Very recently my NAS boxes and other remote devices have been
disconnecting from my PC. If I go into Windows Explorer and click on
the drive letter assigned I can get the back showing all folders in WE.

I have all of them assigned to a drive letter.

This is both on Win XP Pro and Win 7 Pro PCs on my LAN.

These are Buffalo NAS (3) and a letter assigned to a shared folder on a
laptop (1) and a WD NAS (1).

Why has this started happening ?

I have not changed anything at all in the Spectrum Modem or Router and I
have booted both several times and that has no effect on the remote devices.

Possibly related is that I have two Android tablets on the LAN and
applications that usually run for months now shut down after a few
minutes. Yes, minutes. And both Android tablets.

Time for a new ISP ? Or What ?

I do not seem to have this big a problem on a Win XP Pro PC.
The externals network stuff seems to stick at its assigned drive letter
and be ready to be used.

BillyJ wrote:
> Very recently my NAS boxes and other remote devices have been
> disconnecting from my PC.   If I go into Windows Explorer and click on
> the drive letter assigned I can get the back showing all folders in WE.
>
> I have all of them assigned to a drive letter.
>
> This is both on Win XP Pro and Win 7 Pro PCs on my LAN.
>
> These are Buffalo NAS (3) and a letter assigned to a shared folder on a
> laptop (1) and a WD NAS (1).
>
> Why has this started happening ?
>
> I have not changed anything at all in the Spectrum Modem or Router and I
> have booted both several times and that has no effect on the remote
> devices.
>
> Possibly related is that I have two Android tablets on the LAN and
> applications that usually run for months now shut down after a few
> minutes.  Yes, minutes.  And both Android tablets.
>
> Time for a new ISP ?  Or What ?
>

On 8/15/2022 12:21 PM, BillyJ wrote:
>
> I do not seem to have this big a problem on a Win XP Pro PC.
> The externals network stuff seems to stick at its assigned drive letter and be ready to be used.
>
> BillyJ wrote:
>> Very recently my NAS boxes and other remote devices have been disconnecting from my PC.   If I go into Windows Explorer and click on the drive letter assigned I can get the back showing all folders in WE.
>>
>> I have all of them assigned to a drive letter.
>>
>> This is both on Win XP Pro and Win 7 Pro PCs on my LAN.
>>
>> These are Buffalo NAS (3) and a letter assigned to a shared folder on a laptop (1) and a WD NAS (1).
>>
>> Why has this started happening ?
>>
>> I have not changed anything at all in the Spectrum Modem or Router and I have booted both several times and that has no effect on the remote devices.
>>
>> Possibly related is that I have two Android tablets on the LAN and applications that usually run for months now shut down after a few minutes.  Yes, minutes.  And both Android tablets.
>>
>> Time for a new ISP ?  Or What ?

There's some kind of problem on your LAN.

Including the possibility of some sort of issue with how
the router works or some of the settings in the router.

The WAN side of the router (the ISP), really should not
be involved.

But as for debugging these things, there's only a little bit
you can do with Wireshark (watch Network Browser traffic)
to get some idea if some part of a protocol is not working.
Part of your network is wired and part is wireless, and
that does not help.

Wireshark has protocol dissectors, that can be applied to a
trace, but my experience with one of them was not all that
positive. It told me that one of the machines said "Need More Info",
and you can imagine knowing that, helped me "Not At All" :-/
I still had no clue why the two machines would not
complete the authentication sequence.

Paul

I have a Spectrum (ISP) Modem and Router.
Perhaps there is some monitoring capability in one of those to tell me
about the LAN traffic.
Is that something I should pursue ?

Perhaps the LAN is overloaded with traffic since I do have many security
cameras running.

I tried using wireshark and I was too impossible for me to figure out.
no one around to tutor me.

