks for the help!

[thiggins]

Of course I know you're right, just haven't been able to scrape together the funds to have another 4TB backup. No excuse, but given the amount of data, it's tough to keep a completely redundant set of drives running.

You dodged a bullet this time. Next time you might not be as lucky.
I strongly recommend that you do something to back up at least your critical files. Backup to DVD or an online service like Mozy or Carbonite.

[vwphaeton]

Diggity,
This happened to me, i suspect that for me it was i chose to power the drives down after 5 hours. They would not wake up when a call was made to them. I had to do a hard reboot. When you do that it takes a tremendous amount of time to bring the file system back up.

The 4 1.5 TB drives, I have not had an answer on yet. My answer from promise has made me wonder what they are thinking. Please buy drives we support. My workaround is to create 2 1.5 tb arrays in raid 0, and split my load that way. It is not a perfect solution but allows me use the full range of the drives i own.

My current dilema is DLNA will not work with the new ver 1.05.. I have tried a variety of workarounds. I have uninstalled it and tried 1.01 but that keeps crashing, and the rebuild time is abysmal. The 1.05 doesn't even do an initial scan, atleast i dont see it from any of my dlna devices. Is there any help on this? Is there any log to let me see what my system is doing with the data?

I dont mind using a back door if anyone has some suggestions. As it stands i am staring at a very pretty , (albeit loud) paper weight.

I have to answer to my wife as to why she cant access movies music and pictures from her dlna connected tv etc.

Someone please help me out!

thanks again.

[vwphaeton]

I filled a support request a week ago; got the canned email I would get a response in one business day -- haven't heard anything back...

My problems is simple; with the lastest firmware (that alledgedly supports Seagate 1.5TB drives) if you put four of them into a RAID5 array when you reboot you get a corrupt file system... and the only way to recover it is to delete it (losing your data) and start again.

You can have up to THREE drives in a RAID5 array using 1.5TBs; but NOT FOUR drives... this happens on multiple units and also happens for a friend of mine so it's obviously something that was NEVER tested at Promise.

My finding is that the support is pathetic... and I can't say much about QA or Development there either!!!




when it comest to support i suggest logging in and checking your status. I find they like to close cases without even responding to them.. I have several cases that magically keep getting closed with no response.

Or they respond with half a sentence and close the case.

My favorite answer from them so far is "SR5 won"

Dont know what they mean by that, but thats it.,

The NS4300N might be an inexpensive solution, but I'm certainly in the market for another vendor...[/

[--taz--]

Thanks vwphaeton; I checked the status of my case daily for the first ten days... and I even added a couple more entries to it -- but -ZERO- response from Promise...

And closing a case without a reply would be even more HORRIBLE than the pathetic support I've already seen...

The seven drive Thecus is probably a better buy Terabyte for Terabyte, and since they target the business user I'll bet their support is a little better...

I think I'll just sell my six Promise boxes and buy something with decent support.

Companies who don't value customers shouldn't have customers!

[Yohan]

Would like to develop a custom streaming application (for storing MPEG4 data) based on the NS2/4300.

1. Is it possible to load the application on the NS2300 as a plugin / primary application.
2. Is there an API for the device / Developer resources (details)

John

[Unregistered]

Hi Everyone, here is the SR5 Firmware Release Notes for the NS4300N. SR5 will be posted tomorrow evening. :)

Firmware Feature Enhancements

1. Support Bonjour on system service (Such as AFP / iTunes /Printer Service / SMB / FTP)
2. Improve AFP performance.
3. Add file system check function.
4. Add AFP folder permission setting in WebPASM.
5. Change default user permission of share folder to Read/Write.
6. Add AFP protocol particular setting page in WebPASM.
7. Add a test button for email notification in WebPASM.
8. Turn off the HDD led when HDD is spin down.
9. Add 1.5TB HDD support.
10. Remove RAID5 migrate to RAID0 and RAID1 migrate to RAID0 feature.
11. Add recycle bin feature.
12. Add DDNS feature
13. Ability to disable Guest Access on the Public Directory
14. Turn on the system led to red color when using locate feature with NAS
15. Support port settings for SMTP
16. Supports read and write an USB drive with NTFS format.
17. Fix Special Characters with AD Domain

Firmware Fixes

1. Fix Bug, User can not mount AFP share folder at Mac after AC power has been interrupted.


When we may expect ssh server on NAS 4300n?

[jasonsilzle]

I have a NS4300n that was bought a last month. I put 3 1TB Samsung drives in it and Rev. 5 software and then started dumping all my data on it. Everything worked fine for some time. Then I got to about 1.6+TB full of the 1.8TB available so I went and got another 1TB Samsung and put it in this week. I chose the option EXPAND from the SmartNavi on Tuesday of this last week and the system started expanding. I checked in on it through the week and then suddenly on Friday afternoon I couldn't pull files from the system and smart Navi couldn't log on but when I logged on from PASM its log said it had completed the migration. So I went to the Physical NAS box and the drive light where all flickering like crazy I waited a while and they didn't stop and I saw the network activity was high (And it shouldn't have been) at least I wasn't pulling any files. So, I held down the power button till it turned red and then I let it shut itself down. After turning it on I still can't access my shares. I do see the mapped folders now from my windows box but they show as empty!!! Yet the drive shows like it is still almost full. Also I realized when I logged onto it after restarting it that all my services (HTTP, FTP, MAC etc..) where all "Off" so I turned those back on. Maybe that is why I couldn't access it. Even so why should those have turned themselves off?

Also when I looked (IN PASM) at the "file system managment" page it still showed 88% full 1.6TB of 1.8TB available. BUT when I got to the "Raid Managment" it shows as status=Functional, action=idle, background activity=none, capacity=2,794.35GB (as it should now), RAID 5 (Striping with parity) (x4) - no longer 3x as I believe it should.

So I clicked on the button at the bottom of the file system page (I think it was something like check file integrity) and that was lastnight and now this morning I still can't access the system it says 0% done "system busy please wait" and there is an Orange BLINKING light instead of a solid green light like usual (the blinking orange one is the one on the left) Drive activity lights aren't doing anything.

HELP!!!

I did the stupidest thing..As I migrated my data off several removable drives on to this one NAS I "MOVED" my files since it was the easiest way to check in the mornings what data moved successfully (it would take all night to move data on to this thing) I know I should have copied the files and stowed away those drives but now the only copy I have of this data is what is on these drives!!!!!! I am really scared. PLEASE HELP!!!!!

Blessings,
Jason

[jasonsilzle]

I looked in the manual and it says a "Amber" blinking system light means power failure or fan failure. Yet when I look at the PASM I see both are within spec. Smart Navi won't show many of that it just says, "System bussy"

Should I try powering down again? Im really getting scared here... :confused:

[thiggins]

Contact Promise directly. It appears that Promise has stopped monitoring this forum.

[Unregistered]

I just ordered the same.
I have to say it's not clear at all!

In their website they have two compatibility lists:
The first one dated 10/31/2008 says that SEAGATE ST31500341AS 1.5tb is compatible
Please check: http://www.promise.com/upload/Support/Compatibility/NS4300N_SR5_Compatibility_List_v1.0-20081031.pdf

The second one dated 26/11/2008 in which this model disappears !
Please check: http://www.promise.com/upload/Support/Compatibility/NS4300N_SR5_Compatibility_List_v1.0-20081126.pdf

Posted a ticke and never got a reply. I guess I'll change my 4xHdd to 1 TB.

Ciao



I just receieved my 4300N and 4 seagate 1.5TB drives

After doing the setup everything runs fine until i do a reboot. After the reboot the system tells me the file system needs rebuilit.

I have opened a trouble ticket.. Called in for support and was told sorry only use the drives that are compatible and we dont know when they will be tested..

I have been running into a road block. I called in and was told to only use the drives that are supported. I didnt realize the drives would make that big of a difference and have opened them and installed them.. I have 4 at 220 and cannot return them. I really dont want to waste that money is there anything i can do to make this work?

[celibertojr]

I bought the NS4300N, it work fine and i love the speedy but i hate this NOISE from the FAN and here in Brazil this device is so expensive (US$ 700) it is impossible to chance easy if show new model

I make my own "quieting down" changing the FAN.

http://img444.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1937nk7.jpg

Now it is better, beautiful and a much less noise !!!!

http://img155.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1936bj1.jpg

FAN Technical Specifications

http://www.akasa.com.br/akasa_english/spec_page/fans/spec_ak_170cb_4bls.htm

[nusul]

I bought the NS4300N, it work fine and i love the speedy but i hate this NOISE from the FAN and here in Brazil this device is so expensive (US$ 700) it is impossible to chance easy if show new model

I make my own "quieting down" changing the FAN.

http://img444.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1937nk7.jpg

Now it is better, beautiful and a much less noise !!!!

http://img155.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img1936bj1.jpg

FAN Technical Specifications

http://www.akasa.com.br/akasa_english/spec_page/fans/spec_ak_170cb_4bls.htm

nice!

and the temperature? because in brazil you have warm weather?

[celibertojr]

nice!

and the temperature? because in brazil you have warm weather?

between 40~47 celsius (summer)

[--taz--]

Looks like Promise has fixed the issue with Seagate 1.5TB drives in the NS4300N...

