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17MBPC2D · Feb 8, 2007, 12:36 PM

I have a 750GB miniStack v2 (HFS+ Journalled) connected to the Airport Extreme. No problems connecting to it from the MBP wirelessly.

*** BUT I can't seem to find it via my PC Desktop....I'm not a networking expert, can anyone assist?

My goal is to store Docs and picture files onto the ext. HD connected to the Extreme and be accessed (READ and WRITE) by both Mac and PC at the same time.

Also, I've setup the Airport Extreme to use 802.11N (2.4GHz) ONLY....what other settings must I need to do to increase the bandwidth (transfer files speed) between NAS and MBP? Should I use the 5.0GHz instead? And what is Multicast rate settign be to accomplish this? Mine is currently set at 6 Mbps....9, 12, 18 and 24 available to choose from.

Please assist and advice.

tinkered · Feb 8, 2007, 09:05 PM

I think you may need to reformat the drive as FAT or FAT32. HFS+ is a mac only format. I am not 100% sure of this is needed, so I would love for someone else to confirm this, but I am sure that it will solve your issue.

multicasting basically set a wireless network speed threshold for a computer to join your network. In other words, it will require a computer to get good reception to be on the network, preventing bottlenecks. The done side is it will limit the range of your network. It is trade off. My advice is leave the multicast alone and just don't attmept to access your network drive when you have one bar of reception in your backyard.

ghporter · Feb 8, 2007, 09:56 PM

Windows knows NOTHING about HFS; it CANNOT ever "see" an HFS+ volume without some (not always too easy to find) software. As tinkered says, reformatting the drive to a FAT32 format will allow both PCs and Macs to read and write the volume.

And it doesn't matter what your network settings are, that NAS will feel slow because of the ethernet interface.

17MBPC2D · Feb 8, 2007, 10:05 PM

OK guys, I got it working....750GB miniStack v2 ext. (HFS+, journalled) HD connected to New AP Extreme is able to be read & written from both my MBP and PC Desktop at the same time.

All I had to do was provide the Network name in Airport Disk Utility and BAM, it shows up under My Network Settings in Windows.

AWESOME!!!

Gamoe · Feb 9, 2007, 01:41 AM

Originally Posted by 17MBPC2D

OK guys, I got it working....

That's great. What format does Windoze report the drive as? And how is the speed on the hard drive? Your connecting it via USB 2.0, right? Does it compare to at least FW 400 over the router (wired or wireless)?

17MBPC2D · Feb 9, 2007, 11:46 AM

Originally Posted by Gamoe

That's great. What format does Windoze report the drive as? And how is the speed on the hard drive? Your connecting it via USB 2.0, right? Does it compare to at least FW 400 over the router (wired or wireless)?

Not sure how check format of the HD from my PC/Desktop. Speed seems acceptable...but Clarification: The External HD is not connected phyically to any of the Mac or PCs. It is formatted as HFS+ with Journaled enabled and is physically connected to the New Airport Extreme N Router via USB2 port. It's great that Apple have made this (Airport Disk) an option making a NAS possible that is realitively simply to install/setup and have both Macs and PCs accessible.

tinkered · Feb 9, 2007, 01:58 PM

I am impressed that it worked with HFS+. This is why I said I wasn't sure. I had a hope that apple would do their usual thing and have a relatively clean solution.

toddtmw · Feb 9, 2007, 03:06 PM

It's not surprising. The Airport is acting as a Samba server. This is no different than mounting a drive on a Mac via Samba.

I wouldn't think you'd even need to load the Apple software. I would think that you should be able to go the Start->Run and put:

\\x.x.x.x\sharename
(replace x.x.x.x with the IP address of your Airport)

And it should just pop up.

Alternatively, from My Computer, you could go to Tools->Map Network Drive and put the same thing in on the Server line and have it show up as a drive in My Computer.

I'll try both of these when I get home tonight, but if Apple is truly making this look like a Samba server it should work.

I DID access my Airport disks on a Mac by using SMB://x.x.x.x in the Finder and that worked, so I would expect the Windows equivalent to work too.

17MBPC2D · Feb 9, 2007, 04:25 PM

Next project/research is to figure out how I can make the NAS (HD connected to the AP Extreme) accessible on the web so that my family can read/download pictures files directly off of it. Only the NAS, nuthing else on the network....impossible?

toddtmw · Feb 9, 2007, 04:41 PM

There is an option to share the disk over the Internet, but since my airport is behind my Linksys wireless router, I haven't played with that.

-Todd

jsnyder · Feb 9, 2007, 04:49 PM

As said above, the AE-n will provide SMB mounts in addition to AFP. I believe if you reformat with FAT32, you only get SMB. The local machines will never have a clue what filesystem things are running on, and don't need to.

Now that said, I'm only getting about 4MB/s or so reading from and writing to the drives I've got attached (HFS+ Journaled) to the router. I'm wondering what others are seeing, and if there might be any hints for increasing performance. My lofty hopes were for it acting like a wireless USB2 connection, it's nowhere near that, but it's acceptable.

Also, the "Share over ethernet" feature works perfectly, I can access my drives from work with no troubles. Only limitation is my link speed :-)

Gamoe · Feb 9, 2007, 05:25 PM

Originally Posted by jsnyder

Also, the "Share over ethernet" feature works perfectly, I can access my drives from work with no troubles. Only limitation is my link speed :-)

How do you get through the dynamic IP issue, or do you have a static IP at home?

jsnyder · Feb 9, 2007, 05:29 PM

Originally Posted by Gamoe

How do you get through the dynamic IP issue, or do you have a static IP at home?

It is dynamic, but it doesn't change all that often (or, at least, it didn't with my previous setup), so I just check it every once in a while. One could also use DynDNS.org and one of the clients for it on a machine that stays on your network to update when that IP changes. I don't believe the AE-n is capable of doing that update itself. Some of the alt firmwares for routers like the WRT54G have a dyndns client built-in.

toddtmw · Feb 10, 2007, 10:01 AM

Originally Posted by toddtmw

I
I wouldn't think you'd even need to load the Apple software. I would think that you should be able to go the Start->Run and put:

\\x.x.x.x\sharename
(replace x.x.x.x with the IP address of your Airport)

And it should just pop up.

Alternatively, from My Computer, you could go to Tools->Map Network Drive and put the same thing in on the Server line and have it show up as a drive in My Computer.

I'll try both of these when I get home tonight, but if Apple is truly making this look like a Samba server it should work.

I just tried both of these on a windows box that did not have the airport/airdisk software loaded on it and it worked. The Windows box sees it as just another shared disk.

-Todd