Critical Review

[yogi]

DHCP ... known to people with large foreheads as Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol. Basically this is a service (server) that manages your LAN by assigning all the connected devices an unique IP address.

It seems that almost anything that come close to being a computer has DHCP capability. That is to say several devices you currently have on your home network can be configured to provide those IP addresses. Unless you are running a domain controller (and I doubt that you are) you only want one DHCP server to be working on your network. More than one will inevitably cause conflicts, i.e. two devices could end up with the same IP address if you have more than one DHPC server running. So, don't do that.

I'm pretty sure Win XP has DHCP built it as does most other Windows operating systems. I know several Linux distros I've explored also have DHCP service available. My personal choice would be to have the router be the DHCP server because it is always on and knows what your network configuration happens to be. You may have told me in the past that you have two routers on your network, which is ok but make sure only one of them has DHCP enabled. I don't know much about access points, but I would not be surprised that it too can act as the DHCP server. Check into that and turn it off if it happens to be enabled.

So, the long and the short of it is to turn off (disable) DHCP services on all your devices except the router. Then reboot the router and it will automatically assign the proper IP addresses to all devices currently connected.

The way you describe the problem suggests that DHCP is the issue here, but of course there are other causes for invisible devices. Windows, for example, wants to see a domain name of WORKGROUP. So, any of your devices that need a domain name should be set to WORKGROUP. That is true even for your Linux based devices. If all your devices are in the same WORKGROUP domain, and only your router is serving DHCP, you should see everything that is connected and alive. I know there are reasons why people don't use the WORKGROUP domain name, but I don't recall you ever mentioning a need to do that. If you do need more than one domain name, then I'm a little lost for solutions. You would need a controller (server) to keep track of the different domains independent of each other. Maybe you are doing that, but I doubt it. If you are doing it, I would suggest configuring your network as I mentioned above. One domain name (WORKGROUP) and one DHPC server controlled by your router.

Regarding your health maintenance I can't say that I know of anybody else who is dong more than you are. And I do know a few old people with multiple illnesses. I think you have the heart problem figured out. I read somewhere that the heart actually has the ability to rebuild itself to a limited degree. No doubt you have reached that stage. COPD, however, is typically a degenerative disease. You can slow it down but the decline is inevitable.

Insurance is a mess, but you don't need me to tell you that. I am happy to see that congress is at least thinking about medical costs and will be offering a bill that gives Medicare the ability to negotiate prices. I keep hearing about that bill but always thought Medicare set the prices regardless. I guess they only determine what they will pay, but not what is being charged. Hopefully a miracle will happen and us folks with multiple insurance claims in progress will benefit. I know they have tried this in the past to no avail. Maybe this time will be different. Then, too, maybe I'll win the lottery and not have to worry about any of it.

[Kellemora]

Wow, thanks for the info on DHCP. I think I have DHCP turned on on every computer. I thought that it meant to get their IP from the DHCP server, not that it was the DHCP server. Or am I understanding that wrong?
I also never thought about letting the Router itself be the DHCP server.

As far as the LAN name, I've used a special name for it for over 30 years. And always booted up the Windows XP computer FIRST so it took control of everything, since Windows likes to play God, hi hi.
And since the Windows computer that I think was the DHCP server died, that is when the LAN went down, at least as far as displaying other machines and the like.

Now I will have to study up on DHCP and my Router to see how to make it the DHCP server.
But I'm not sure what to do about the only two computers I have working right now. Debi's Windows 7, and my Silver Yogi running Debian. Since I can connect to the LAN printers, and get on the Internet, apparently the LAN itself is working, but for some reason, the Silver Yogi is not seeing Debi's computer, nor showing the NAS.

Speaking of the NAS, got it up and running again, and now also have the control panel back, and a little monitor that shows GOOD as far as NAS health goes.

I ordered some batteries for the computers, so will have to take them all down, clean them out with the blower, and replace the batteries, since before they died, they all were saying the system battery is dead, hi hi.
Even the OLDE computer that has had a dead battery now for many months, still boots up in Linux Mint, but with Windows XP it gives me the blue screen of death, saying system failure and refuses to boot, even into safe mode, hi hi. I'm hoping replacing the battery is what is making Windows do that. Heck, maybe I'll even get my LAN back on that machine so can connect to the time server on the Internet.