They've replaced Compatibility List NS4300N_SR5_Compatibility_List_v1.0-20081031.pdf with NS4300N_SR5_Compatibility_List_v1.0-20081126.pdf -- the never revisions of the V1.0 Compatibility List omits the Seagate 1.5TB drive (interesting that they choose to call it V1.0 rather than V1.1 and remove the V1.0 list)... but the firmware release notes still contains the statement that they've added support for 1.5TB drives (the only 1.5TB drive I know of is the Seagate).

Promise's actions are a little suspect... maybe it's time for a trip over to Alameda's Small Claims Court...

[Unregistered]

Wondering if anyone here has seen and/or found a workaround for this problem...I've had the NS4300N for about a year with no issues. Just upgraded to SR5 and now my mapped network drives in Win XP won't stay connected. If I play a long MP3 it will often cut off midway through, and if I open a file and the drive disconnects while it's open the application will give an error next time it reads or writes to the file. I can't seem to find a way to fix this on the Windows end...any ideas?

Thanks!

[Unregistered]

I had the same problem joining my NAS to our AD. for us the simple answer (OK, it took me a few days to work out) was that your AD administrator password can not contain any special characters like #?/_() etc. only 0 to 9 aA to zZ are allowed, this must be a Linux restriction?

hope this helps.

Simon

[simonl]

Howzit People! (it's a South African thing don't worry about it :D )

I've got the latest firmware, BT plugin and smartnavi s/w installed and the BT service is enabled, the problem is I can't see the BT download in SmartNavi. Anyone else had this problem or know what to look for to fix it? I've searched the forum and other sites but no joy.

BTW: to join the NAS to an AD, your AD administrator password can only contain characters 0 to 9 and aA to Zz, no specials like #$%^&*/?. etc.

i also found out from tech support that you have to disable FTP if you want to use AD with SmartNavi.

I hope some of this may help someone else.

Cheers

Simon

[avvidme]

I've been playing with this for days, and Promise support - well, lets just say there's a few people there who quite obviously don't like their jobs.

Status: 4300 with 1.05.0003 firmware. 4 x 1.5tg Seagate (1 spare, therefore don't have the 1.5tb issue).
Running both SMB and AFP protocols.
Using MacBook Pro's (2 of them)

Issue: I create a file or folder logged in as my name, my wife (logged in as her name) has no permissions to anything I create. The NAS is obviously not inheriting permissions from the parent folder. Although this doesn't seem to happen in Windows, i've worked with Apple to demonstrate its a NAS issue.
To demonstrate this, I create a file locally which has permissions for "everyone" to read and write. I copy (or move) this file to the NAS, and it strips "everyone" to no permission. Although the permissions on the NAS are WIDE open.

Anyone can help with this?

[avvidme]

Another issue. NAS Replication doesn't work.
2 x 4300's. both running raid 5, 1 with 3 x 1.5tb, the other with 4 x 750g.
The 1.5 is only 47% full (so there's plenty of room). Latest firmware (1.05.0003), tried both AD integrated and stand alone (built-in) user accounts.

No go.

(I'm at the point of RMAing both of these things and getting something that actually works.)

Thanks
J

[thiggins]

Given your experience with Promise support and the lack of response in this forum, I'd say return the products if you can.

[PromiseNasDude]

I've been playing with this for days, and Promise support - well, lets just say there's a few people there who quite obviously don't like their jobs.

Status: 4300 with 1.05.0003 firmware. 4 x 1.5tg Seagate (1 spare, therefore don't have the 1.5tb issue).
Running both SMB and AFP protocols.
Using MacBook Pro's (2 of them)

Issue: I create a file or folder logged in as my name, my wife (logged in as her name) has no permissions to anything I create. The NAS is obviously not inheriting permissions from the parent folder. Although this doesn't seem to happen in Windows, i've worked with Apple to demonstrate its a NAS issue.
To demonstrate this, I create a file locally which has permissions for "everyone" to read and write. I copy (or move) this file to the NAS, and it strips "everyone" to no permission. Although the permissions on the NAS are WIDE open.

Anyone can help with this?

Greetings and sorry for the delay but with the Holidays and Macworld/CES last week (introducing new products), I am very behind. Note, for the future, my email address is in my profile.

The issue you are experiencing, I duplicated months AGO and reported to Apple (as we are the official storage for XSAN 2 and Final Cut Pro 2). We have duplicated this issue with "other" NAS products and we were able to determine the problem lies in OS X (if you search the web, you can also find this same issue with NAS and other Mac's/PC's). To Apple support, this would seem like our issue and when I first duplicated, it also seemed like our issue but debug proved otherwise.

Since reporting we have not had an update but I will check in with them this week. Please use my email at billyh@promise.com to continue the discussion.

Anything, please let me know.. :)

[PromiseNasDude]

Another issue. NAS Replication doesn't work.
2 x 4300's. both running raid 5, 1 with 3 x 1.5tb, the other with 4 x 750g.
The 1.5 is only 47% full (so there's plenty of room). Latest firmware (1.05.0003), tried both AD integrated and stand alone (built-in) user accounts.

No go.

(I'm at the point of RMAing both of these things and getting something that actually works.)

Thanks
J


For NAS replication, are you attempting to duplicate local or via WAN? NAS replication does work (I use it very often in the office and in my own home) but network configuration or topology issues can cause problems.

Please enable email notification and attempt to run replication. Upon the failure, you will receive an email notification. Please forward the email notification to me (billyh@promise.com) as it contains info we will use for debug/analysis.

Anything else, let me know...


Thanks..

[PromiseNasDude]

Howzit People! (it's a South African thing don't worry about it :D )

I've got the latest firmware, BT plugin and smartnavi s/w installed and the BT service is enabled, the problem is I can't see the BT download in SmartNavi. Anyone else had this problem or know what to look for to fix it? I've searched the forum and other sites but no joy.

BTW: to join the NAS to an AD, your AD administrator password can only contain characters 0 to 9 and aA to Zz, no specials like #$%^&*/?. etc.

i also found out from tech support that you have to disable FTP if you want to use AD with SmartNavi.

I hope some of this may help someone else.

Cheers

Simon


Hi Simon, sorry for delay on responding but with the Holidays and preparatin for Macworld and CES, I am seriously behind. But I can also be reached at billyh@promise.com.

Can you explain the BT issue a little more? When you say cannot see BT in SmartNAVI, you mean the Download Station is NOT visible? If the Download Station is visible, what happens when you select the Icon? Can you forward me some screenshots (billyh@promise.com)?

Also, the special characters issue was resolved in SR5. Some characters worked and some others did not. Should no longer be an issue.

And yes, FTP cannot be used with AD as the Domain Controller controls all permissions of the NAS when part of AD. FTP is managed by internal permissions thus the two can conflict if enabled at the same time. :)

Thanks...

[PromiseNasDude]

Looks like Promise has fixed the issue with Seagate 1.5TB drives in the NS4300N...

They've replaced Compatibility List NS4300N_SR5_Compatibility_List_v1.0-20081031.pdf with NS4300N_SR5_Compatibility_List_v1.0-20081126.pdf -- the never revisions of the V1.0 Compatibility List omits the Seagate 1.5TB drive (interesting that they choose to call it V1.0 rather than V1.1 and remove the V1.0 list)... but the firmware release notes still contains the statement that they've added support for 1.5TB drives (the only 1.5TB drive I know of is the Seagate).

Promise's actions are a little suspect... maybe it's time for a trip over to Alameda's Small Claims Court...


Hi Taz, as I explained to the others, sorry for the delay on responding but with the Holidays and Macworld/CES I have been extremely busy.

Compatibility lists versions are changed only when the content changes such as new drives added or a major service release. With the 1.5 TB issue we had to remove the drives from the list for a short time as we found an issue with 4 drives and our file system check. To explain more, Everyone wants to see new drives supported at launch. Problem is Drive Vendors only supply a few engineering samples prior to launch (in addition to Product Manager for NAS/DAS I am also the Strategic Technology Alliance Program Manager). Generally issues are found with new capacities therefore we can generally test with a few pieces and allow customers to utilize the latest and greatest right away instead of making customers wait weeks or even a month or so.

Unfortunately we discovered an issue that only occured when using 4 drives in RAID 0 or 5. We updated the list leaving the version at 1.0 BUT changed the date. We quickly worked to "workaround" the issue (as neither Promise or Seagate was at fault) and posted new FW along with the updated list and some errata migration with large volumes.

FYI: The 1.5TB Drives are "Desktop Class" drives and Enterprise Class. 7200.11 = Desktop and ES.2 = Enterprise. Desktop drives do not support Time Limited Error Recovery (TLER reduces error recovery on the drive to 10 seconds or less which prevents drives from disappearing from the array resulting in the RAID Engine marking the drive dead), have much lower MTBF, lower duty cycles and are designed to be used in "single" drive environments.

On our SuperTrakEX SAS Controllers and our E-Class Subsystems we ONLY support Enterprise Class drives are Desktop drives are NOT reliable enough to be used in RAID Arrays. For NAS, I support Desktop drives as they are commonly sold along side NAS products in retail and NAS is at a much lower price point then Enterprise Class RAID Controllers and Subsystems. But Desktop drives are problematic and account for the majority of drive related issues or unexplain issues in the field. I am considering (decision has not been made yet) to remove all Desktop drives in the future. This is better for us and "especially for the consumer. :)

Anything you need, let me know..

