New Mac User - Problem connecting MBA to network attached external hard drive

[Raggs]

Hi,

Newbie to Macs here..... Stupid question but i cannot work it out....

I have an external hard drive connected to my wireless router via usb. My pc laptop could see this and i could stream music and video from it..

My new MBA won't let me do this and keeps coming up with an error message - see screenshot below.

Sorry if this is really simple but i cannot work it out...

Thanks

 

[r0k]

Hi,

Newbie to Macs here..... Stupid question but i cannot work it out....

I have an external hard drive connected to my wireless router via usb. My pc laptop could see this and i could stream music and video from it..

My new MBA won't let me do this and keeps coming up with an error message - see screenshot below.

Sorry if this is really simple but i cannot work it out...

Thanks

When I first got Lion, I remember having to do firmware updates to my NAS drives. What is the model of the NAS drive you are connecting to and how old is it? You might need a firmware update for Lion to see it properly. Another option is to connect as guest (no password) because if I remember correctly, the issue had something to do with encrypted logins.

 

[Raggs]

When I first got Lion, I remember having to do firmware updates to my NAS drives. What is the model of the NAS drive you are connecting to and how old is it? You might need a firmware update for Lion to see it properly. Another option is to connect as guest (no password) because if I remember correctly, the issue had something to do with encrypted logins.

It is not a NAS drive, it is a western digital small usb external hard drive.

I plug it into my 02 (UK internet provider) wireless router using the USB. Like i say my pc can pick it up and let me stream video and my music for iTunes.

I have just been on the 02 forum and people are talking about Lion has removed the SMG server access to the router causing the issues..... i do not know what that means in all honesty....

I am looking at getting a NAS drive in the near future - the western digital my book live 2tb or the more expensive synology but having just spent 1.4k on a MBA i was annoyed to find out that the MAC couldn't connect to the usb drive through the router.... Hopefully 02 will release a firmware update for the router...

Alternatively i could get a new router but that seems overkill....

 

[r0k]

It is not a NAS drive, it is a western digital small usb external hard drive.

I plug it into my 02 (UK internet provider) wireless router using the USB. Like i say my pc can pick it up and let me stream video and my music for iTunes.

I have just been on the 02 forum and people are talking about Lion has removed the SMG server access to the router causing the issues..... i do not know what that means in all honesty....

I am looking at getting a NAS drive in the near future - the western digital my book live 2tb or the more expensive synology but having just spent 1.4k on a MBA i was annoyed to find out that the MAC couldn't connect to the usb drive through the router.... Hopefully 02 will release a firmware update for the router...

Alternatively i could get a new router but that seems overkill....

I did some checking and the widespread NAS issue affect users using Time Machine to back up to NAS drives (which includes usb disks plugged in to routers). More at pcmag.

Can you set up the router to allow anonymous ("guest") login? Try that and see if you can connect. I just want to verify, you are running 10.7.3, correct? There were some network bugs fixed in 10.7, 10.7.1 and 10.7.2 so if you are still running a Lion older than 10.7.3, perhaps you should update.

 

[Raggs]

I did some checking and the widespread NAS issue affect users using Time Machine to back up to NAS drives (which includes usb disks plugged in to routers). More at pcmag.

Can you set up the router to allow anonymous ("guest") login? Try that and see if you can connect. I just want to verify, you are running 10.7.3, correct? There were some network bugs fixed in 10.7.1, 10.7.2 and 10.7.3 so if you are still running a Lion older than 10.7.3, perhaps you should update.

Hi,

Thanks, for looking into this.

I have new MBA and checked and i have lion 10.7.3. Tried your options with no luck.

I check the 02 forums and there seems to be an issue with my router and that 02 have not upgraded the firmware to be compatible with Lion. Perhaps this is the push i need to get a NAS drive.