I know my Drug Plan keeps moving my scripts up a tier level every couple of years, so that I cannot afford them anymore.
And I'm still trying to figure out why I'm being billed for Part B co-insurance amounts when I have insurance that covers that too. Now Walgreens will send me a check to cover what I paid out when my insurance company eventually pays them, but my oxygen supply company has never sent me a check, and they keep billing me every month for either 117 dollars or 96 dollars. I checked with my supplemental insurance and they said as long as I met my Medicare deductible amount, I'm covered. It has nothing to do with my Drug Plan deductible amount, those are separate companies.
My Oxygen and Nebulized Drugs are under Part B so have nothing at all to do with my Drug Plan. Medicare is supposed to pay 80% and me 20%, and that 20% is supposed to be covered by my Supplemental Plan for Part B supplies.

[yogi]

I hope I didn't confuse you too much. I tend to get ahead of myself and make assumptions that might not be valid. My greatest flaw is thinking that my audience knows exactly what I mean in between the lines of what I write. Unfortunately the two are not always in sync.

DHCP service can be both a server and a client. The server is typically set up in your router. Using the router as the DHCP server is not the only way to do it, and I know Windows XP can act as the DHCP server. DHCP server packages can also be installed in Linux distros.

So, the first step is to type your router's IP address into the URL line of any browser.
That will get you to the login page of your router.
Once you are logged in you can look for the DHCP configuration page. Y
ou should be able to enable or disable the DHCP server at that point.

The DHCP client simply means what you think it does. Every device with an IP address is set up by default to be the client. That is to say it is automatically looking for an IP address from the server. It is possible to disable the DHCP client, but I'd have to do some research to find out how.

Check out this article for a fairly simple explanation: https://www.techtarget.com/searchnetwor ... -and-macOS

Once your router is configured as the DHCP server, open up the command prompt on Deb's Windows machine (or any Windows computer). Type in the following:

Code: Select all

ipconfig /all

You will get back a lot of information that is mostly trivial. You are interested in two things:
1- DHCP SERVER: = some IP address (preferably your router)
2- NIC adaptors ...DHCP Enabled: = Yes

Verify that the DHCP server IP is in fact your router.
If some device other than your router is the DHCP server, go into that device's settings and disable the DHCP server function.
Check the ipconfig output again to be sure the router is indeed the DHCP server.
If it is not, keep going to the indicated devices to disable their DHCP server function.

Thefollowing is what shows on my computer with the pertinent settings highlighted. You will get different results, but the items of interest should be listed.

• PS C:\Users\barad>ipconfig /all
  
  Windows IP Configuration
  
  Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : ASUSlappie
  Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
  Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
  IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
  WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
  
  Ethernet adapter Ethernet 2:
  
  Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
  Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Realtek USB GbE Family Controller #2
  Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 00-E0-4C-68-12-52
  DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
  Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
  IPv6 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 2600:6c40:5f00:250:6d07:dbe9:b7d0:877a(Preferred)
  Temporary IPv6 Address. . . . . . : 2600:6c40:5f00:250:717039e4:39c1(Preferred)
  Link-local IPv6 Address . . . . . : fe80::6d07:dbe9:b7d0:877a%14(Preferred)
  IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 10.147.63.111(Preferred)
  Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
  Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : Thursday, July 14, 2022 9:23:57 AM
  Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : Saturday, July 16, 2022 7:46:28 AM
  Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : fe80::9610fe17:d38e%14
  10.147.63.163
  DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 10.147.63.163
  DHCPv6 IAID . . . . . . . . . . . : 201384012
  DHCPv6 Client DUID. . . . . . . . : 00-01-00-01-29-6F-AF-FE-00-E0-4C-68-12-52
  DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 2600:6c40:5f00:250:9610fe17:d38e
  10.147.63.163
  NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled
  
  Wireless LAN adapter Wi-Fi:
  
  Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
  Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
  Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz
  Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 9A-61-9E-1D-75-45
  DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
  Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
  
  Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 3:
  
  Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
  Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
  Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter #3
  Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 34-2E-B7-9E-13-D1
  DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
  Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
  
  Wireless LAN adapter Local Area Connection* 4:
  
  Media State . . . . . . . . . . . : Media disconnected
  Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
  Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Microsoft Wi-Fi Direct Virtual Adapter #4
  Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 36-2E-B7-9E-13-D0
  DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
  Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
  PS C:\Users\barad>

I tried to get the same information from a few Linux OS's that I have. It's impossible, for me at least. There are DHCP configuration files but I could not find them where I was told they should be. Checking Linux, fortunately, would just be a second opinion. If it reads right in Windows, things probably are set up correctly.

And, one further note about domain names. Windows has workgroups which go by the default name of WORKGROUP. Duh.
The Windows Workgroup is the same thing as domain names in Linux. The important point here is to be certain that all your network devices use the same name. It does not matter if it's WORKGROUP or something else. It's just important that all the devices you want to see have the same domain (workgroup) name.