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

Would like to develop a custom streaming application (for storing MPEG4 data) based on the NS2/4300.

1. Is it possible to load the application on the NS2300 as a plugin / primary application.
2. Is there an API for the device / Developer resources (details)

John

Yes, we have an API development kit for developing Plug-Ins. It requires an NDA and SLA. Please contact me at billyh@promise.com for an overview. ;)

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

When we may expect ssh server on NAS 4300n?

To honest no time soon. We have some IP issues that prevent us from opening up the OS. This does not mean it will not happen, but we need to find a way to support the feature that works best for us and for you. Cannot say much more at this time.. Will try to keep everyone in the loop..

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

when it comest to support i suggest logging in and checking your status. I find they like to close cases without even responding to them.. I have several cases that magically keep getting closed with no response.

Or they respond with half a sentence and close the case.

My favorite answer from them so far is "SR5 won"

Dont know what they mean by that, but thats it.,

The NS4300N might be an inexpensive solution, but I'm certainly in the market for another vendor...[/

HI VW, who was your case assigned to? Someone closed without resolution? This should not happen and I apologize.. :(

I can be reach at billyh@promise.com to speed things up...

Thanks..

[PromiseNasDude]

hi. PromiseNASDude,
is anyway you can turn NS4300n to a webserver?


We may add in future service release. We are working to see if this can be added given the limited performance of the Freescale Processor. The Next Gen NS4600 has Web Server, Remote Access Media Center and much..

Stay Tuned..

[PromiseNasDude]

Contact Promise directly. It appears that Promise has stopped monitoring this forum.


I apologize for not being as active as I would like. With the current state of the economy I have not been able to offload my Strategic Technology Alliance duties as I have moved to fulltime Product Manager for NAS/DAS therefore I am working "double-time". This has kept me unusally busy and with the Holidays plus preparation for Macworld and CES, I have had NO breathing room at all since November. This past weekend ended the madness and I will be around much more (I Promise, no pun intended).

As for support, I will see what is going, therefore is no excuse for lack in response (even though they deal with several other products as well).

Anyone who ever needs immediate help, please email me at billyh@promise.com. I monitor email 24/7 (well, close) and will always respond.


BTW: Thiggins, I have been relying on email notification for thread changes but have not seen one in a while (as I need to monitor several forums). :( Can you check this out?

Thanks. :)

[zacharee]

Hi PromiseNasDude,

Could you please tell us when the NS4300N REV B will be released and when the promised Exchange Program will be fulfilled.

Thanks for your proactive support.

[thiggins]

Welcome back PND!

I checked your profile and you have the instant notification option for threads enabled. Maybe your spam trap is snagging notifications?

[PromiseNasDude]

Hi PromiseNasDude,

Could you please tell us when the NS4300N REV B will be released and when the promised Exchange Program will be fulfilled.

Thanks for your proactive support.

Hi Zach, in just about two weeks... Waiting for more inventory to arrive (and had to wait for your main RMA person to return for an extended vacation)... The first shipment arrived in December which I planned to use for the exchange but we actually ran out of Rev A sooner than expected. ;)

I am working on the process now. I will post details in the next day or two (I am trying to get settled after being out of the office for several weeks).

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

Welcome back PND!

I checked your profile and you have the instant notification option for threads enabled. Maybe your spam trap is snagging notifications?

Hi thiggins, I thought about our lame spam filter last night after posting. I will check once I am in the office later this morning. :(

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

Hi Zach, in just about two weeks... Waiting for more inventory to arrive (and had to wait for your main RMA person to return for an extended vacation)... The first shipment arrived in December which I planned to use for the exchange but we actually ran out of Rev A sooner than expected. ;)

I am working on the process now. I will post details in the next day or two (I am trying to get settled after being out of the office for several weeks).

Thanks.


BTW: Another part of the delay was to change the power supply fan. Thank "thiggins" for this. :) Our NS4600 (Next Gen) has NO power supply fan at all. :)

Thanks..

[zacharee]

BTW: Another part of the delay was to change the power supply fan. Thank "thiggins" for this. :) Our NS4600 (Next Gen) has NO power supply fan at all. :)

Thanks..

PromiseNasDude,

Thanks for your prompt response. I am pretty excited about a more quiet replacement. Other than the noisy fan, the NS4300 has been a solid performer for my average use (network storage).

Thanks again for keeping us in the loop.

[Herballizard]

Am and an ns4300 owner, currently I am trying to get the SmartNAVI working on windows 7 beta 64, while the software is able to install when trying to change default user or connect (open share folder) smartnavi seems to hang specifically on the login screen, I believe that the problem is what smartnavi reliance on Java Se.

Would the use of a direct mapped network path fix this issue or even the use of symbolic links fix it

In addition is there any way of removing the prompt for a password each and every time I try to access the share folders

[stormking]

Hey promisenasdude
Thanks for your active participation and support in this forum. I've been evaluating several ideas for a home nas for a few months and have decided to try your NS2300N. I have a few simple questions that I'd like to ask:
What file system is installed on my drives?
Does Smartsync work by backing up data by comparing folder data to the previous backup? (sort of like a hash system) that's the best way I can describe it.
Also can you tell me where to find a list of distributors in usa. Tim kindly provided a few for us however I'm a penny pincher and like to shop around. It's not that the price listed was too high but I had a hard time convincing the wife that we needed one of these so any savings would be appreciated.

BTW I had looked at this product before but decided to go with the dlink 323 however the active development and generous support on this forum has changed my mind. Thanks

[PromiseNasDude]

Hey promisenasdude
Thanks for your active participation and support in this forum. I've been evaluating several ideas for a home nas for a few months and have decided to try your NS2300N. I have a few simple questions that I'd like to ask:
What file system is installed on my drives?
Does Smartsync work by backing up data by comparing folder data to the previous backup? (sort of like a hash system) that's the best way I can describe it.
Also can you tell me where to find a list of distributors in usa. Tim kindly provided a few for us however I'm a penny pincher and like to shop around. It's not that the price listed was too high but I had a hard time convincing the wife that we needed one of these so any savings would be appreciated.

BTW I had looked at this product before but decided to go with the dlink 323 however the active development and generous support on this forum has changed my mind. Thanks


Hey Storm, please see my answers below:

1. We use EXT3 File System under Linux 2.6 Kernel

2. Yes, we support incremental backup. The first backup is full copy and all subsequent backups are incremental ONLY. :)

3. As for Distrys and Retailers. Rev B started to ship to a few retailers at Christmas. Microcenter is the first to received Rev B as a new customer of ours. I need to check to see if the shipment has reached them and if they are on sale. Please send me an email as a reminder to follow up.

Speaking of Active Development, I will be posting SR6/SR2 (NS4300N and NS2300N) features soon. :D

[vwphaeton]

I have formatted my drives again.,. Good thing for backups.. I have all 4 of my 1.5 tb drives in a single raid 0 array. I had to do this because the dlna and itunes plugins didnt work. I finally got everything working. It took about 13 hours for dlna to see the new media i was putting on the drive. Is there a way to force this like the itunes plugin that is new lets you check the drive.

Are there more plugins coming? Any beta plugins to test?

Anyone have a good suggestion for backing 6 TBs of data up. Right now im just doing external 1.5 TB spares that hold the music pix etc since most of the data is media and static.

thanks

[vido]

Hi PromiseNasDude,

I got my N4300N yesterday and I found out, that the fan really is louder than I expected. So I upgraded the box to the latest firmware release and tried to find the SmartFAN feature. But there is none. After a short search I came to this forum.

So, sadlly, I had to realise that I have got a Rev A NAS (shipped in the red box). Is there also a way to get the NAS exchanged in Austria? As I could find out the exchange program should begin in the next weeks?

Please let me know, if there is any chance for me.

Thanks and Greetings

[PromiseNasDude]

I have formatted my drives again.,. Good thing for backups.. I have all 4 of my 1.5 tb drives in a single raid 0 array. I had to do this because the dlna and itunes plugins didnt work. I finally got everything working. It took about 13 hours for dlna to see the new media i was putting on the drive. Is there a way to force this like the itunes plugin that is new lets you check the drive.

Are there more plugins coming? Any beta plugins to test?

Anyone have a good suggestion for backing 6 TBs of data up. Right now im just doing external 1.5 TB spares that hold the music pix etc since most of the data is media and static.

thanks

Please careful using those drives in RAID 0 as they do not support TLER. One or more drives could spend a good period of time in heroic recovery mode resulting in the array going offline.


We are launching a 4 drive DAS with USB, eSATA and Firewire 400 (and 800). You can have equal capacity in equal in DAS and NAS.

Enhancements for DLNA and BT plugin is coming.

Thanks

As for plugins new enhancements are coming DLNA and BT plugins.

For Plugins

[ciselkovy]

Hi PND and all,
I am using ns4300,r5,4x1T dsk, latest dlna,itunes,bt plugins.
I copied cca 400 gb media to \MUSIC, \PICTURES, \VIDEO folders.
I am using different clients/players, for ex. WMP on MCE Pc, vaio notebook with dlna, on vista or iphone with mediaplayer app. I am wondering, that the two latter do not show pictures and I can see only 13 foldedrs of video. Music is working fine on all types of players. Is the dlna standard working, or it is only by theory? Should i do something with dlna or wait for the new plugin? When it will be availaible?
The question 2, does Itunes/firefly support only music? Because as written above, itunes client does not show neither pictures neither video (no files, no folders, just empty list...)
Thx for yor replay.

