NetSetMan Support

pvajdic

Member

Registered: 2013-03-30

Posts: 19

Network disks on WiFi

Hi,

I have a issue with my network disk mapping via WiFi profile.

There are two profiles Home_LAN and Home_Wifi. They both have identical settings except, of course, IP address (but they are in same range 192.168.1.x). While on LAN NSM can map my two drives from NAS. On WiFi profile I receive ErrorCode 53 The network path was not found.

Network:

Laptop WiFi - 192.168.1.6
Laptop LAN - 192.168.1.5
NAS - 192.168.1.110

shares
\\nas\Volume_1
\\nas\Volume_2

(tried with \\192.168.1.110\Volume_x, didn't help).

What I did:
- time to retry 5 (tried with 10)
- tried to delete and recreate settings for network drives in NSM
- drives are NOT mapped in windows prior to selecting NSM profile (not persistent)
- started to ping network location \\NAS\ before starting profile and as soon as WiFi connected I received ping reply
- network discovery is on for WiFi (here I have "funny" situation, while on LAN if I click on Network i Explorer I can see NAS but on WiFi I can't).
- when I connect to WiFi I'm able to map drives manually via explorer without any issue
- tried to enter IP and host name i hosts file under \Windows\System32\drivers\etc
- FW rules are the same for LAN and WiFi profile. I even tried without FW
- there are no restrictions on my NAS device regarding IP addresses permitted to connect
- there are no FW and/or restrictions on my WiFi router
- unfortunately I can't test it with another device because my laptop is the only computer with WiFi and LAN network cards (I do have desktop computer, smartphones and tablets).

All recommendations are welcome!

Thank you.

Last edited by pvajdic (2017-08-13 18:38)

NetSetMan Support

Administrator

Registered: 2005-08-06

Posts: 1,878

Re: Network disks on WiFi

The system error 53 means "The network path was not found".
If the path can be reached through your LAN adapter but not your WiFi adapter, then we need to figure out the difference between those two network adapters. Thank you for your detailed list of your observations and the attempts you already made to solve this problem.

- network discovery is on for WiFi (here I have "funny" situation, while on LAN if I click on Network i Explorer I can see NAS but on WiFi I can't).

If this statement is true regardless of NetSetMan, then this could be your best shot to find out the cause of this problem. Try to find our independantly of NetSetMan why this is happening. If you can resolve this situation in Windows, then the problem will likely be solved automatically in NetSetMan as well.

We have a couple suggestions that you might want to have a look at:

1. Check if there's a difference in IPv6 configuration for both NICs. To make sure that this is not the cause, simply disable the IPv6 protocol for both NICs and reboot. (see this case)

2. Make sure "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" is enabled for both NICs.

3. Compare the protocols and net binding for both NICs in detail.

4. Check the route table.

5. Open the NSM Tool "Console" and run "tracert NAS" to see where it leads you in both cases.

pvajdic

Member

Registered: 2013-03-30

Posts: 19

Re: Network disks on WiFi

Hi,

Here are my findings regarding your suggestions:

1. Check if there's a difference in IPv6 configuration for both NICs. To make sure that this is not the cause, simply disable the IPv6 protocol for both NICs and reboot. (see this case)
- I'm not using IPv6 and protocol is disabled for both atapters

2. Make sure "File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks" is enabled for both NICs.
- File and Print Sharing is enabled for both adapters

3. Compare the protocols and net binding for both NICs in detail.
- Settings are the same, except for IP address

4. Check the route table.
- route table is the same

5. Open the NSM Tool "Console" and run "tracert NAS" to see where it leads you in both cases.
- tracert showed same result because my WiFi router is also used as switch for LAN (it has 4 LAN ports, one is for uplink, and one is used for laptop).

Regarding network discovery, that shouldn't be a issue because even if I'm not seeing my NAS in explorer while on WiFi I'm able to map it manually.

My last test was:
- removed map drives from NSM
- created BAT file with netuse command for both shares
- while NSM is running/connecting to WiFi, right after it connects to WiFi I run BAT file and NAS drives are mapped successfully

It happened once or twice that NSM mapped my drives without any issue and I didn't change any setting. But this happens once in 20 tries.

I see new version was released so I will try with it.

Regards.

Last edited by pvajdic (2017-08-15 12:10)

NetSetMan Support

Administrator

Registered: 2005-08-06

Posts: 1,878

Re: Network disks on WiFi

Regarding network discovery, that shouldn't be a issue because even if I'm not seeing my NAS in explorer while on WiFi I'm able to map it manually.

Well, there definitely seems to be a connection between both problems, so we highly recommend not to put this aside.
To map network drives we're using an official Windows API. Calling such an API function causes Windows to do stuff internally that we do not have control over. So in result we don't even know why the error 53 is returned. It just means that the API apparently failed to see the target device for some reason. It is very likely that the Explorer uses the same API to see the network devices. And both fail for the same reason.

It is possible that "net use" does it differently, but unfortunately we cannot find that out. Some Windows tools are using undocumented APIs that Microsoft created just for these tools, but doesn't want other developers to use them.

We didn't make any changes regarding the Net Drive feature in the new version 4.5.0.

pvajdic

Member

Registered: 2013-03-30

Posts: 19

Re: Network disks on WiFi

Hi,

I'm still messing with this and so far I tried:

- use hosts in NSM settings; under WiFi profile I entered 192.168.1.110 NAS but it didn't help
- AGAIN checked all my settings for LAN and WiFi and they are the same
- LAN profile ALWAYS maps my drives
- WiFi profile SOMETIMES maps my drives
- in each case I'm able to map drives manually via Windows Explorer (not using net commands)

One thing I found thou, while WiFi profile was active I saw one persistent route 169.xxx.xxx.xxx where Gateway was my WiFi IP address 192.168.1.6. This one doesn't exist under my LAN profile. I've deleted it and last 5 tries my drives were mapped successfully under WiFi profile.
Now this could or could not be a solution to my problem because when I switched my profiles between LAN and Wifi in most cases my drives would map for WiFi. It looks like windows remember previous connections even if they don't exist anymore (all my mappings are non persistent). If I restart and try WiFi then I would get an ErrorCode 53. I didn't have time to test it after I deleted my route but I will try next time I'm home.
Not sure if this route could have anything with it because address is standard APIPA one.

Also my statement that I don't see my NAS in network discovery while on WiFi, well I sometimes I don't see it on LAN either. It takes few minutes after successful connection on LAN to show it.

Regards.