In Summary
Configure your router to be the DHCP server
Enable DHCP (client) on all your network devices.
Disable DHCP server on everything but the router.
Verify that all devices you want to be visible have the same domain (Workgroup) name.

You should be good to go if all the above is set correctly.

[yogi]

I am very happy to learn your NAS is working again. What did you do to fix it?

I realize the insurance people have no interest in making things understandable for the common man. Actually there is good reasoning for that. They have a lot of legal liabilities and must be very precise when explaining things in order to avoid being sued. Unfortunately, they tend to get very wordy when explaining all the options. It's easy for a non-lawyer to get lost in all the explanations.

You have some special circumstances that would fall into a gray area as far as medications are concerned. I'm certain the difference between Mecicare Part B vs Medicare Part D is explained thoroughly somewhere. The problem is that they are separate policies and have separate explanations. There is no comparison between the two. It could be difficult to discern which policy covers what treatment because they never make a side by side comparison. You have to read through all the given material and figure it out for yourself. Dealing with an insurance broker might work better in that they can explain things in English instead of legalese. But I never did trust brokers and you probably don't either.

Many people experience what you are going through, i.e. being priced out of the drugs they must take. Given that Medicare and Social Security are government entitlements, we know that politicians are the masterminds behind the system. That is probably the worst group of people to put in charge of such things, but they are the ones who authorize the spending. I'm scared of what could happen in the next few years. There are political parties who have reductions of benefits on their agenda and Medicare is the #1 target. I hear rumors of a 30% DECREASE in benefits for starters. Yes,the warning signs are coming from the Republican camp and there is a better than fair chance they will be taking over control in the near future. I'm doing OK at the moment, but a 1/3rd cut in benefits would force me to make the same choices you are currently forced to make. Which meds will have to be discarded? They say voting for the right people will fix it, but I have some serious doubts about that too.

[Kellemora]

Neither of my routers will let me in. Both are saying wrong name, wrong password. I wrote them down so I know they are correct. I also have a second password that is used for a guest to connect, and that one didn't work either. Strange.
I guess I'll have to reset my routers back to factory and redo them.

I put in the Red drive you sent me, and installed the DSM4.2 I downloaded on Debi's computer for that NAS.
It did have an install program to use for GNU/Linux, but it only works on Ubuntu and is a Tar.gz file.
I did find a 3rd party one as a .deb file, but since I don't know the person, I didn't download it.
Never know, it could be a hacker, hi hi.
Going to the NAS health screen it says Good!
It was easy to change out the drive, take out the four screws, slide out the old one, slide in the new one, put the four screws back in. Only two screws on the back of the case to hold the plastic cover on, which slips forward after you lift it a little.
Went as smooth as silk. Took a while for it to format the drive and say it was ready.
You were right, that NAS is like a real computer. I got the page showing all the programs on it.

I used a broker at first, but he messed me up a couple of times. I can check everything he checks myself online quite easily.
But now that I'm locked into contracts for medical equipment, I cannot change who I selected for my Medicare package.

Durable Equipment is covered under Medicare Part B, they pay 80% of the grossly inflated prices, I pay 20%.
However, I also have Supplemental Insurance that is supposed to pick up 100% of my co-pays on Part B, AFTER I meet the annual Out of Pocket for Medicare.
Part D is not involved in this because, the medications used with a Nebulizer fall under Part B Durable Equipment supplies and disposables. Disposables are tubing, humidifiers, water traps, tubes and hoses, canula's and face masks.
There are a lot of medical devices that are not covered under Part B, but most of them are optional items. For example: They cover a basic wheelchair, but not a fancy wheelchair or an electric wheelchair, except under super special circumstances 90% of folks would never qualify for.
Ironically, Medicaid for those who qualify for it, will cover a few brands of electric wheelchairs, if you live alone for example.

I know Trump tried to get the minimum SS check raised to 1,200 bucks, but the Majority House Dem's voted it down, so the bill died.
What they mean by a 30% reduction in benefits really has nothing to do with anything that would affect you or me.
There are MANY add-on Benefits to Medicare that should never have ever been tacked on to Medicare at all. And most of these tacked-on benefits are costing almost as much as the normal Medicare expenditures.
Medicare was designed to help take care of medical needs, not medical wants. But little by little, more medical wants kept getting added. Trump wanted to get rid of all these newly added on, super high cost items, which would then cut down the Medicare budget by about 30%, the same amount that it caused the expenses to go up.
At least that is what I heard from various sources regarding same.