Regards,
Ciselkovy

[sharkytm]

Hello PND, thanks for replying to this forum.
I have an old Rev.A NS4300N that I finally got going (4x1TB WD Green drives), and I can't access the web panel on the machine. I've tried the software, and tried accessing it through the web. I've got the IP address from the NAS Wizard software, but when I enter the IP, I never get to a login screen. The web browser just churns, and nothing ever happens. I've got no firewalls, tried this on 3 different machines, including a laptop that has no antivirus, firewall, or anything else installed. None of them can access the web access panel. Suggestions?

Well, now I've gotten the Wizard to map the y: drive, but its impossibly slow (45 minutes thusfar to copy a 177MB file), and I still can't get access to the web panel, or get SmartNavi to connect to it.

:edit: Finally, after leaving it on over the weekend, it seems to be up and running. No idea what happened, but its working now.

[alf]

original post:

hello all,

i've got myself in a big trouble...

i had 1 raid5 with 3hdd and 1 spare

what happened:
the system wasn't working, i couldn't login in the web PASM, i couldn't login with telnet..
i used reset, to reset the admin password and still nothing. then i used the hard reset... after that i could use web pasm but the shares didn't work, and was saying filesystem errors... i tried telnet but root didn't work so i used engmode...

in that shell i saw pdtest and i thought it was a test...so i ran it... after running it i saw on the web that this command would erase the raid information... and now i see that i have 4 raid0...


would it be possible to recover somehow that raid5 or somehow the data from hdd ?


the solution:

i used r-studio which can create a virtual raid5 (without modifying the original hard drives) but you need to know the raid block size and what parity it uses.

so i found out that ns4300 makes raid5 with 32kb block size and left parity asynchronous (block 1-2-parity,3-parity-4,parity-5-6, etc.)

and now i have the raid5 working in r-studio and it needs to scan it for the filesystem.
and it found it correctly because the data wasn't deleted from the hard drives.

[vwphaeton]

Any ideas when we can expect some updates?

DLNA plugin is woefully behind. I cannot for the life of me reindex.

Is there a way to force this?

I dont want to install the mediatomb plugin, but this is getting silly.

BTW any ideas if it supports the new 2 TB drives?

[diggityDawg]

Could you please tell us when the NS4300N REV B will be released and when the promised Exchange Program will be fulfilled.Hi Zach, in just about two weeks... I will post details in the next day or two (I am trying to get settled after being out of the office for several weeks).

Any update on this? I can't find the details you mentioned you would post...? Would really love to get some definitive info and dates so I can plan the down time and get the unit ready to ship back to you guys for replacement...

Thanks!

Eddie

[dannas]

This has been covered somewhat here, but I still cannot get my ns2300n joined to my AD domain. I'm on version 01.05.0000.06 of the firmware which was supposed to fix AD integration. I think that I've tried every possible permutation of entering the Domain Name, Domain Controller, Adminstrator Name and Administrator Password. Is anyone else having trouble making this work? Has anyone successfully joined AD with the ns2300n?

Thanks

[y2k-inc]

Hi,

Is there a exchange program for NS2300n Rev.A users?

:D

Hey Storm, please see my answers below:

1. We use EXT3 File System under Linux 2.6 Kernel

2. Yes, we support incremental backup. The first backup is full copy and all subsequent backups are incremental ONLY. :)

3. As for Distrys and Retailers. Rev B started to ship to a few retailers at Christmas. Microcenter is the first to received Rev B as a new customer of ours. I need to check to see if the shipment has reached them and if they are on sale. Please send me an email as a reminder to follow up.

Speaking of Active Development, I will be posting SR6/SR2 (NS4300N and NS2300N) features soon. :D

[DSA44]

Hello, this seems to be one of only two places where people talk about the Promise NS4300n. Mine seems to have crashed and I wonder if anyone has any hope for me:

SmartStor NS4300N running as RAID 5 (Striping with parity) (x4) with 4 Seagate 7200.11 1TB drives. The firmware is at 01.04.0000.11

Last night the drive in slot 2 had a BSL and Task timeout error resulting in the array status going critical, with a red light on the front panel by the drive and the lower status light red. The RAID status in the web interface was critical.

I pulled the drive out and replaced it with a new 1TB drive.

Now the array status has changed to Off Line, and the Action Status is Rebuilding, Background Activity is Running, and Progress is 100%. In fact, the progress went to 100% almost instantly. The front panel LED is amber by the drive slot, and the status light is red.

Looks like something else went wrong because even though this is a RAID 5 x4 setup, The Raid Status in the web interface shows my RAID volume as consisting of Disk 1, Disk 2, and Disk 4, and it is now listing Disk 3 as a Free Disk and not part of the array.

Disk 3 was never a Free Disk, and always part of the array. It did not fail, reports no errors, and its status light remains green

Also, the RAID volume reports File System Errors, and says to check the file system. From the manual, it looks like my RAID is completely hosed if it has that type of error.

I think the problem with the file system is obviously that Disk 3 somehow got marked as not part of the array, and so now I'm missing 25% of my recovery system, and that's why the Action Status of Rebuilding never changes.

I can't imagine how Disk 3 got this status. I've had to replace a drive (the same Disk 2 as a matter of fact) once before, and all that happened was the array went into Rebuild status overnight, but remained On Line and functional.

Is there any hope to recover the data on here? Some way to force Disk 3 and its data back into the array? I've got about 2TB of non-backed up data on there (DVD files to back up and serve as a media center), plus some back up volumes from other computers. The data won't kill me to lose, but it will certainly be considerably difficult and time consuming to re-rip all those DVDs.

Are there any diagnostic checks to take that I can try? I've rebooted the array a couple of times with no change.

Really disappointed with the NS4300n right now, it has failed to do exactly what I purchased it for: protect me from catastrophic data loss in the event of a single drive failure.

Any help or suggestions appreciated.

[thiggins]

PromiseNASDude has not been responding here. I suggest you contact Promise directly billyh@promise.com

[DSA44]

PromiseNASDude has not been responding here. I suggest you contact Promise directly billyh@promise.com

Thanks Tim. I've got a ticket in at promise e-support, but not sure if I'll hear any suggestions from them over the weekend. I was hoping another more skilled user might have suggestions. I'll shoot PromiseNASDude and email as you suggest.

[BuckoNZ]

I have been given approval by the Promise R&D team, via the New Zealand distributor of Promise products, to make publically available the latest DLNA plugin. At the time of writing, this release is NOT yet available on the Promise website.


Please follow the following proceedure:

- Disable current DLNA plugin you are using.
- Uninstall current DLNA plugin.
- Restart Promise SmartStor NAS device.
- Install this new DLNA plugin (v1.01.0000.06). (http://homepages.xnet.co.nz/~bucko/files/dlna_plugin_0000_010106.ppg)
- Enable the plugin.

Please allow at least 6 hours for the initial indexing process to complete. Enjoy.

To see my full investigation into this issue, please check out the following thread, on the official PS3 Forums:
http://community.eu.playstation.com/playstationeu/board/message?board.id=bANZ_announcements_help&thread.id=1552

(As I am payng for the hosting of this plugin, I will remove it should my tarffic cap exceed).

Regards,
BuckoNZ

[Ruff_MT]

Sorry for delay.. We have a special character issue and a workaround. The issue is now resolved in SR5 so workaround is not necessary. SR5 will be posted tomorrow or you can PM me for access now. ;)

Thanks.

Am now using SR5 dated 2008/12/16 and still cannot join domain :(

Now what?

[Unregistered]

Hi all, I just succeeded in joining NS4300N this way:

I created a new admininstrator like account with "root" as username and with a password made of only letters, because PromiseNAsDude said "We have a special character issue and a workaround, and I assumed that issue was not actually got fixed :)
Btw.. I DONT know if both things (having a "root" account and a no special char password) are mandatory.. It was 3 a.m. when I figured it. Not it works and i follow the rule If work, dont fix.
I can now see all AD usersa and group andre user management in WebPASM
Hope it helps

[ADuser]

Previous poster - you said you saw all AD groups & users in PASM? How many do you have? I only see about 1k and no way to go to the next page....

Someone earlier said they could telnet into their box. I just tried now using winxp telnet, I get no response. [...Could not open connection to the host, on port 23: Connect failed]. Does it require ssh or a special port?

[Unregistered]

I am replacing a windowsxp box with a shared drive with the NS4300N. Both are on the same windows domain. I am an adminstrator on the windows machine.

How do I copy the files from the windows machine to the PromiseNAS while keeping the permissions/acl the same? I've tried robocopy and permcopy without much success. I could try and mention all the ways it doesn't work, but I can't be the first person to do this, so I'll only go into a few details.

There's about 70 users that have various permissions to various folders, and everyone else on the domain (several thousand) has no access. This is all configured already on the windows machine, so I'd like to just copy it over as is.

I would like to make it as its own folder so I made a new share from PASM which makes it a folder in the root directory when I open the NAS with \\NAME, but if I right click on it, doesn't let me do much if anything. So as a test I've tried making it as a subdirectory, then I kinda can change permissions manually with right click, but not everything seems to behave consistently, and even if it does, I'd have to do this for every friggen folder and subfolder which would take weeks.

