Linkstation advice for newbie please

[vix2000]

I have just unpacked my new macbook air and after initially thinking I would put windows 7 on it, have (wisely or not!!!) decided to have a bash with the mac operating system first to see if I can get used to it. I have always used pc's so this is a big culture shock. Iam 54 years old but consider myself quite techy minded, more so that my technophobe kids who always come to me when they have a problem. However I'm not sure you can teach an old dog new tricks, so to speak. I know it is frowned upon to compare with windows, and, as I said previously, I do not want my mac to be a pc, but might, at some points, refer to windows, so please be patient with me as that is all I know.

I am going to trawl through all the guides at the top of the page as I'm sure they will be very informative. I will be getting office for mac as learning a new OS is enough for me to tackle right now, and my air only has usb, no sd or dvd.

I have a Buffalo linkstation with all my files etc on and want to use it frequently for file transfer. I have downloaded NASnavigator and used 'finder' to look for it. (I am assuming 'finder' is similar to windows explorer, which is where the linkstation shows on my pc.) Should the linkstation show up automatically in the left hand menu, or do I need to click on something? Would it be under 'devices' or 'places'? (It is under neither at the mo.)

I have searched and found info suggesting solutions for finding the linkstation using its IP address, but before doing this want to make sure I'm looking in the right place first.

Thank you.

 

[mrbash]

Your LinkStation will most likely not show up automatically. This is because the linkStation is using SMB to share files and for some reason OSX doesn't work with SMB broadcast messages correctly.

What you have to do is figure out the name of the device on the network. Then open Terminal and try to ping it: ping <name_of_device>.local
Note the ".local" extension.

If you can ping it, then simply go to Finder->Connect To Server. In the "Server Address:" bar type in:
smb://<name_of_device>/

You should then get a pop-up asking you for username/password and if you enter an acceptable pair, it will show yo a list of available mounts.

You can click to remember your passwords, and add the mount under "login items" so that the mount will automatically appear each time your computer runs.

It's a real hassle, but that's just how it is. It's a Windows world and device makers prefer working with MS because the audience is larger and the company is encourages a 3rd-party ecosystem (unlike Apple).

Good luck,

 

[vix2000]

Thanks. Its showing now under 'shared' in finder.