Trump also worked to get lower cost drugs for us, by trying to eliminate the high price for the U.S. and low prices to other countries. He wanted to let us buy our scripts from Canada or elsewhere and even that got shot down by Big Pharma and the Dems. I think there will be a lot of good changes again if the Elephant takes the house back over again.
Look at all the great things that happened while Trump was in, and all the Horrible things happening with Biden in. The man is destroying this country faster than ever happened in the last 40 years.

[yogi]

If you have two routers on the same network, that in itself could be why you don't see all the devices on your LAN. It's not a good practice but it certainly can be done if things are configured correctly. If your known good login and password no longer works on your routers, that might be a red flag suggesting somebody outside your house changed the login credentials. In that case it would be a necessity to reset them to factory defaults and reconfigure them IMMEDIATELY.

You were right, that NAS is like a real computer.

IT IS a real computer. It's a server in fact.

_________________________
I only know of one promise made by Trump that actually was fulfilled because he was able to steal funds from the military to build a wall down south. Even that never got finished.
Regarding SSA benefits, my friend in NC is on welfare and got an increase from $700/mo to $1200/mo early this year, while Biden is president. We also got the largest COLA ever handed out while Biden is in office. Next year's increase will be even more. And I don't want to hear about inflation because that is what COLA is all about. Trump's administration never did anything in that regard and in fact his administration is the source of 30% reductions in benefits being proposed.

Here is a representative list of Democratic sponsored bills opoposed by Republican controlled Senate, or were filibustered to death.

• DREAM Act: would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants who were children when they immigrated
• DISCLOSE Act: would require corporations to disclose their political spending, and bar government contractors, TARP recipients and foreign firms from such spending.
• Affordable Health Care for America act: a government-run health plan similar to Medicare that exchange participants could purchase instead of private insurance.
• Paycheck Fairness Act: would make it easier for women to raise concerns about pay inequity in their workplaces,
• Emergency Senior Citizens Relief Act: Social Security benefits are regularly increased to take into account increases in the cost of living
• Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act: would have barred corporations from benefiting on deductions and/or credits due to outsourcing and from deferring payment if taxes on profit earned abroad
• Repeal Big Oil Tax Subsidies Act: this legislation would have repealed a bevy of tax measures that benefit oil companies.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/won ... ilibuster/
(not sure if these guys are on your recommended reading list, but this is the source for the above)

This whole topic is reminiscent of two kids trying to determine whose dad is tougher than the other guy. It doesn't take much effort to read the local papers or peruse the Internet news to see how much obstruction Republicans put up for any bill Democrats concoct. Opposition is fine, but there are no alternative solutions coming out of the Elephant Camp. It seems as if their only purpose in life is to shoot down any ideas from the Donkeys. Again I'm reminded of kids, not public servants.

[Kellemora]

I actually did that last night. Reset both Routers, the one in the house, and the one up here.
Now the Router up here was already set to Automatic DHCP, rather than DHCP server, so I was good there.
After I reset it, the Login and Password were admin and admin, on this one, and at the house it was ADMIN and admin.
They now have new passwords and the downside of resetting them, they generated NEW passwords for the WiFi connections. So I wrote those down and had to go and change all the things in the house, and up here, that used the WiFi part of the routers. That took a while, especially with Debi's Schmartz-Fone to figure out again how to do that.

But nowhere on the House Router did I find how to make sure it was the DHCP server, other than the Automatic DHCP option was grayed out so I couldn't select that. I assume it was grayed out because it is acting as the server.
I did have to tell each device I reset the name of our LAN which I want to keep as something other than Workgroup.
Debi's computer got a new IP address and connected just fine, and shows the items on the LAN.
My computer up here is still only showing itself and nothing else. And I did check the config file for the LAN and it is all set properly. And since this is the only working computer, I'm not going to mess with it at first, I got some new batteries, so will try to get another computer going and see if the LAN shows up on it, and that I can get on the Internet with it.

I would have voted DOWN every single one of those Bills also. Why? Because of the PORK attached with them you failed to mention in your list. You can't just list the headline topic without listing ALL of the PORK added along with it.

Many of those Bills would have been passed if the Dem's removed their PORK BARRELS from them! But they REFUSED to do so!
If you really want a Bill to pass, you have to present the Bill without ANY PORK added to it. Let EACH ITEM stand on its own merit.
It goes something like this, If the People Want THIS, then they have to Give US THIS tenfold. So the people decline!