Basically robocopy gives me "Access Denied" when I use the switch to copy ACLs, and permcopy only works on shares, not subdirectories of shares. I tried both ways, one gives an error message 123 and the other error 5.

[GanJi]

Hello

Is there any news on support of the new 2TB HDDs from Western Digital?
Are they supported right now, or do we need a firmware update?

Thanx
Rumen

[Changerx]

I am download stuff after install the edonkey/torrent plugin.

But how does it work? Does it share my files as I am download like a regular torrent client or does it just download and not share?

No word on the replacements yet.

[rbhalla]

Hi All,
Any news on the exchange offer that was going to happen for the NS4300's?

[PromiseNasDude]

I apologize for the delay in providing updates on the Exchange Program, Rev B shipping status, next Service Release, etc. The start to year was very hectic with Macworld, CES, changes in the economy and other unexpected events. In addition I have been battling a rash of sinus infections which are a result of my allergies. It has not kept me from the office but has affected my energy level and time spent on other activities. With me finally getting over the last infection, I am nearly 100 percent again and will be back on the boards permanently. As usual, email is the best way to reached me (billyh@promise.com) if I am absent. :D


Exchange Program

Emails will go out next Monday the 16th of March. The emails will be sent out over a period of several days so the Tech Support RMA persons are not swapped with handling the exchanges. RMA will be handled between the US and European Locations. Instructions will be included in Email.


Preparation

1. Backup all critical data. The recovery function is designed to recover array information from the drives in the event the array is placed into a new enclosure. This process works well but nothing is 100 percent and drives with poor integrity can complicate the process. Frankly, you should always have a backup of all data and never a single copy or central storage. In future firmware release we will provide function to backup to USB attached drives. The upcoming NS4600 will allow backup to USB and eSATA attached drives.

2. Make sure your “Rev A” model is on SR5 Firmware 1.5.3 or 1.5.7. No exceptions as we do not have time to support “array roam” with older versions on the new hardware.

3. Those using Seagate Desktop Class (Barracuda AS 7200.11 and 7200.12) and Barracuda ES.2 Drives, not sure if you are aware of the current issue with the drives becoming inaccessible on power cycle, but I advise NOT to “power cycle” the NAS until you have a good backup of your data. If more than one drive becomes inaccessible on reboot (power cycle) you will have an offline array resulting in data loss. Once you have backup of your data, I advise “updating the drives” to the Firmware Level Seagate has posted on their Website.

ES.2 Firmware is here (please read very carefully and pay attention to part numbers): http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207963&NewLang=en&Hilite=firmware

Barracuda 7200.11 is here (please read very carefully and pay attention to part numbers): http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207957&NewLang=en&Hilite=firmware

http://seagate.custkb.com/seagate/crm/selfservice/search.jsp?DocId=207951&NewLang=en&Hilite=firmware+Firmware-Update

If you are using Seagate Hard Drives branded as Maxtor or Quantum Hard Drives, please check the Seagate Support site for firmware update.


Removal of Seagate and Samsung Desktop Drives from the AVL (All NAS Products)

As of a few weeks ago I removed the Seagate and Samsung Desktop Drives from the NAS AVL. Desktop Drives are not designed to be used in RAID Arrays. Desktop Class SATA Drives lack several key characteristics that are present in Enterprise SATA Drives. These drives do not support TLER (Time Limited Error Recovery), have lower MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure), have lower Duty Cycles and typically lack RV Sensor (Rotational Vibration). They are not ideal for running in RAID solutions and excessive bad sectors on multiple disks (especially without TLER) can result in severe errors to the filesystem including data loss as RAID 5 can only handle errors on a single disk at a time. I discussed the decision with both Seagate and Samsung; both agreed that removing is in the best interest of the customer (you). WD and Hitachi Desktop Drives will remain on the list. If you are using any of the removed hard drives we will still support you but moving forward all new or existing customers replacing drives should use Seagate and Samsung Enterprise Class Drives only.


NS4300N Rev B Availability in the Channel and Retail

NS4300N Rev B is now available in the channel and retail. The following Retailers below have the units in stock. Rev B has new blue retail packaging (see attached image).

Buy.com
Fry’s
Micro Center
PC Mall
New Egg

BTW: Some Fry's stores may still have inventory of Rev A. As of late Jan Fry's started to receive Rev B. To sure to look for the new "blue" retail box if you must have Rev B. If the NAS is going into a closet, garage or other space where noise is no issue, then Rev A is fine.

In addition to resolving the Fan Control issue, we also changed the power supply fan. Rev B also features improved LED.

For those of you in Europe, APAC and the Lands Down Under, I will have news on retailers for you in a few days.

DLNA/UPNP Plug-in Scan issues

Two issues exist in the current build 01.01.0000.05 of the DLNA Plug-in:

1. Scan process halts when a “bad” media file is encountered. The scan engine was being way too “tight” and would abort on bad media. For reference, about 75% of all media has metadata errors and or encoding errors that should prevent the file from playback on any media player (software or hardware). Just about every MP will ignore most errors and playback the file. I have been able to reproduce this will several pieces of media from customers and others I know. Myself, I have never had this problem as I encode all of my own Divx and MKV/H.264 Content and all of my music comes from my own CD’s or is purchased from Amazon MP3 store or Rhapsody MP3 Store. The majority of the bad content comes from the internet or friends (unknown source – therefore integrity of files is questionable). The scan engine has been updated to ignore this condition. A beta version (v01.01.0000.06) will be posted later this week. If you want the version sooner, please email me at billyh@promise.com.

If you continue to experience problems with the scan engine stopping (so far our testing has been good), please contact me so we can work on the issue together.

2. Scan Engine was not optimized for very large libraries. Response times became an issue with the limited power of the SoC used in the NAS and cause the engine to stop. This has pretty much been resolved in v01.01.0000.06. Again, will be posted later this week and I can be contacted to receive earlier.

NOTE: Remove OLD VERSION FIRST, then install new version.

I will post more shortly on the next Service Release and details on the NS4600(performance is damn good) and our first DAS, the DS4300efu (quad interface – USB 2.0, eSATA and Firewire 400/800).

[PromiseNasDude]

I am download stuff after install the edonkey/torrent plugin.

But how does it work? Does it share my files as I am download like a regular torrent client or does it just download and not share?

No word on the replacements yet.

No sharing enabled in current version. We are working on exposing new features and settings.. I will need to get back to you on upload features. :)

Replacement update has been posted a few post before this one..

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

I am replacing a windowsxp box with a shared drive with the NS4300N. Both are on the same windows domain. I am an adminstrator on the windows machine.

How do I copy the files from the windows machine to the PromiseNAS while keeping the permissions/acl the same? I've tried robocopy and permcopy without much success. I could try and mention all the ways it doesn't work, but I can't be the first person to do this, so I'll only go into a few details.

There's about 70 users that have various permissions to various folders, and everyone else on the domain (several thousand) has no access. This is all configured already on the windows machine, so I'd like to just copy it over as is.

I would like to make it as its own folder so I made a new share from PASM which makes it a folder in the root directory when I open the NAS with \\NAME, but if I right click on it, doesn't let me do much if anything. So as a test I've tried making it as a subdirectory, then I kinda can change permissions manually with right click, but not everything seems to behave consistently, and even if it does, I'd have to do this for every friggen folder and subfolder which would take weeks.

Basically robocopy gives me "Access Denied" when I use the switch to copy ACLs, and permcopy only works on shares, not subdirectories of shares. I tried both ways, one gives an error message 123 and the other error 5.

Unfortunately you will need to copy the data and applie read-write access on the NAS. File Permissions are not a mirror of the OS File Permission Heirarchy. If you want to control the permissions from Windows I suggest using Active Directory which will allow you to manage the NAS under AD as the Domain Administrator.

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

Hi all, I just succeeded in joining NS4300N this way:

I created a new admininstrator like account with "root" as username and with a password made of only letters, because PromiseNAsDude said "We have a special character issue and a workaround, and I assumed that issue was not actually got fixed :)
Btw.. I DONT know if both things (having a "root" account and a no special char password) are mandatory.. It was 3 a.m. when I figured it. Not it works and i follow the rule If work, dont fix.
I can now see all AD usersa and group andre user management in WebPASM
Hope it helps

Hmm interesting.. Special Characters issue was resolved in SR5.. I will have this checked.. ;)

Thanks..

[dokoder]

Hello ,

Is it possible to create a new folder without passwort on the NS4300N?
SmartNavi ask always for a passwort.
Because i use a mediaplayer (Verbatim Media Sation) i need a folder without passwort for playing VOB-files from the NS4300N.

Thanks a lot for your help

dokoder


P.S.:I upgraded to the latest firmware.

[PromiseNasDude]

Hello ,

Is it possible to create a new folder without passwort on the NS4300N?
SmartNavi ask always for a passwort.
Because i use a mediaplayer (Verbatim Media Sation) i need a folder without passwort for playing VOB-files from the NS4300N.

Thanks a lot for your help

dokoder


P.S.:I upgraded to the latest firmware.

Hi Dokoder, this is NOT possible at the moment but I am working to see if we can add in next service release. I have had requests many times for this feature. We are planning SR now, in a week or two, I should be able to provide an answer. ;)

Thanks.

