If I have a NAS box with weak wifi hardwired to a wifi router does the box now ride on that signal? the reason I ask is my MacBook pro is seeing my box in the next room but my rig upstairs is not and the wifi card in the box is weak and damaged

Your post isn't very clear. Is the unRAID server connected to the router via wifi (wireless) or Ethernet (hardwired)?

 

If all the various equipment is connecting to the same local network then they should be able to connect to each other as long as they are configured correctly. A weak wifi signal will likely cause slow or dropped connections to the network.

 

I probably would locate my unRAID server so that I could connect to the router via Ethernet rather than wifi.

Here's what I'm dealing with:

 

unraid server connected via ethernet cable to main wifi router 1st floor I can log into the gui on any computer on any wire or wifi

 

Both apple computers on 1st floor 1 connected via ethernet cable and 1 wifi able to log into and see the nas and log into the gui, the wfi mac can log in anywhere in the house

 

1st floor and second floor are not connected by ethernet only coax for which the routers are on was wondering if I need to double nas but not sure how or why that would be needed

 

main computer is a pc (R7 1800x) is connected to a router on 2nd floor and cannot see the unraid server either by cable or wifi but it is seeing the plex server docker I think is what you call it

 

It has to be something with a network setting on the pc at least thats my theory anyway this has been a real pain as other than this I really like the whole format of unRAID over freeNAS its just user friendly and I don't need all the power and options of a more complex server software solution.

 

 

If you are running 2 routers then I think it's likely that you are running 2 separate subnetworks and equipment on one subnet won't be able to connect to equipment on the other subnet.

 

I'm not much of a network guru, but for my local network I've only got one router enabled. The rest have routing functions disabled so that they only function as wifi access points. They are all connected via Ethernet to improve network speed although this may not be strictly necessary. You can probably connect them via wifi and take a hit on speed.

Right so let me get this right.

You have router 1 which you have your unraid server connected to. Any client that connects to router 1 can connect to your server.

 

You have router 2 which piggybacks off router 1. Clients connected to router 2 cant see things on connected to router 1.These two routers are connected by coax? Wow so you are using ethernet over coax adaptor using something like this

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/products/8288905/?grossPrice=Y&cm_mmc=UK-PLA-_-google-_-PLA_UK_EN_Semiconductors-_-Semiconductor_Development_Kits&mkwid=sw7mT19vj_dc|pcrid|88057061283|pkw||pmt||prd|8288905&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuLPptq7j1QIVEeEbCh26uwZKEAQYASABEgLUDPD_BwE

 

Have you thought of using powerline converter to use ethernet over your power cables?

 

How are your routers configured? Where does router 2 connect to router 1. Are you connecting the LAN port from router one into the wan port on router 2? If so you will not be able to see the local network from router 2.

Plug the LAN ports together. Disable DHCP on the second router. Set the second router to a static IP on a free IP address then set the default gateway to be the IP address of the first router

ie if the first router if is 192.168.1.1

Have DHCP setup only on this router with IP pool 192.168.1.10 to 192.168.1.100

 

set second to 192.168.1.2  (connected into lan port)

No DHCP

Set default gateway as 192.168.1.1

Enable wifi on the second and it should then use the first router for DHCP and get an IP from the pool  192.168.1.10-100

Any static IPs you have set them in the range 192.168.1.101 and above.

 

Edited August 19, 20178 yr by gridrunner

3 hours ago, gridrunner said:

Right so let me get this right.

You have router 1 which you have your unraid server connected to. Any client that connects to router 1 can connect to your server.

 

You have router 2 which piggybacks off router 1. Clients connected to router 2 cant see things on connected to router 1.These two routers are connected by coax? Wow so you are using ethernet over coax adaptor using something like this

http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/products/8288905/?grossPrice=Y&cm_mmc=UK-PLA-_-google-_-PLA_UK_EN_Semiconductors-_-Semiconductor_Development_Kits&mkwid=sw7mT19vj_dc|pcrid|88057061283|pkw||pmt||prd|8288905&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIuLPptq7j1QIVEeEbCh26uwZKEAQYASABEgLUDPD_BwE

 

Have you thought of using powerline converter to use ethernet over your power cables?

 

How are your routers configured? Where does router 2 connect to router 1. Are you connecting the LAN port from router one into the wan port on router 2? If so you will not be able to see the local network from router 2.

