NAS Problem

A

a-spencer

New Member
Hi, i have recently bought a NAS device that is set up connected to my wireless router.

I use two PC's for a small business so need some way of being able to share email PST files among them both without having to have a dedicated server.

I have set Outlook up so that it points to the PST files located on the Network attached hard drive.

Unfortunately, i keep getting delayed write errors when the PC tries to connect and write to the PST files.

The PC is directly connected to the router via Cat5.

Can anyone offer any assistance please?
 
H

houssam_ballout

New Member
Why you don't share the .pst file on your computer,
the delay may cause the error, and so you mayn't not write further more to the Network Attached Device.
 
A

a-spencer

New Member
That would require me to leave my computer on all the time which i do not want to have to do hence the reason i bought the NAS in the first place!
 
tlarkin

tlarkin

VIP Member
How many computers are sharing this one PST file? It is typically not a good idea to have multiple machines reading/writing the same file at the same time. It could be locking you out of the file if another machine has already accessed it.
 
A

a-spencer

New Member
As far as i'm aware, it's 10/100

I haven't specifically made any changes to my router.

How would this explain the laptop using wireless working and the PC using CAT5 not working?
 
tlarkin

tlarkin

VIP Member
a-spencer said:
As far as i'm aware, it's 10/100

I haven't specifically made any changes to my router.

How would this explain the laptop using wireless working and the PC using CAT5 not working?
Click to expand...

Read my post, it is most likely locking the file once a single client access it. Try making multiple copies of the PST file in different locations on the NAS and see if that works.
 
A

a-spencer

New Member
Just to clear up.

I am NOT trying to access the same PST file from both PC's at the same time.

The PST file is stored on the NAS and each installation of outlook (On PC and Laptop) points to the PST file.

When I use the Laptop, the system works fine, data is written to the PST file on the NAS without a problem

When I use the PC, the problem occurs. At this point in time, the Laptop is not switched on, nor is it accessing the NAS in any way.

All the file permissions are set the same, and the operating system is the same.

The only difference is, the Laptop is using WLAN, the PC is actually wired directly into the router via cable.
 
A

a-spencer

New Member
I will have to wait until I am at home in a few hours to do that but yes, I will.

It is something along the lines of:

{Delayed Write Failed}
Windows was unable to save all the data for the file x.
The data has been lost.
This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere.
 
Homenet

Homenet

Member
Ok sure. Do you only get the error when trying to access the pst file? can you copy files over the NAS ok?
 
A

a-spencer

New Member
Copying files seems to work fine. Although i haven't tried and huge files.

The error only seems to be after the NAS has been switched on for 10 minutes, when it first switches on it's ok for a short while.
 
Homenet

Homenet

Member
Hmm ok, there are a few things you could test, you could try a direct connect with the nas over ethernet and set yourself a static ip, try copying some files to and from the NAS and see if you get any errors then.
 
A

a-spencer

New Member
Ok, I have a few things to try later on tonight actually (Shorter network cable, wireless access from the PC instead of wired) so i'll do that, and also get the error log.
 
tlarkin

tlarkin

VIP Member
a-spencer said:
Just to clear up.

I am NOT trying to access the same PST file from both PC's at the same time.

The PST file is stored on the NAS and each installation of outlook (On PC and Laptop) points to the PST file.

When I use the Laptop, the system works fine, data is written to the PST file on the NAS without a problem

When I use the PC, the problem occurs. At this point in time, the Laptop is not switched on, nor is it accessing the NAS in any way.

All the file permissions are set the same, and the operating system is the same.

The only difference is, the Laptop is using WLAN, the PC is actually wired directly into the router via cable.
Click to expand...

OK, let me clearly explain this. If two or more clients are connecting, and opening any file or resource over a network at the same time, windows by default locks the file. SMB is what windows uses for file sharing and once you authenticate windows has a habit of hashing that information to make it so that every time after you map the network resource there is no need to re-authenticate.

So, you have 1 PST file that both machines are access, correct? This is why it is most likely locking the file. Also, are you using Vista by chance? SMB2 and NTLMv2 have all kinds of networking and resource issues, and you may need to do some registry hacking to actually lower the security back to NTLMv1 because well, Microsoft didn't fully test their product. Perhaps software updates may fix this I don't know so make sure you run windows update.

Also, what OS is your NAS running? Which NAS device is it, and how are you configuring it? Over a web interface?

It is very possible that once your wireless client connects to your PST file it hashes the connection for future connections. Like I said earlier a simple way to test if this is the case is to create a copy of that file in a different folder and then map it. If the desktop still errors out then it could be the desktop that is the issue.
 
A

a-spencer

New Member
I have tried with a whole range of different PST files, differing in size, they all fail.

I have tried with PST files that have never been accessed by the Laptop, they also fail.

I am using XP on both the Laptop and the PC.

The NAS is:

Aria 3.5'' Alu HDD Caddy w/ LAN
USB2.0 / SMB / FTP / WEB CONTROL PANEL / HDD HEAT SINK / LED INDICATOR

It has a 200 Gig IDE 7200 RPM Maxtor HDD

The files are not being locked. I know this because for about the first 5 minutes, the system works fine. Changes can be made to the PST and the next time you launch the file, they have been saved.
 
A

a-spencer

New Member
Event Type: Warning
Event Source: MRxSmb
Event Category: None
Event ID: 50
Date: 16/02/2008
Time: 14:59:01
User: N/A
Computer: ILEXA-DSK
Description:
{Delayed Write Failed} Windows was unable to save all the data for the file \Device\LanmanRedirector. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 04 00 04 00 02 00 56 00 ......V.
0008: 00 00 00 00 32 00 04 80 ....2..€
0010: 00 00 00 00 0c 02 00 c0 .......À
0018: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........
0028: 0c 02 00 c0 ...À
 
tlarkin

tlarkin

VIP Member
try rebuilding the winsock file, you can google a free utility to do so. This rebuilds the TCP/IP stack in windows and could be part of the issue. Are there any other networking issues with that machine or just with that one file?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top