[dokoder]

Thanks a lot for your quick answer.

[PromiseNasDude]

Added comments regarding Fry's and Rev B to this post:

http://forums.smallnetbuilder.com/showpost.php?p=8220&postcount=188

[Craig]

Unfortunately you will need to copy the data and applie read-write access on the NAS. File Permissions are not a mirror of the OS File Permission Heirarchy. If you want to control the permissions from Windows I suggest using Active Directory which will allow you to manage the NAS under AD as the Domain Administrator.

Thanks.

Forgive me, but I still don't understand. I am already using active directory... both the windows machine and the nas are joined to the same domain, however I am not the domain administrator (and can't get company IT department to give me the password - I asked!) However I am the administrator of the windows box and the owner/admin of the Smartstor NAS box which should be enough, and I am able to change permissions manually by right clicking on subdirectories (but not directories in root) on the NAS. (On the windows box I can do it on any directory, not just subdirectories of directories).

I have found a way to kinda do what I want, but it would take weeks and I can't imagine this would be the only way to do it. This method would require me to copy the windows share to a subfolder on the promise nas. Having it as a subfolder is a slight inconvenience, as it adds one more layer than necessary, but could deal with that if necessary. At that point, I would have to right click on each and every folder I have copied over and manually add up to ~70 users for each folder (based on whoever has access on the windows machine). Considering the fact that there is almost a TB of data in about a bazillion direcotires, this would take forever.

[andi68]

hi,

i just got the ns2300n for 2 weeks now. what i tested for now, it seems to be the right thing for me.
i am using this little machine at home for backup and as a mediaserver. it is connted to my network via powerlan (devolo 200mbit). as i am in the "testphase" i only installed a 250mb sata drive, but 1tb wd caviar green power 24/7 just ordered.
the machine came with the first firmware installed. i copied a dvd (1:1 file structure) onto the hdd. i could watch the dvd on the pc and my hdx1080p mediaplayer perfectly.
then i upgraded to the newest firmwareand installed the newest dlna plugin onto it. the streaming of mp3 a test avi and a test mkv file works wonderful, but the dvd is not playing "good" anymore. it stops sometims, running very slow. i put the dvd into the dlna created movie folder and also into the shared folder of the nas, but it isnt playing via lan as before. it cannot be the powerlan connection i think, because the mkv file runs w/o any problems.
anyone got the same problem, or could help me?

thanx in advance
andi










8

[PromiseNasDude]

Forgive me, but I still don't understand. I am already using active directory... both the windows machine and the nas are joined to the same domain, however I am not the domain administrator (and can't get company IT department to give me the password - I asked!) However I am the administrator of the windows box and the owner/admin of the Smartstor NAS box which should be enough, and I am able to change permissions manually by right clicking on subdirectories (but not directories in root) on the NAS. (On the windows box I can do it on any directory, not just subdirectories of directories).

I have found a way to kinda do what I want, but it would take weeks and I can't imagine this would be the only way to do it. This method would require me to copy the windows share to a subfolder on the promise nas. Having it as a subfolder is a slight inconvenience, as it adds one more layer than necessary, but could deal with that if necessary. At that point, I would have to right click on each and every folder I have copied over and manually add up to ~70 users for each folder (based on whoever has access on the windows machine). Considering the fact that there is almost a TB of data in about a bazillion direcotires, this would take forever.


Hi Craig, (need to clarify) you have domain administrator rights to the NAS (which is joined to the AD)?

[PromiseNasDude]

hi,

i just got the ns2300n for 2 weeks now. what i tested for now, it seems to be the right thing for me.
i am using this little machine at home for backup and as a mediaserver. it is connted to my network via powerlan (devolo 200mbit). as i am in the "testphase" i only installed a 250mb sata drive, but 1tb wd caviar green power 24/7 just ordered.
the machine came with the first firmware installed. i copied a dvd (1:1 file structure) onto the hdd. i could watch the dvd on the pc and my hdx1080p mediaplayer perfectly.
then i upgraded to the newest firmwareand installed the newest dlna plugin onto it. the streaming of mp3 a test avi and a test mkv file works wonderful, but the dvd is not playing "good" anymore. it stops sometims, running very slow. i put the dvd into the dlna created movie folder and also into the shared folder of the nas, but it isnt playing via lan as before. it cannot be the powerlan connection i think, because the mkv file runs w/o any problems.
anyone got the same problem, or could help me?

thanx in advance
andi










8

What DMP are you using for Playback? To recap, both SMB and DLNA sharing exhibit performance issue? I have seen strange Powerlan issues with other customers. Build 6 of the DLNA resolves some issues with response times (send me a PM for access) but since you are experiencing problems via SMB shares, something else is going on.

Thanks.

[andi68]

hi pnd,

i use a win xp pc and a nmt by hdx (1080p, compareable to popcorn hour a110).
it happens on both machines dlna dvd structure playback wont work. via network access it stops, runs slow,etc.

thanx
andi

[PromiseNasDude]

hi pnd,

i use a win xp pc and a nmt by hdx (1080p, compareable to popcorn hour a110).
it happens on both machines dlna dvd structure playback wont work. via network access it stops, runs slow,etc.

thanx
andi

Ok.. What router and or switch? We may step you back in FW to see if the issue disappears or not... Send me your contact info in PM and I will try to have a downgrade version for you in a few days.

Thanks.

[Ruff_MT]

Hi all, I just succeeded in joining NS4300N this way:

I created a new admininstrator like account with "root" as username and with a password made of only letters, because PromiseNAsDude said "We have a special character issue and a workaround, and I assumed that issue was not actually got fixed :)
Btw.. I DONT know if both things (having a "root" account and a no special char password) are mandatory.. It was 3 a.m. when I figured it. Not it works and i follow the rule If work, dont fix.
I can now see all AD usersa and group andre user management in WebPASM
Hope it helps

Still cannot join. All I want to do is create a guest account for a divx media player to connect to it over the lan. Help anyone? Mind you, the best solution would be to join AD successfully :)

[andi68]

Hi,

i tested the ns2300n a little bit more. now i got a problem with the itunes plugin:
i installed the latest version of it on the nas (with the latest firmware installed). then i started it. itunes on my pc (win xp sp3) finds it, the first time i start itunes. i see all the music files correctly and can play them. then when i shut itunes down and restart it a few times (for testing), after the 3rd or 4th restart of itunes or so, the nas is no longer avaiable under "shares" in itunes (i cannot see it in itunes anymore), and it doesnt "come" back.
i deleted the newest version of the itunes plugin and installed the first one (with rebooting the nas), but same problem there. does anybody knows whats going on? why is the nas diappearing in itunes. the normal folders or dlna doesnt disappear (ill see it all the time on the pc).

thx in advance
andi

[Unregistered]

Hi, I did read former ans for AD joining and success with it however I get to another problem.
The plan is to use NS4300 as a file server with AD permission after join AD it look fine however when the connection from workstation getting high it cause access problem with some workstations.

If you disconnect it and try to reconnect it again it will be error "insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service"

The only solution I did now is either stop windows service and restart again. Is there any limited number of connection at NS4300 box? How to increase it?

Please help

[Ruff_MT]

Is there a way to enable a Guest account on the NS4300N? All I want to do is to share the contents of the NS4300N with a Guest user on my Win2000 Server box.

Is this too much to ask?

Thanks

[Craig]

Hi Craig, (need to clarify) you have domain administrator rights to the NAS (which is joined to the AD)?

How would I know? What would I have to do to get it?

What I do know is this. When I have a windows machine that needs to be added to domain, the domain admin will use their username and password to add it to the domain. I will then (from the administrator local account) goto control panel and add my domain account to the administrators group. At that point, I can login as myself and am able to control everything on the windows box.

For the NAS, I had the domain admin use their username and password to join the NAS to the domain. I'm not sure how to make my domain account an administrator on the nas itself like I can thru windows control panel, however I determined (through lots of trial and error) that if connect to the nas thru AD from a windows machine (start/run \\name), if I make a subdirectory of a subdirectory (i.e. in PUBLIC), then I am able to change permissions on that subdir. I couldn't figure out how to change the permissions of PUBLIC itself, or to rename PUBLIC. I can create another folder in root (a share) from the webadmin named whatever I want, but still can't figure out how to change permissions on it, still limited to only changing permissions on its subdirs.

When I say permissions, I'm talking about which users have access, etc... I think permissions is the right word. But even with what I've figured out so far, I still haven't been able to figure out how to copy from the windows machine to the nas while keeping the same permissions, even when using a subdir. I have been trying to do this with robocopy. [I also experimented with permcopy, but permcopy isn't meant to work on subdirs of shares anyway, and since I haven't even been able to figure out how to edit permission on the shares manually, I didn't expect it to work automatically].

[PromiseNasDude]

Still cannot join. All I want to do is create a guest account for a divx media player to connect to it over the lan. Help anyone? Mind you, the best solution would be to join AD successfully :)

Hi Ruff, if you are looking for a quest account that requires no authentication, this not possible at moment (but coming). As for the AD issues this will be easier via email.. :) billyh@promise.com

Thanks.

[PromiseNasDude]

Is there a way to enable a Guest account on the NS4300N? All I want to do is to share the contents of the NS4300N with a Guest user on my Win2000 Server box.

