How do I make my NSA310 visible in Windows File Explorer?

SteveG

I have two NSA310 devices, one of which I recently upgraded to 2TB capacity. The firmware version is 4.70(AFK.3)

I have several PCs and laptops, one of which uses Windows 11 Pro which recently updated to Version 24H2. Since then the NSA310 does not appear in the Windows File Explorer under Network/Computer. It does show under Media Devices and I am able to play my music from the NAS using my Winamp media player.

My other computers, using Windows 10 Version 22H2 still show the NSA310 in the File Explorer under Network/Computer.

This Microsoft Community link (https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/filecab/accessing-a-third-party-nas-with-smb-in-windows-11-24h2-may-fail/41543000) explains what changed in the Windows updates and gives several suggestions on how to solve the problem, including enabling SMB on the NAS.

I can't find any setting to enable SMB on the NSA310. Can anyone confirm how I can resolve this issue? I don't want to replace the NSA310 which appears to be fully functional.

Thanks in advance

Mijzelf

https://zyxel.ddnss.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=24

https://zyxel.ddnss.eu/Users/Mijzelf/zypkg-repo/

https://community.zyxel.com/en/discussion/20296/win-11-and-smb2-for-nsa325v2-firmware-nsa325-4-81-aaaj-1

I don't know if the NAS will be visible in W11, but at least you'll be able to access it.

SteveG

Hi Mijzelf,

thanks for a quick response. I had a read through and went off on a few tangents and ended up confused and with a headache. I think I need to learn another language or two as well. I was hoping for a simple quick fix for another problem Microsoft seem to have introduced with their Windows 24H2 update. I really would like to sort the problem but I think it's going to take another attempt (or three) at making sense of what I read.

SteveG

Hi again Mijzelf,

after trying the Microsoft Communities solution (which didn't solve the problem) I'm back to trying to follow your response. Unfortunately the links you provided don't appear to work.

https://zyxel.ddnss.eu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=24 - timed out

https://zyxel.ddnss.eu/Users/Mijzelf/zypkg-repo/ - timed out

https://zyxel.ddnss.eu/Users/Mijzelf/Entware-ng/binaries/armv5/ - from your post on 6 February - link unable to connect, although I think it worked yesterday

Is there something wrong I'm doing and/or can you provide working links?

Many thanks

SteveG

Hi Mijzelf,

I looked back to your 6 February post and followed the link to your old backup: https://community.zyxel.com/en/discussion/20296/win-11-and-smb2-for-nsa325v2-firmware-nsa325-4-81-aaaj-1

I carried out Step 1 and 2 to install web_prefix and MetaRepository.

Opening the configuration page of Metarepository brings me to here:

I'm not sure how to proceed from here.

How to create your own (local) repository

Just put the package(s) in a share, in combination with a describing ZYPKGS file (case sensitive). Add the full path to the 'Repositories' list. Done. You can also supply a ZYPKG_INFO.tgz if you like. The script first tries to download/copy the ZYPKG_INFO.tgz file, and if that fails it tries ZYPKGS.

Can you provide a bit of guidance for a novice please?

Mijzelf

Now you can install dropbear and entware-ng. When that is done, you can login over ssh (dropbear takes care of that) as root (admin password), and follow the instructions on the forum.

SteveG

Thanks once again for your reply.

I installed dropbear and entware-ng at the NSA310 System Setting/Firmware/Packages/Package tab. Status for these now shows as Enabled. This wasn't mentioned in your: Index of /zyxel/zypkg-repo . Am I no longer following the instructions there - Create my own local repository + put packages in there etc?

Then … When that is done, you can login over ssh (dropbear takes care of that) as root (admin password), and follow the instructions on the forum. Sorry, I'm not understanding … again.

How do I login over ssh? I've been logging in using my Firefox browser.

How do I get to the How to Install part of the Forum Instructions.

Sorry if I appear a bit thick. I don't doubt this is so second nature to you that it's all obvious. It isn't to me.

Thanks again for your patience.

Mijzelf

This wasn't mentioned in your: Index of /zyxel/zypkg-repo

No. That was about installing MetaRepository. Now we are talking about installing Entware samba. You needed MR to easily install Entware-ng. To use Entware you need shell access, a command prompt to type the commands shown on the forum. Here dropbear can help.

To login over ssh you need an ssh client. Both MacOS and Windows have that native, nowadays. Open a command prompt, and type ssh root@<ip-of-nas>.Then you should get a shell on the NAS, where you can enter the commands to install samba.

SteveG

Thanks again for the reply.

I checked again that dropbear and entware are installed/Enabled as shown here:

Then I confirmed the NAS IP address and opened the Command prompt. I entered the command you provided without and with a space after the @, with tyhe following result:

Not what I was hoping to see. Have I forgotten or missed something?

Mijzelf

Oh right. The dropbear implementation is old, and apparently Windows ssh client doesn't accept it's negotiations anymore by default. You can try to tell it to accept that MAC anyway:

ssh -o MACs=+hmac-sha1 root@192.168.1.114

It is possible that it will complain in the next step about HostKeyAlgorithms, in that case you'll have to specify that either:

ssh -o MACs=+hmac-sha1 -o HostKeyAlgorithms=+whatever root@192.168.1.114

where whatever is (one of) the offer of dropbear.

SteveG

Looks like I made progress and got the BusyBox shell on the NAS - should I have got dropbear?

I entered the commands from the forum with the following result:

Is there a solution?

Many thanks for all your time.