Most recent Firmware installation removed access to the NAS540

leofrish

While doing routine maintenance, I saw that a new firmware was available for my NAS540. After installing it, the unit is no longer allowing access to the administrative console software, findme can't find it, and myzyxelcloud can't access it.

I am still able to access the disks using tcp/ip connections, but otherwise, there's no way to manage the system.

Anyone out there who can suggest how to get this thing back on line?

Mijzelf

Try to clear your browser cache, or use another browser which you never used to access the webinterface.

leofrish

Thanks mijzelf - I've tried that. The error message is that the browser can't connect "to the server." So it appears that the webinterface from the unit is not operating.

this is affecting not on the native admin console, but any connection trying to be made by WEBDAV applications, or the myzyxelcloud service itself.

Is there any way to interface with the unit directly (through an ethernet cable, perhaps) in which I can back out of the most recent firmware "upgrade?" or otherwise kick the server into gear?

Mijzelf

What do you mean? The browser can't connect to the server, but the native admin console works. What is the 'native admin console'?

leofrish

Thanks again Mijzelf - Whoops - there was a typo there.

"this is affecting not only the native admin console…"

Meaning, I can not access the unit at all through the web interace. When I attempt to connect to <domain>.zyxel.me, I get a "server not responding" error.

I also can't connect to the WEBDAV port.

Luckily I can still connect to the drives through \\domain\path

Mijzelf

I see. AFAIK <domain>.zyxel.me is always outside, which add a whole new layer of possible problems. So first try the inside route:

http://<domain>

leofrish

Thank you Mijzelf. As it happens, Israel from Zyxel chatted with me, and offered that solution as well, namely, http:// to the specific server address.

Cool. So, I've gotten into the unit and can access the control panel, etc.

However, it appears this has revealed another aspect to the problem - which you noted as <domain>.zyxel.me is an external mapping. It's possible that with the new firmware upgrade, zyxel deprecated the .me service (without notification).

Even if that isn't true (something has happened with the external interfaces), I'm still unable to connect using the UPnP port mapping for the various protocols I need to access the unit (namely AFP and WEBDAV). The unit is no longer recognizing the router as UPnP enabled…which of course it is. Sigh.

That has historically been a problem, resolved by rebooting the unit. Rebooting isn't getting it to see the router.

Mijzelf

I thought the *.zyxel.me functionality pointed to a cloud service, which piped the connection back to the NAS. But resolving some randomly guessed subdomains yielded IP's in different countries, among which Armenia. Don't know much about Armenia, but I don't think there are much cloud providers there. So it's 'just' a DynDNS service.

The fact you get a "server not responding" error tells your domain is registered. But of course it could be a dangling registration. When you rely on uPnP and that doesn't work, you would get a "server not responding" or "access denied" depending on the firewall in your router, even if zyxel.me works fine.

Unless you are in a very strange network, you only need uPnP for access from outside. If you really need that, and can't get uPnP to work, you can create manual port forwards in your router. For AFP that should be port 548. For WebDav I don't know. Normally it's port 443 (https), but I think ZyXEL uses a non-standard port, to give access to WebDav without giving access to the administration webinterface. Probably you can see it in the URL you are accessing for WebDav.

Anyway, I'd never enable uPnP on the router. It's a authentication free protocol to ask for random port forwards. Any malware could use it.