Paul wrote:
> On 8/15/2022 12:21 PM, BillyJ wrote:
>>
>> I do not seem to have this big a problem on a Win XP Pro PC.
>> The externals network stuff seems to stick at its assigned drive
>> letter and be ready to be used.
>>
>> BillyJ wrote:
>>> Very recently my NAS boxes and other remote devices have been
>>> disconnecting from my PC.   If I go into Windows Explorer and click
>>> on the drive letter assigned I can get the back showing all folders
>>> in WE.
>>>
>>> I have all of them assigned to a drive letter.
>>>
>>> This is both on Win XP Pro and Win 7 Pro PCs on my LAN.
>>>
>>> These are Buffalo NAS (3) and a letter assigned to a shared folder on
>>> a laptop (1) and a WD NAS (1).
>>>
>>> Why has this started happening ?
>>>
>>> I have not changed anything at all in the Spectrum Modem or Router
>>> and I have booted both several times and that has no effect on the
>>> remote devices.
>>>
>>> Possibly related is that I have two Android tablets on the LAN and
>>> applications that usually run for months now shut down after a few
>>> minutes.  Yes, minutes.  And both Android tablets.
>>>
>>> Time for a new ISP ?  Or What ?
>
> There's some kind of problem on your LAN.
>
> Including the possibility of some sort of issue with how
> the router works or some of the settings in the router.
>
> The WAN side of the router (the ISP), really should not
> be involved.
>
> But as for debugging these things, there's only a little bit
> you can do with Wireshark (watch Network Browser traffic)
> to get some idea if some part of a protocol is not working.
> Part of your network is wired and part is wireless, and
> that does not help.
>
> Wireshark has protocol dissectors, that can be applied to a
> trace, but my experience with one of them was not all that
> positive. It told me that one of the machines said "Need More Info",
> and you can imagine knowing that, helped me "Not At All" :-/
> I still had no clue why the two machines would not
> complete the authentication sequence.
>
>    Paul
>
>

On 8/18/2022 9:34 PM, BillyJ wrote:
>
> I have a Spectrum (ISP) Modem and Router.
> Perhaps there is some monitoring capability in one of those to tell me about the LAN traffic.
> Is that something I should pursue ?
>
> Perhaps the LAN is overloaded with traffic since I do have many security cameras running.
>
> I tried using wireshark and I was too impossible for me to figure out.
> no one around to tutor me.

The first question I ask myself, would be

"is the situation stable enough to debug?"

Like, if the symptoms were conclusive there was a router
failure in play, there would be no point in doing "file sharing debug
between X and Y nodes".

What I do with my setup, is I try to set up the
modem portion of one box, and the router portion
of another box.

ISP---modem/router---router---switch(if necessary)
in bridge | | | | | | |
mode X Y

Then, if it's a router problem, I swap out the router
and put in an old piece of crap from the junk room.

Perhaps your tastes are a bit higher than mine :-)

If everything was stable, except X would not talk to Y
or Y would not talk to X, then it would be time for
some file sharing debug.

*******

The IP cameras, if they are using compression, could be
using 2MB/sec of bandwidth each. If they were 4K cameras,
it could be quite a bit higher. But still within the bounds
of a decent broadband setup. This assumes maybe four cameras
and not a hundred cameras.

My current router for example, only has a WAN to LAN route
speed of 18Mbits/sec or so. It's a puny router from a long
time ago. And not suited to IP cameras, particularly. Your
Spectrum kit is probably 100x better than mine. Except
when it overheats or something.

Paul

I stumbled on to the problem !

Network Location is set to Public Network.

But it will not let me manually change it to Home Network.

I comes up "Identifying ..." and never finishes.

I am on my home LAN.

What is interesting is when I boot this PC I can see the NASes and their
Shares but after a while I cannot get to them.

The error says the drive letter is already in use for all remote drives
(NASes).
In WE Network will not open to reveal what is on my network.

The MS troubleshooter told me to change to Home so I let it try and it
could not change it either.

I am on this PC now and everything else works, eMail (Thunderbird),
newsgroups (SeaMonkey), surfing (Firefox) etc.

I installed NordVPN about the same time all this started happening.
Maybe NordVPN is the culprit.

