Frank,

 

I have set a Static IP address in my router DHCP as .199 and set unRAID "Obtain IP Address Automatically:NO" and set the IP address on unRAID to .199

 

199 is the top of my DHCP range.

 

I can ping Tower and it replies, but I still cannot use //Tower in the browser to connect...must use IP address.

 

Very frustrating.

 

Will this cause me any problems...is it ok to not resolve this or must I resolve this in order to have everything function properly?

 

Thanks,

Andy

What you could do is make a host file entry on your pc pointing to the static ip address... Then it will definately work from that pc, to do that go the following location and eddit hosts file (it is easy to understand):

 

C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc

 

However... you could also just let the unraid system dhcp... I do and it works great without any problems.. Possibly the resolve will work better then to.

Will this cause me any problems...is it ok to not resolve this or must I resolve this in order to have everything function properly?

Are you using a "Windows PC" or a MAC?

 

To resolve //tower to an IP address on a MAC you'll need to add an entry for "tower"to your MAC's "host" file as the MAC does not use netBIOS to resolve names like PCs do..

 

Other than that, if you are using a "windows"PC,  you can make sure you have set the "Workgroup" to the same work-group name as your PC and also enabled the "Local Master" = YES in the settings page on unRAID.  (and, as noted previously, you can also add an entry in its "host"file so you do not need to rely on netBIOS.)

 

Frank,

 

I have set a Static IP address in my router DHCP as .199 and set unRAID "Obtain IP Address Automatically:NO" and set the IP address on unRAID to .199

 

199 is the top of my DHCP range.

 

I can ping Tower and it replies, but I still cannot use //Tower in the browser to connect...must use IP address.

 

Very frustrating.

 

Will this cause me any problems...is it ok to not resolve this or must I resolve this in order to have everything function properly?

 

Thanks,

Andy

 

There is absolutely no problem with using the IP address.  In fact, when you use //Tower, the first thing that must happen is that the '//Tower' must be resolved to the actual IP address for the computer with that name.  After that the name is never used by the system. It uses that string of four numbers. 

 

As a matter of interest the Internet works the same way.  There are special servers called DNS (Domain Name Servers) servers that do this job.  For example, www.http://lime-technology.com has an IP address of 216.119.154.106 and this is the address which your browser actually uses to connect to LimeTech server.  The creators of the Internet quickly realized that no one could remember more than one or two IP addresses but thought that they could easily remember www.CNN.com or www.ATT.com. 

 

If you want to try this for yourself, paste 216.119.154.106 into the address bar of your browser and hit the 'Enter' key.  (BTW, this is actually quicker than going out to the DNS server to resolve www.http://lime-technology.com into 216.119.154.106) 

 

EDIT:  I have a very cheap router on my system and while thinking about your problem, I decided to check how I connect to my unRAID servers.  I use the IP addresses and have for many, many months without any issue! 

In-freakin-credible!

 

I missed a few posts so I started with helmonders suggestion of adding an entry into my HOSTS file.  So I did that and it still didn't work.

 

Now here comes the in-freakin-credible part.  All along I had been using Chrome.  But since I added to the HOSTS file I thought I better try IE...and guess what...bingo.

 

So I took the entry back out of HOSTS and bingo again...it worked all along.

 

So on IE and Firefox it works perfectly, but will not work with Chrome.

 

So other than learning a BIG lesson here, I am sorry for wasting your time, guys, and really ticked ay myself for about 4 hours of wasted time!

 

Thanks y'all..you are have been priceless!

 

Andy

 

Joe L. and Frank1940 and everyone along the way,

 

Thank you for your help and info...very excellent, helpful and informative.

 

I do have one question on Joe L's last post tho if anyone is still reading...

 

I have LocalMaster = NO. as opposed to Joe L. suggesting YES.  What's the difference and should I change it to YES?  (I'm a little paranoid about changing anything right now as you might imagine!)

 

Thanks,

Andy

I can't remember the deal with local master, but had I not drove off from the local McDonalds your problem might have been solved sooner. I posted to check another browser while I was in line because I've had issues with chrome not resolving names on a local network. But I drove off and it timed out, when I went to post now it asked if I wanted to use my previous draft.

 

As a side note I only pay for 300 mb data because I don't use it much, therefore keep it turned off. Since McDonalds uses at&t for WiFi, it auto connects when I'm in range.

Joe L. and Frank1940 and everyone along the way,

 

Thank you for your help and info...very excellent, helpful and informative.

 

I do have one question on Joe L's last post tho if anyone is still reading...

 

I have LocalMaster = NO. as opposed to Joe L. suggesting YES.  What's the difference and should I change it to YES?  (I'm a little paranoid about changing anything right now as you might imagine!)

 

Thanks,

Andy

Google "master browser"

 

Joe L. and Frank1940 and everyone along the way,

 

Thank you for your help and info...very excellent, helpful and informative.

 

I do have one question on Joe L's last post tho if anyone is still reading...

 

I have LocalMaster = NO. as opposed to Joe L. suggesting YES.  What's the difference and should I change it to YES?  (I'm a little paranoid about changing anything right now as you might imagine!)

 

Thanks,

Andy

 

Absolutely! Set LocalMaster = YES.  This is particularly true if you are using SMB and windows computers on your network.  Otherwise, you are going to have issues (often random) with not being able to connect to network resources: your unRAID shares and shares from other windows machines. (The Master Browser works like a DNS server for windows file sharing.)  By having a you unRAID server being allowed to become the Master Browser and assuming that you normally have the your server on,  There will always be a Master Browser active when any computer comes up on the network. 

 

The problem is if you don't get a proper Master Browser negotiation, it can take ten to fifteen minutes for everything to sort itself out. And all this time, you are wondering why you can't get to this share while you are able to get to that share.  (If you think that last sentence is confusing, that is but a small sample of the way you will feel when this problem rears its ugly head!)

Thanks Frank...Local Master is a YES!

 

Thanks Influencer...for making me hungry for a 1/4 pounder (with cheese)!

 

Thanks Joe...I googled it and still don't understand..."Dammit Joe I'm a programmer, not a network technician"

 

Thanks guys...I'll be back when I get my HDDs installed and have my next batch of problems!

 

Andy