| May 09, 2008
Windows Vista seems to present a few challenges for those wanting to
attach to the NSLU2 and view the NAS drive contents via Windows
Explorer. Open your Vista network browser and you will see two icons for
the NSLU2. One of these icons opens the NAS web interface, where you can
view public files, login to private folders for viewing, perform
administrative tasks, etc. The other icon opens the attached devices
window; if you are already logged in to the NAS, you can view the files
via Windows Explorer.
The real difficulties lie in accessing the NAS drive from Windows
Explorer when you are not already logged in to the drive, whether you
want to use NAS security with a drive formatted for Linux or just access
a NAS drive formatted for Windows as administrator. Attempts to
access or map to the NAS drive via Windows Explorer activates a Vista
login routine; Windows Vista seems determined to add a prefix to the
login name for the machine used -- and the NSLU2 refuses to accept it.
There are several approaches to solve this problem. One
involves adjusting the Vista secpol (security policies). If your version
of Vista does not provide an interface for changes to secpol, you can
make a manual adjustment to the Windows Registry; here's a link to a
two-page discussion on the Linksys Community Forum (BE
CAREFUL. Improper changes to the Windows Registry can cause your
computer serious problems. YOU ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR THE RESULTS OF
CHANGES YOU MAKE):
http://forums.linksys.com/linksys/board/message?comm_cc=US&comm_lang=en&board.id=Network_Storage&thread.id=917&view=by_date_ascending&page=1
I opted for a different approach. Some time ago, the hard drive died
that was attached to my NSLU2 NAS. I bought a replacement hard
drive that is NAS-capable and therefore didn't require the NSLU2. I have
held on to the NSLU2, trying to make up my mind how best to use it. I
finally decided (at least for now) to attach an existing 2GB flash drive
and use it as public storage on my network (behind the router firewall).
I still have to access NSLU2 administrative utilities via the NAS web
interface, but I mapped the drive in Windows Explorer using the "guest"
login and told Windows to remember the password and automatically attach
at startup. The drive mapping was successful.
Unlike the NAS hard drive, the NSLU2 and the flash drive have no
moving parts so I can afford to leave them active 24/7 and the flash
drive is available when I boot my computer. The flash is now a handy
temporary location for files to share or to transfer to the NAS drive
and I can turn the NAS hard drive off between uses to extend the life of
the drive without losing the convenience of readily-available external
storage.
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