Plug the LAN ports together. Disable DHCP on the second router. Set the second router to a static IP on a free IP address then set the default gateway to be the IP address of the first router

ie if the first router if is 192.168.1.1

Have DHCP setup only on this router with IP pool 192.168.1.10 to 192.168.1.100

 

set second to 192.168.1.2  (connected into lan port)

No DHCP

Set default gateway as 192.168.1.1

Enable wifi on the second and it should then use the first router for DHCP and get an IP from the pool  192.168.1.10-100

Any static IPs you have set them in the range 192.168.1.101 and above.

 

I may not have been clear here is my setup:

 

1st floor has wifi router with unraid server connected to it my imac is also connected via ethernet to the router and is seeing the server I also have an apple time machine/router hooked up as well (was using as back up drive)

2nd floor has what verizon calls an extender with my pc on it, my macbook pro is seeing the server no problem anywhere in the house via wifi

the extender is connected to coax the wifi signal that it is producing is from the main router downstairs so its an extention as it has the downstairs routers name listed in my available networks I don't see the address anywhere for the extender listed and the extender omly has 2 ports where the wifi router has 4 I do have 2 gigibit switches available if needed

 

There must be some network function turn off or disabled on my pc I just don't know where to even start?

Can you open a cmd window on the pc and then

run

ping 192.168.1.151 -t

Are you getting a reply from the server like this ?

Ah just a thought. Make sure some called wifi client  isolation ( or similar sounding) isnt enabled on the exender. You should be able to loginto a web ui for the exender and check its settings

This is what I got:

 

Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

PS C:\WINDOWS\system32> ping 192.168.1.151

Pinging 192.168.1.151 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.151: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.151: bytes=32 time=3ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.151: bytes=32 time=4ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.151: bytes=32 time=5ms TTL=64

Ping statistics for 192.168.1.151:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 3ms, Maximum = 5ms, Average = 4ms
PS C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Okay so your PC you can ping the server so it can see it on the network. Thats good.

Now try mapping a network drive to your Video share.

Goto this pc, click computer then map network drive.

Then enter this into whwere it says folder 

\\192.168.1.151\Video

like this

Edited August 19, 20178 yr by gridrunner

47 minutes ago, gridrunner said:

Okay so your PC you can ping the server so it can see it on the network. Thats good.

Now try mapping a network drive to your Video share.

Goto this pc, click computer then map network drive.

Then enter this into whwere it says folder 

\\192.168.1.151\Video

like this

Ok now we're getting somewhere greatly appreciate your help, so I tried what you suggested and got the sign on screen but it would not take my sign on for root or user name but I continued with the following and I think you solved it for me what ya think will this show changes as they occur?

 

If you wanted to use a username and password, you would create a useraccount on Unraid using the Users menu and then edit the shares on the Shares menu to allow that user access to them.

 

If your only problem was that Unraid does not appear in Windows Explorer as an option to click it then you workaround this you've now tested and your issue could be something as simple as network discovery been disabled on the computer in question.

 

Gridrunner did ask some useful questions that it would be helpful if you answered and it's still not clear how your systems are connected.

 

On a computer on each router, what are your IP addresses? Are they all in the 192.168.1.x range?

When you access plex is it via the webpage?

Can you access the Unraid webpage? in each location?

 

12 hours ago, Tuftuf said:

If you wanted to use a username and password, you would create a useraccount on Unraid using the Users menu and then edit the shares on the Shares menu to allow that user access to them.

 

If your only problem was that Unraid does not appear in Windows Explorer as an option to click it then you workaround this you've now tested and your issue could be something as simple as network discovery been disabled on the computer in question.

 

Gridrunner did ask some useful questions that it would be helpful if you answered and it's still not clear how your systems are connected.

 

On a computer on each router, what are your IP addresses? Are they all in the 192.168.1.x range?

When you access plex is it via the webpage?

Can you access the Unraid webpage? in each location?

 

Did create a user name and password in unraid and did give them permission the windows security screen would not accept it even tried creating one specifically for that.

 

Have network discovery on unless I'm missing something I'm not aware of will check in the am and will post if I find a solution to that.

 

ip address on my server is xxx.xxx.x.151 my MacBook pro is xxx.xxx.x.153 via wifi my iMac is xxx.xxx.x.154 and my pc is xxx.xxx.x.163

 

I can open plex on all computers with the player installed and I can open gui in unraid to access the plex server I also managed to port forward the plex server to access from outside the network

Edited August 20, 20178 yr by mrbilky