Is this too much to ask?

Thanks

For PC to PC quest access, there is a default guest account:

username: guest
password: guest

Make sure the guest account has sharing rights for the directory (share) to be accessed. This can be done via Sharing Setup in PASM or SmartNAVI.

Thanks..

[PromiseNasDude]

How would I know? What would I have to do to get it?

What I do know is this. When I have a windows machine that needs to be added to domain, the domain admin will use their username and password to add it to the domain. I will then (from the administrator local account) goto control panel and add my domain account to the administrators group. At that point, I can login as myself and am able to control everything on the windows box.

For the NAS, I had the domain admin use their username and password to join the NAS to the domain. I'm not sure how to make my domain account an administrator on the nas itself like I can thru windows control panel, however I determined (through lots of trial and error) that if connect to the nas thru AD from a windows machine (start/run \\name), if I make a subdirectory of a subdirectory (i.e. in PUBLIC), then I am able to change permissions on that subdir. I couldn't figure out how to change the permissions of PUBLIC itself, or to rename PUBLIC. I can create another folder in root (a share) from the webadmin named whatever I want, but still can't figure out how to change permissions on it, still limited to only changing permissions on its subdirs.

When I say permissions, I'm talking about which users have access, etc... I think permissions is the right word. But even with what I've figured out so far, I still haven't been able to figure out how to copy from the windows machine to the nas while keeping the same permissions, even when using a subdir. I have been trying to do this with robocopy. [I also experimented with permcopy, but permcopy isn't meant to work on subdirs of shares anyway, and since I haven't even been able to figure out how to edit permission on the shares manually, I didn't expect it to work automatically].

What you experienced is the norm. The permissions on the Public directory cannot be changed, you can only assign access. Subdirectories can have permissions (security) assigned to them under AD.

As for migrating data issue, this is a common issue because Security Permissions, NTFS Permissions and Domain Permissions are not copied to the NAS. Microsoft has some knowledge base docs on migrating domain permissions via reg key when moving data from one machine to another machine. But the doc is for NTFS to NTFS and does not apply to NAS. For the security and NTFS permissions, some 3rd party utilities exist. Here is a good acticle on how to get this done:

http://thebackroomtech.com/2007/08/28/howto-migrate-file-shares-permissions-and-user-profiles-paths-in-a-windows-2003-domain/


Anything else let me know.

Thanks.

[Unregistered]

I picked up NS2300n at Mac World but am just now getting around to setting it up. But I have run into a problem. SmartNavi does not see it. I have swapped network cables and connected it directly to the router (Airport). The unit it self seems to be operating (all green lights, fan running, no blue smoke). Reading though this forum I see that someone else had the same problem (#124), but there was no response it his post. Any ideas of what to do next?

[Craig]

What you experienced is the norm. The permissions on the Public directory cannot be changed, you can only assign access.

I'll read what you linked for info on copying the permissions, but how do I "assign access" to public (or another "share" if I create it from pasm)? Right now everyone can get in. I could only control subdirs (by right clicking). If I connect thru AD (by \\nasname) and then right click on PUBLIC, nothing I change gets saved.

[PromiseNasDude]

I picked up NS2300n at Mac World but am just now getting around to setting it up. But I have run into a problem. SmartNavi does not see it. I have swapped network cables and connected it directly to the router (Airport). The unit it self seems to be operating (all green lights, fan running, no blue smoke). Reading though this forum I see that someone else had the same problem (#124), but there was no response it his post. Any ideas of what to do next?

If you are just setting up the unit it has FW 1.3.7. The current FW is SR 1.5.6 and only works with SmartNAVI version v1.1.0.14. Please download v1.0.0.25 BETA. This version will see the unit.

Then upgrade FW to 1.5.6, uninstall SmartNAVI 1.0.0.25 and reinstall 1.1.0.14. :)

In 1.5.6 we changed MAC protocol used for detection from BOOTP to Bonjour. If issues, persist after sing 1.0.0.25, please contact me via PM or email (billyh@promise.com)..

Thanks..

[mopperle]

Have all the emails been sent out already? Sent an email last week to billyh@promise.com, but didn't get an answer so far. Or do I have to open a ticket?

Otto

[PromiseNasDude]

Have all the emails been sent out already? Sent an email last week to billyh@promise.com, but didn't get an answer so far. Or do I have to open a ticket?

Otto

Hi Otto, Emails were sent out to everyone who signed up for the exchange before the September 24th deadline (last year - sorry for limited offer only). Do not recall an email from you but I may have missed (or it is in my junk mail or spam folder folders) as I get 100+ pieces of email per day (my apologies).

Thanks.

[mopperle]

So does that mean no chance for me to get Rev. B? :(

Otto

[ttran55]

I took off early from work to see my brand new rev B. However, I am disappointed that I received the old red box with refurbished rev A unit in it. The serial number appears to be the earlier than what I had. The fan noise is the same and it's running 2400RPM at 38C. Led is dim compared to the side by side picture posted by Bill. I hope Promise will send the the rev B next time.
Thang.

[Ruff_MT]

Hi Ruff, if you are looking for a quest account that requires no authentication, this not possible at moment (but coming). As for the AD issues this will be easier via email.. :) billyh@promise.com

Thanks.

I sent you an email with snap shots of my problem but have received no reply as yet!!

[conor]

Billy, sent you an email, and CC'd you via PM

[andywt]

I am having major performance issues with my SmartSor NAS. I have a 4300 with 4 1.5TB drives running in RAID 5.

I am copying a Dataset from a SATA 1TB drive that has 800GB of data in it. After running 24 hrs, only 13GB of data has transferred.

I tried setting the JumboFrame to 9K but the Windows performance monitor show I am using .15% of the 1GB network.

Help!!

[Ruff_MT]

Billy, sent you an email, and CC'd you via PM

Think Billy went fishing?? hehe (joke)

[Unregistered]

I've being reading a lot of the posting.
I have 4 Samsung HD103UJ in a raid-5 array.
The Samsung HD103UJ is not in the supported list anymore (for new users). But it scares me a bit.
But if I want to change to for example 4 Samsungs HE103UJ I have to buy first 2 "1 TB" external drives to get my 2.5 TB data to a place to stall my data.
(I have 500 Gig free on my computer). The I install the new 4 Samsungs HE103UJ in the smartstor. Put all the data back.
Then I remain with 2 "1 TB" external drives and 4 "1 TB" Samsungs HD103UJ.
Expensive and what to do with all the drives ?
Any sugestions ?

[pinhead]

hello,

i have a little problem with the NS4300.
i have installed the torrent plugin, and the smart navi software. i put a torrent link into it, but if i want to stop the donwload, or i want to remove the link from the list, nothing happends.
he download the file, but he don`t do that.

also i can´t see the downloadspeed, or how much the file is finished.

greetz from germany.

[salimfadhley]

Dear PromiseNasDude...

Do you have any plan to share the love with folks who bought the Edge10 Nas400 version of your product?

Do you know if the Edgestore NAS400 has the fan-control feature?

PS. Why was the ability to migrate Raid5 to other stuff removed? Thanks.

[Unregistered]

Unfortunately since the NS4300N doesn't appear to support NFSv3 using TCP it's not compatible with VMware ESX. I imagine that VMware felt that the connectionless UDP method was inappropriate for a VM since it should require integrity at all times.

I don't know how XEN connnects to NFS, it may work.

[nelusr]

Hi. I get a problem where my system hangs on 95%. System LED flashes amber. When clicking on the “Locate”, 2beeps x 3times are heard. Rest oif the systems shows that everything is OK. File system management gets “stuck” at 95%!. I recently loaded the DLNA Media Server plug-in and the iTunes Server Plugin. Can it be one of them?

[conor]

Anyone else notice file transfers dropping/pausing or if u are in the PSAM?

I think I've narrowed it down to it only happening AFTER the NAS comes out of standby.

It only seems to effect uploads to the NAS (at least thats when i seem to notice it) downloads from the nas seem ok.

After a fresh reboot it works fine. Anyone else notice this?

I'm on the latest NS4300N SR5.1 Service Release Firmware.

[zacharee]

Having no intention to clutter this thread, I just like to commend Promise and especially PromiseNasDude for being proactive towards higher customers satisfaction. Thanks for going extra miles to implement the NS4300N REV B Exchange Program. It took only a few days after my unit was received by Promise for the REV B unit to show up at my door. Also kudos to thiggins for making it possible in the first place for us to share our product experiences and interact with manufactures (Promise in this case).

Zacharee

[conor]

I agree as well. I will be buying the new 4600 when it comes out because of this support. I'm looking forward to a faster performing device and at least we know that they will stand behind their product.

[NASKevlar]

Only reason I bought my 4300 was because I came across this forum and saw PromiseDude helping everyone. And turns out, he replies to every single Pm as well. May take him time, but d00d busts his butt to get to it. When I need a new NAS (which I may out grow this 4300 already with 4TB), I will def be buyin the 4600.

[Ruff_MT]

having no intention to clutter this thread, i just like to commend promise and especially promisenasdude for being proactive towards higher customers satisfaction. Thanks for going extra miles to implement the ns4300n rev b exchange program. It took only a few days after my unit was received by promise for the rev b unit to show up at my door. Also kudos to thiggins for making it possible in the first place for us to share our product experiences and interact with manufactures (promise in this case).