Paul wrote:
> On 8/18/2022 9:34 PM, BillyJ wrote:
>>
>> I have a Spectrum (ISP) Modem and Router.
>> Perhaps there is some monitoring capability in one of those to tell me
>> about the LAN traffic.
>> Is that something I should pursue ?
>>
>> Perhaps the LAN is overloaded with traffic since I do have many
>> security cameras running.
>>
>> I tried using wireshark and I was too impossible for me to figure out.
>> no one around to tutor me.
>
> The first question I ask myself, would be
>
>    "is the situation stable enough to debug?"
>
> Like, if the symptoms were conclusive there was a router
> failure in play, there would be no point in doing "file sharing debug
> between X and Y nodes".
>
> What I do with my setup, is I try to set up the
> modem portion of one box, and the router portion
> of another box.
>
> ISP---modem/router---router---switch(if necessary)
>       in bridge      | | |    | | | |
>       mode           X        Y
>
> Then, if it's a router problem, I swap out the router
> and put in an old piece of crap from the junk room.
>
> Perhaps your tastes are a bit higher than mine :-)
>
> If everything was stable, except X would not talk to Y
> or Y would not talk to X, then it would be time for
> some file sharing debug.
>
> *******
>
> The IP cameras, if they are using compression, could be
> using 2MB/sec of bandwidth each. If they were 4K cameras,
> it could be quite a bit higher. But still within the bounds
> of a decent broadband setup. This assumes maybe four cameras
> and not a hundred cameras.
>
> My current router for example, only has a WAN to LAN route
> speed of 18Mbits/sec or so. It's a puny router from a long
> time ago. And not suited to IP cameras, particularly. Your
> Spectrum kit is probably 100x better than mine. Except
> when it overheats or something.
>
>    Paul

On 8/19/2022 3:03 PM, BillyJ wrote:
>
> I stumbled on to the problem !
>
> Network Location is set to Public Network.
>
> But it will not let me manually change it to Home Network.
>
> I comes up "Identifying ..." and never finishes.
>
> I am on my home LAN.
>
> What is interesting is when I boot this PC I can see the NASes and their Shares but after a while I cannot get to them.
>
> The error says the drive letter is already in use for all remote drives (NASes).
> In WE Network will not open to reveal what is on my network.
>
> The MS troubleshooter told me to change to Home so I let it try and it could not change it either.
>
> I am on this PC now and everything else works, eMail (Thunderbird), newsgroups (SeaMonkey),  surfing (Firefox) etc.
>
> I installed NordVPN about the same time all this started happening.
> Maybe NordVPN is the culprit.

Maybe when you do "ipconfig", you see a public
address, rather than a 192.168.x.x one or a 10.x.x.x one.

That seems a bit public to me. Whereas, just maybe, the rest
of your LAN, isn't in the same netmask even. Way far away
from a networking perspective.

I've never used a VPN before, and I've never thought of the
consequences of doing that on a LAN shared with ordinary stuff.
Sounds a bit messy. Hmmm...

Paul

Messier than all of that.

I have to boot, let NordVPN do its thing and I have to log in then I
have access to my LAN/Internet. But I am not actually attached to the
VPN (shows "Disconnected").

But what is most interesting is that I have another Windows 7 Pro PC
that is also with NordVPN and NONE of this crapola is happening there.

Different incarnation of Win 7 Pro ?
I did something different installing NordVPN ?
Dunno !

I initially tried to get my Home/Work identity and I can never find that
tool to get to set Home. It is showing in other places "Work" and will
not allow connection to the LAN, yes LAN.

How do I get to where I select Home / Work / that other thing ?

I am afraid to uninstall NordVPN.

Paul wrote:
> On 8/19/2022 3:03 PM, BillyJ wrote:
>>
>> I stumbled on to the problem !
>>
>> Network Location is set to Public Network.
>>
>> But it will not let me manually change it to Home Network.
>>
>> I comes up "Identifying ..." and never finishes.
>>
>> I am on my home LAN.
>>
>> What is interesting is when I boot this PC I can see the NASes and
>> their Shares but after a while I cannot get to them.
>>
>> The error says the drive letter is already in use for all remote
>> drives (NASes).
>> In WE Network will not open to reveal what is on my network.
>>
>> The MS troubleshooter told me to change to Home so I let it try and it
>> could not change it either.
>>
>> I am on this PC now and everything else works, eMail (Thunderbird),
>> newsgroups (SeaMonkey),  surfing (Firefox) etc.
>>
>> I installed NordVPN about the same time all this started happening.
>> Maybe NordVPN is the culprit.
>
> Maybe when you do "ipconfig", you see a public
> address, rather than a 192.168.x.x one or a 10.x.x.x one.
>
> That seems a bit public to me. Whereas, just maybe, the rest
> of your LAN, isn't in the same netmask even. Way far away
> from a networking perspective.
>
> I've never used a VPN before, and I've never thought of the
> consequences of doing that on a LAN shared with ordinary stuff.
> Sounds a bit messy. Hmmm...
>
>    Paul
>