Nearly every issue the Dem's put forth is loaded down with SO MUCH PORK, there is no way it will pass.
They only look out for themselves and nobody else! You want Free Ice Cream? OK, here is the BILL for Free Ice Cream, but hidden down in the 1000 page Bill is a 20% increase in our salary, 30% increase in our benefits, and an increase in taxes on this that and the other thing, plus the Free Ice Cream will be taxed at ten times the value of the Ice Cream at retail.
Now doesn't that sound more like Dem proposed Bill?

[yogi]

It's unfortunate that I am not familiar with your particular routers. It's not easy for me to guess what is not right because I don't know what you have to work with. I can only think of one reason why your router/computer combination cannot see the rest of the LAN. The most obvious reason would be that you are on a different LAN (or domain), one which your DHCP server does not recognize.

MY DISCLAIMER: From this point on, out of ignorance, I will be making some educated guesses.

My guess and assumption is that you currently have two LAN's that do not recognize each other. The following method should join the two LANs to form a single network. The house router would be the DHCP server and thus control the network, but you can just as well make your office router the DHCP server. The main goal here is to merge the two LANs into one.

NOTE: Aside from IP address conflicts, mismatched domain names is less significant but could contribute to the problem in some cases.

• The first step is to verify the IP address of each router.
  My previous post tells you how to do that using a Windows computer and the ipconfig command line instruction. Use that command by connecting to your office LAN and also to your house LAN. If you know of a way to find out the router IP using Linux, do it that way. All you want to do here is determine the IP addresses of the routers.
• Your assumption that the house router is the DHCP server seems like a good one. You did not mention how your office router is configured - presumably it is Automatic DHCP.
  Change that to Bridge. Doing this, by the way, allows only your home LAN router to connect to the Internet.
  This should allow your office router to join the home LAN because the bridge setting effectively turns it into a pass through device.
• Edit the local network information of your office router.
  There should be a Host Name, IP Address, and Subnet mask that can be changed manually.
  The host name can be whatever you like, the subnet mask should be 255.255.255.0, and the IP Address should be within the DHCP range you set up on the house router (I.e. the DHCP server).
  In effect this gives your office router a fixed IP address.
  • ALTERNATELY, on the house router you can set the DHCP reservations to give your office router a fixed (reserved) IP address. That will place your office router within the range of the house router's DHCP assignments
  ... and thereby it joins the house LAN.

[Kellemora]

I only have ONE LAN name in use. In fact, I've used it now for over 25 years.
In the file that shows the LAN name, WORKGROUP was changed to OURLANNAME, and everything was working as it should.

This is going to sound bad, hi hi. I forgot the brand name of the router in the house.
I recognize it on eth0 as OnNetworks35. The router up here is a TP-Link brand, used as an access point, not as a router.

I don't think the problem is with the routers. I've always had problems with Debian showing up what is on the LAN. When it works, it works, when it don't, it still works if I use and IP address to a computer.
Ironically, it will show the LAN as down using ip addr or ifconfig shows nothing. Unless it is working on the LInux box I'm using.
Since I only have one computer currently working, I can't check the info that appears on other computers.

It doesn't really bother me that I don't see what's on the LAN by clicking on the NETWORK folder, I just wish it would do what it is supposed to do is all. Oh, and since I did a factory reset on the routers, all of my IP addresses for everything has changed, so I have to hunt for them the hard way, checking each number, hi hi. But usually once an IP address is assigned, it never changes, not even after a normal reboot after a power outage.

The house router is who assigns an adddress to the Access Point router. I looked that up in the manual that came with it.
You can set it to router, access point, and a few other things, it has lots of features.

What I need to do is reboot the Silver Yogi after a kernel upgrade which I have not done yet.

[yogi]

When you tell me Debian has a problem, that says it all. I know about problems with Debian. Admittedly mine are not the same problems you have, but it truly amazes me that such an operating system has become the standard upon which to build other operating systems. To me that says a lot about FOSS and what is wrong with it.

Having said all the above, what you see and don't see in terms of your LAN has more to do with the way the LAN is configured than the software built into any operating system. There are network command line functions and programs that can scan your LAN and spell out is specific terms what is connected. I only have experience with them in Windows so that I could not suggest the Linux equivalent. Actually I've tried to do it in Linux and could not find anything that works. I know it's out there because as you like to point out Linux dominates the server network world. They got to have a way to characterize it. Then again, it's Linux. Maybe not.

