Thursday 23 January 2014

Setting up my first Network Attached Storage

I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a brand-new Synology DS414 Network Attached Storage (NAS) device a few weeks back, and have finally had time to set it up.

Initially, I wanted to run it directly from the Ethernet port of my MacBook Pro, but I didn't have a spare Ethernet hub/switch kicking around.

Therefore, I was hoping that I could simply plug the Mac's Thunderbolt Ethernet cable into the DS414, and magically connect.

Well, it wasn't quite as simple as that.

I plugged the supplied Ethernet cable into one of the NAS' two ports, and also into the Thunderbolt adapter, which was plugged into my Mac.

I then launched the Synology Assistant software ( downloaded from their website, as I couldn't easily read the supplied CD-ROM on my diskless Mac ): -


and asked it to scan the network for the NAS.

Sadly, it responded with the electronic equivalent of a raspberry: -


I double-checked the Ethernet connection on the Mac: -


which suggests to me that the Synology box includes a DHCP server; I say that because (a) I didn't set the IP address of 169.254.47.63 and (b) I've seen reference to 169.254.x.x addresses on various Synology fora.

So what was going on ?

I rebooted the NAS a few times, and also did a reset ( using a safety pin stuck into the reset port on the backside of the device ), but to no avail.

Then I remembered something else I'd read on one of the Synology forums a week or so ago - my Mac was connected to not one, but TWO networks - Thunderbird Ethernet AND WiFi.

What if the Synology Assistant software was only looking on the WiFi LAN, and ignoring the Ethernet LAN ?

So, to test this, I turned off the WiFi adapter, meaning that Ethernet was the only LAN in town.

I re-ran the Search function and …. hey presto, abracadabra and voila …. HERE'S Johnny ( or, to be more precise, HERE'S SYNOLOGY !! ) : -

I double-clicked on the DiskStation line in the Assistant, and up popped a link, in Firefox, to the NAS: -



from where I could then install the DiskStation Manager (DSM) software: -


which I'd downloaded from the Synology site here.

I'm now up and running nicely, creating Shared Folders and updating DSM to the latest level ( even though I only downloaded it yesterday evening !! ).

PS For the record, I have my NAS connecting to my WiFI using the teeniest little WiFi adapter that I bought for my Raspberry Pi a while back: -



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