Zacharee

rub it in why don't you.

[Ruff_MT]

I need some help here. I'm getting very frustrated :mad: because I cannot do one simple task that is supposed to be straight forward. I want to enable AD. I know many of you have managed but I have not. All I want to do is to use the same users and rights from my Win2000 server on the NAS drives. Since the NAS does not come with a builtin Guest account, then the only way I can see for me to be able to do this is to enable AD.

Can ANYONE help please?

Thanks

[Unregistered]

I have 3 NS 4300N's at home. I just setup the 3rd one with 4 x 1TB drives.

The issue I am having is that when I try to access via Vista, it says it can't access \\nas_box_2\PUBLIC (nor any of the other folders). I fixed the other folders by deleting them and recreating them, but PUBLIC still has that issue. I try to assign sharing rights, etc but nothing works. I do not have this issue on my other 2 boxes.

It has the lasted firmware, etc as I downloaded them yesterday and upgraded today.

[GanJi]

Hi
Srry to bug, but are there any news on the 2TB drives compatibility? Any official word, or anyone tried it?

Thanx
Rumen

[andi68]

...when the new firmware release for the ns2300n will be released?
Hope it will be released soon. I need it for the "real free user" access.


Andi

[andi68]

hi,

i got a problem:
i'm using the ns2300n to store some media stuff. its connected via 200mbit powerlan and everything works fine with the exception of while watching videos on my pc or network media box (e.g. the hdx 1000 same as the popcorn hour thing). i got the following problem:
while watching original dvd copies (1:1) the data-stream is sometimes "too slow", it got "drop outs". this repeats every 3-5 minutes or so.
while watching a mkv file (e.g. an 720p movie and dts sound) there are no probs with it (never).
i tried smb connection and nfs connection, but same problem with both.
does anybody knows why dvds causing troubles, mkvs don't?
is it because dvds using higher data-stream?

thx in advance
andi

[stefano]

Hello all,
I have one NAS unit joined to a Windows 2003 active domain, the problem is that all the users newly created in the domain cannot access the NAS device.
Only the "old" users that were already present before to join the NAS to the domain
can access the device shares.
In the NAS web management page I can see the users list and it shows only the old users.
To make a test I have deleted two old users from the domain and after a while they disappeared from the NAS users management page...
I have opened two Web Support requests on
https://support.promise.com
but nobody answers...
thanks for any ideas

[Ruben S]

I sent you a pm a few months ago back in February and have yet to get a reply from you. Can you please reply back so that I may be put on the list for an exchange as the fan noise is a little much, especially being that i have this box next to my other A/V equipment.

Thank you

Hi khambati, appreciate it the feeback. :)

1. The performance you are experiencing is right on par. The average performance for reads via SMB and AFP is around 15 to 25 MB/s. Writes under AFP will be improved in the next FW for the NS4300N and NS2300N. SMB reads and writes will see no improvement. NAS products are limited by their SoCs and even the Thecus 5200 Pro with the 1.2 GHZ Celeron reads and writes (real world performance) at 40 to 45 MB/s. But this product cost 800 bones. Our next gen NAS will MORE than double in read performance and MORE than triple in write at the same price point (MSRP 499.00). :)

2. Send me a PM with your details so I can add you to the exchange list.

3. The manual has some info on loading Plug-Ins such as the DLNA Plug-In. Our website is about to see a major overhaul and once that is done, I will have tons of DLNA - Media Streaming content up. You can load the DLNA Plug-In using the Web Interface (PASM) or SmartNAVI. Is using SmartNAVI the Plug-In can be loaded under NAS Management. Once Plug-In is loaded, enable the Plug-In. At this point the service will be to scan the media in the Music, Pictures and Video Directories. Our new DLNA Plug-In I discussed earlier post is now available for download. One item I forgot to mention was that we fix a PS3 Divx issue as well.

Need anything else, let me know.

Thanks

[rayymlai]

I bought 2 units of NS4300N last may 2008 (an expensive investment), but noted the noisy fan issue. this has been bothering me and the family, and my family does not want them in the house. (another problem is the extremely low speed of <1Mb read).

By reading SmallNetBuilder website, it appears that other entry level products such as D-Link, HP and NetGear don't have the disturbing fan issue.

I read this email thread about the offer to replace old units with the new fan control. Is this offer still open? It'll be very disappointing to give up using NS4300N due to this noise issue.

thanks.

[Unregistered]

I'll be very theankfull for any one who can help....

I bought this unit installed the drives...moved filles everything is cool with the speed in the netwprk but I've installed the bt plug from the cd that came with still everything great ...added files to the download list and here they are in the list... but they are not comming...no movement at all.... I checked ports....routes....any thing I could think about...

the program get the file info right for the file that I wish to download but then nothing happens? any file that I tried its all the same...
It says it's connected on the bootom of the the download table and still....
any one with an Idea...

m_net@arava.co.il

[Unregistered]

99% of my entire music collection is .wma lossless but I cannot play any of them via the xbox 360, the music stutters badly. I have a few CD's that were ripped .mp3 and they play fine.

Any ideas?

Thanks

I have this same problem is there a solution?

[jerry0000]

Hi,

I got root/shell access by using the password bug in the early firmware. That was a while ago. Now Promise has new firmware available. Anybody know if upgrading the firmware will rest the root password (to a factory and unknown one)? And if the new firmware has fixed this bug?

http://securitytracker.com/alerts/2007/Sep/1018754.html

Thanks,
Jerry

[tvleavitt]

I want to use one these devices as a storage repository for our Amanda backup server.

The problem is that the default Amanda installation uses UID 34. I'd normally just mount it to the Ubuntu system via NFS, but my understanding is that the NFS version on this uses UDP instead of TCP, and this is not functional on a GigE network.

So, I'm trying to mount it via SMB. But the system appears to not want to permit anonymous mounts via SMB, so I have to use credentials... which is fine but I can't assign a UID to the created user on the Promise NAS, so files written to the Promise NAS become owned by a different UID than Amanda, which is not happy about this.

... do folks have any suggestions as to a workaround? Does it really only use UDP NFS? If so, they shouldn't be advertising that as a supported "feature" when the device has a GigE connection, as the inevitable result will be data corruption!

... I may have to recompile Amanda to use a different UID. I know that would work, but it's undesireable from a maintenance perspective.

[muukio]

Hi,

I read all about AD join failure posts but no help, I'm experiencing same issues.

I did some google and found this topic. We cannot join AD from ns2300n.
Some users here experienced similar problems on the topic, I read the solutions but they didnt work out for me.

Anyone can help?
I also sent mail to promisedude, hope he helps.

We did date/time settings and entered Domain Controller as NTP server.
Tried Protocol Control from File & Print, selected AD Domain and entered Domain information.

I created a user as a Domain Admin with all letters on user name and password sections.
I log on to that domain with new created user, no problem, but ns2300n still gives failure.

ns2300n system information:
Operating System Embedded Linux
Version 01.03.0000.07
CPU MPC 8313E
Network Adapter Gigabit Ethernet Card 10/100/1000 Mbps

Domain Controller: Windows 2008 Std. x64
Domain: SOMESERVER.local
Domain Controller Computer Name: SOMECOMPUTER

I tried entering FQDN for Domain and DC Computer but still failure.

[kuwi]

[QUOTE=PromiseNasDude;1246]Yes, but for AFP ONLY (MAC).

So, AFP should be working.

For me, nothing works. I set up everything according to instructions, but as LAN.

I cannot perform any backups. TimeMachine does not work. SuperDuper fails. Silverkeeper fails: due to error 1\n: Invalid argument.

I am trying to backup to sparseimages, but everytime i try this renders the sparsimages locked on desktop (cannot be removed). After restart everything works fine for a couple of minutes.

I am on a G5 with 10.5.8, PromiseSmartStor NS4300N with 4 x 1.5 WD. Connect with afp to 192.168.1.2. Subnet Mask 255.255.255.0, Default Gateway IP Address 192.168.1.254.

I have managed to manually move over files to the NAS, but that is about all it did for me so far.

[Unregistered]

Hi. I get a problem where my system hangs on 95%. System LED flashes amber. When clicking on the “Locate”, 2beeps x 3times are heard. Rest oif the systems shows that everything is OK. File system management gets “stuck” at 95%!. I recently loaded the DLNA Media Server plug-in and the iTunes Server Plugin. Can it be one of them?

I doubt it. I have neither of them, but I am stuck at 95% anyway. What did you do about it?

[nihaoma]

I have all my CDs converted in iTunes using the Apple Lossless Encoder, which is a MPEG4 (*.m4a) audio. The DLNA doesn't seem to recognize that. Is this format supported?

[Unregistered]

When I add Nas to a.d I can access to nas.can anyone tell me how can I set user from a.d. to share in a.d. to make him file server for setting security and access to files

[nelusr]

I have a stand-alone SmartStor Ns4300N NAS device. All my music is there in a shared folder. It manages it own user. How do I map this drive from my Mvix 780? It says access denied. Not even the PUBLIC folder can be accessed. Can I create a user on my NAS? What should it be so that my MVIX can "login"?

[jerry0000]

Hello,

Anybody know if it is safe to upgrade firmware after root/shell hack? I changed the root password on firmware R3 using the web exploit.

Thanks,
Jerry