[Kellemora]

Actually, it turns out, it's not Debian that is the problem. It's the old Samba which only recognizes SMB-1 and everything is SMB-2 or SMB-3 now. I switched my Debian computer to use NM-1 and it could then see Debi's computer, but not the NAS since my last upgrade.
As an experiment, I booted into and older version of Debian still on my hard drive and the LAN worked just fine, and the NAS appeared. The NAS itself must be pretty old, it only has SMB-1 as one of the settings, and of course SSH. Nevertheless, I can still access it by going directly to it over the LAN, and not relying on the Network Link.
I have not had the time to find out how to get the Network Folder working again. Lot's of advice out there on things to try. The main one is to bypass SAMBA's bugs and go in a different way. Way too much info out there for me to absorb right now.
I know my Linux Mint box connected with no problems, so I need to fix that computer and see if it still does, and then look at how it is set up. That's the thing, with only one computer working, and can't check the others to see what they did, hi hi.
So far what I did was start avahi-daemon-service and got everything working that way.

By the way, folks with Win10 and Win11 are having the same problems seeing Synology NAS units!
They work just fine under Win7 and Win8, but not under the newer versions.

[yogi]

I suspect you don't recall me complaining about Linux not using the proper version of Samba in order to serve me Windows shares. There is a whole thread here somewhere filled with my complaints. The problem is in the file manager Nautilus; it's in every distro that uses it but I've had the most trouble with those derived from ... get this ... DEBIAN.

The NAS software defaults to Samba 2, but apparently enough people have complained to Synology for them to allow their NAS's to use Samba 1 with a warning. I did in fact reconfigure it back and son of a gun ... all those Linux distros started to work again. The problem is a pretty serious one and I could not believe that Linux developers were that irresponsible as to ignore the fact that Samba 1 has been deprecated and tossed in the garbage. It turns out they are not and they default to Samba 2. That's when I found out the problem isn't Samba per se. It's the file manager that uses it. That is also why you can log into the NAS using the file manager via their network GO, or Login To Server options. In that case you need to know the the correct network protocol and IP address of the NAS and its target directory. It won't allow logging in to the NAS root directory where you can see all the shares at once.

It so happens that the very latest version of Linux Mint 20.3 (Uma) Cinnamon got it right - finally. I can see Windows shares from that version Mint without having to fight the file manage software. My guess is they are not using Nautilus anymore. In your case your LAN is, how can I say this politely, complicated. You need to configure the LAN correctly (which you may already have done) before you go messing with the network software in Debian. Each component, Debian and your LAN, has it's own set of issues and they need to be coordinated. You can do it, so you tell me, if you revert back to obsolete and insecure software. That may in fact be fine in your case as long as some brat kid in China doesn't make you his target for malware practice. That's actually not very likely, but that is why they changed the standards.

This entire server share issue is germane to my arguments about open source software being a disaster. The people making distros based on Debian and Ubuntu are taking whatever flaws there might be in those base systems and calling it "something upstream" which is their way of saying they don't want to have anything to do with it. All they are responsible for is the new distro to which they added their own creativity on top of flawed base systems. They seldom are aware of those upstream problems as well. I have mentioned previously how one Linux developer told me he didn't realize Windows can boot up Linux.

[Kellemora]

FWIW: The NAS had DSM 4.0 on it, and after putting in the new drive you sent, I installed DSM 4.2 which is the only one you can install on that NAS now, I can't install anything newer like DSM 7 - and DSM 4.2 does not have anything greater than SMB-1.
Apparently the hardware won't handle a newer DSM version.
The DSM version 4.0 came out in 2011, and prior to that DS-109 used version 3.?
So I guess that NAS is a bit over 11 years old now, and still working great.

Someone suggested I install Avahi-daemon since it works so well.
I already have CUPS installed, and I thought Avahi had to do with CUPS doing its thing?
And comes installed along with CUPS. If it is installed, I don't know how to use it.

[yogi]

The chip set in your DS109 was current in 2011, but as you can imagine it's grossly under powered in 2022. The processor in your NAS simply can't handle the software it takes to run the next version up, i.e., DS116. There are also memory issues. Your NAS could not fit the new DSM software into it's memory. So, even if you could tolerate a slow system with fewer features, the new improved software simply won't install.

The NAS I have now, DS116, originally used Samba 1.x but when that was deprecated they "updated" the software to a higher version of Samba. Well, as I said earlier, that caused a lot of problems with people using Linux workstations and desktops. While the vulnerability in Samba 1 was well known for a long time, the Linux development community simply dragged their feet coming up to speed. Security be damned. So, now that servers no longer run Samba 1 it is incumbent on the developers to meet the new standard. But they aren't there yet. It's a lot like the Flash problem in Windows. Flash has been banned for a long time now, but many systems still use it because the application developers have not bothered to come up to speed. Or, don't know how in the case of Flash.

Avahi would work well in all your Linux distros, but I can't say the same about the NAS operating system. It's Linux to be sure, but it's OPEN SOURCED and does not necessarily work like any other version of Linux in the wild. It might be good at networking on your desktop, but in a server without root access? I dunno about that.

CUPS is specifically made to run printers in a Linux environment. It's a transparent service that can be configured and is called automatically by other programs. Unlike Avahi CUPS is not network control oriented. It is one of the things Avahi would control in fact. To be honest I don't know if I can print anything from the NAS I have. Generally if I need it printed I download it from the server and print it out locally. If it does allow printing, I'm certain it has CUPS installed to do it.

I am glad that you were able to use the drive I sent. It just sat around here collecting dust and I am sure it is happy to be in service again. As far as Samba and SMB goes, it is possible to re-enable version 1.x in Windows via the control panel applet "Programs and Features." That may or may not solve the visibility problems. Then, too, Linux Mint 20.3 doesn't seem to have the problem. They aren't using Nautalus anymore by the way. They use something called Nemo. Sounds fishy to me, but whatever.

[Kellemora]

Instead of using Nautilus, I switched to Caja a long time ago, it is a bit better than Nemo in my opinion.
If I open Caja first, I can get to the NAS easily enough. It's just that it used to appear in my Network folder, and now it doesn't after a kernel upgrade.
I really need to get at least one of my other computers up and running, to try a new version of Debian to see if that makes a difference, or check to see how it is or was connecting to the NAS and other computers.

I finally got the Router's straightened out, my main Router down at the house is set as the DHCP Server, and the one up here is set to obtain it's DHCP automatically, and the server side is turned off. In fact, that is the only option when using it as an Access Point.

Just to see what would happen, rather than using the hardwired LAN aka eth0, I tried using the WiFi through the Access Point router up here. Good thing the Silver Yogi has a WiFi card in it. When I connect via the WiFi, although it is slower than direct LAN, everything appeared as it should in the Network folder. I got appearing the Silver Yogi, the NAS, and Debi's computer, plus the Windows Network folder. If I open the Windows Network folder, all I named above is in it also, plus something else I don't know what it is, not a printer, could be my Echo Dot maybe, whatever it is, it doesn't open when I click on it.
When I switched back to the hardwired LAN, everything still appeared in the Network folder, until I clicked on it. The only thing that stayed was Silver Yogi and Windows Network, and that folder was empty. Strange, very strange.

[yogi]

That WiFi card in the Silver Yogi is there by a fluke of judgement. I wasn't as enlightened back in the day when the Silver Yogi was built as I am today. That really doesn't say much. How much light can one match stick provide? LOL I decided on installing the WiFi card because I figured all computers have them. And, there was a slot in the motherboard for one such card. Plus, I thought it would be cool beans to not have an Ethernet wire from my desk draped over the doorway to get to the router. I used that computer for quite a long time in that mode not realizing the benefits of Ethernet. Then, one day, also on a fluke decision, I hooked up the Ethernet and bypassed the WiFi. The increase in speed was markedly significant and I never wen t back to the WiFi.

It isn't too unusual to see the WiFi connection working differently than the Ethernet connection. They both have different IP addresses. Apparently your DHCP server knows all about the WiFi card but might not have a clue about Ethernet. As I outlined above you might want to check the IP addresses to see that both the WiFi card and the Ethernet port are within the range of your server. Then, just to be safe, go into your router and make those IP addresses reserved, i.e. static.

I'm not too sure what all you are trying to accomplish there, but even with one computer working you can test out other operating systems via my favorite toy, Linux On A Stick. All you need to do is put the flavor of Debian you want to evaluate onto a USB memory stick and boot from there. If nothing else that will separate the hardware issues from the software issues. And, if by chance you don't have a way to make your own Linux On A Stick, I know somebody who would be very happy to make one for you. Just give me the specs and you never know what will show up in the mail.

[Kellemora]

I never did like wireless anything. Well, except for being portable, like a portable telephone with a base station.

If I turn on the WiFi in the Silver Yogi, the router picks it up just fine.

When I try a new OS, I always put it in a new partition, which is one reason why I have so many on my computer right now. I'm always afraid to delete the old one, just in case it is the one I'm on, hi hi.
I know, check GParted to see which is mounted and go from there, hi hi.

There are some things I used to do that required two separate computers to do them. Couldn't do it from separate tabs or even another brand of web browser from the same computer. Had to be a computer different than the one you are on. I don't do that kind of stuff much anymore. But I like a second computer to use while one is busy performing a long task.
The old one with the dead battery and no LAN I'm using to play a simple game on while the Silver Yogi is running a 20 minute long operation for me every day.

Did you know you can't use a 5-1/4 floppy in any computer younger than about a decade old now?
Whatever makes them work is simply not built into the computers anymore.

I guess I can finally throw away my 2 cases of floppies up on the top shelf, hi hi.
I have about 9 or 10 5-1/4 drives in my filing cabinet, I wonder if a collector wants them for one reason or another?

[yogi]

I know back in the days when Windows 98 was my go-to operating system I could not use anything USB in it. It did have a CD reader and a floppy drive, but that was it for external memory. I know they stopped manufacturing 3 1/4 inch floppy drives but if you had the hardware I am certain you could still use it. The issue would be with the driver for the controller card. There has to be some old drivers laying around the Internet and no doubt some nerdy type geek out there is still using those things. The larger floppies outdate the minis by quite a bit. I'm not at all familiar with what it would take to use one in terms of software drivers. But, it is hard for me to believe that it could not be done. Anything can be simulated now and days. The only question would be why would you want to do it?

I too have a few hard derives in this tower and several partitions on each one. One drive is fully dedicated to Windows 10 and I know which one that is. It's the SSD. The others are for Linux and memory. I discovered that gparted is pretty clever in that it can label your disk and or partition. Thus I have some partitions labeled "Mint", "Kali", "Fedora", "store1", and well you get the idea. Those labels show up on every file manager I have used and they come in handy when I do backups. So, you can simply fire up gparted and look over the real estate as you suggest, but you can use that same program to label your partitions and eliminate the need to use gparted thereafter.

Apparently Linux on a Stick would not do you any good. You might benefit from using virtual machines, however. In that case you can run all the operating systems your memory and processor can handle, all on one box of hardware.

[Kellemora]

How the 5-1/4 floppies worked were considerably different than how the later LOUSY 3-1/2 floppies worked.
It is possible to get the 3-1/2 floppy drives to work on more modern computers, but not the old 5-1/4 floppies.
I think the 5-1/4 floppies were software controlled by the OS. While the 3-1/2 floppies had controller cards.
I have seen external docks that can hold 3-1/2 floppies not to long ago, via a USB port.
One of the problems with the 5-1/4 floppies is they had different density disk. This is why so many of the old drives ended up in my storage drawer, they couldn't read the higher density floppies.
There are museums that have old computers still running that use them, and the really old 8-1/2 floppies too.
Our Lisa System, and the Wang could both use the 8-1/2 drives we already had from the Lisa System.

I do have my partitions named. The trouble is, when I install a new OS, it changes them, and I just didn't bother to go back and rename them. I accidentally booted into Debian 8 and it came up just fine, but WindowsXP gave the blue screen of death, hi hi.

I learned something about the Ryzen CPUs last night. They are all made the same, and the number assigned to them is after the fact, based on how many cores were functioning when they tested them. At least in the series the guy was talking about anyhow. I don't know about the rest. He was explaining how CPUs are made with all those transistors, and often not all of them are working, but the chips are good, just not as many cores are functional.
My old computer guy was selling 3 core CPUs which were really 4 core CPUs but one core was not working so they sold them as 3 core CPUs, hi hi.

[yogi]

Somebody, or a lot of somebodies, is still using 5 1/4 floppy disks: https://www.amazon.com/High-Density-5-2 ... B00JASUCWE
Amazon would not be selling them if there were no buyers. They go way back into computer history and I have a suspicion that they were designed for 8 bit systems. Modern machines can't read anything in that data format. But, there has to be 8 bit processors out there somewhere, even if they are in dedicated machines. Then, too, even if you had the hardware capable of reading those disks, the next problem would be the data structure. I have no clue what it could be, but it was before FAT was invented. LOL

You are right about CPU's being mostly rejects. Those dies used to make the chips are ultra expensive so that a single die is used to make everything. In some cases they deliberately block out functions that could be re-enabled if you had the equipment to do it. I don't know about the 64 core processors, but I can imagine all AMD and Intel chips being modified 32 core or 16 cores. I know I've read about how to enable those unused functions/cores, but the warning with that is those sections of the chip may in fact be defective and not just disabled. It all seemed reasonable when I read about it, but it's way too geeky for even my complications oriented brain.