We’re a small business and just moved into a new office where we had to take their internet and phone supplier – it’s Excell, and the internet supply is via cable. They offer zero support.

Previously we had a set up:
– Plusnet supply internet
– Microswitch to Billion router
– Router to Synology NAS

Worked seamlessly and importantly allowed remote access.

Now we have:
– ethernet switch to router
– router to NAS

Internet is intermittment – we removed the switch and plugged the router straight into the socket and had stable internet for 24hrs. However, we can’t remotely access the NAS – we haven’t changed any settings so far.

2 problems:
– how to remotely access the NAS – I’m guessing becasue we have a direct internet connection, that means something must have to change
– the internet is now not seen by any Macs or PCs – we’ve tried plugging the thernet switch back in but no joy

Any advice on either? We somewhat scuppered as the office owners/internet supplier are completely disinterested in us (I guess we’re too small). Be great to have a few pointers of what to look for

Cheers

Until someone who knows this stuff comes along:
Remote access of NAS, if nothing in the NAS manual, you may need to tell the router to pass external requests onto the NAS, instead of blocking everything. This will involve port numbers and IP addresses. (and passwords.)
PC/Mac into router should work (assume using wires not wireless?). Anything at all on the PC? Check network connection, does it see the router? Could be DHCP setting in the router. Can you log onto the router?

– Microswitch to Billion router

I’m confused (as always), can you do a chart of your network such as:
[Internet/phone socket] – [router] – [switch] – [PCs and NAS]

When you say remote access, do you mean accessing the NAS when not in the office?

If you can’t see the internet from PC/Mac you won’t be able to remotely access the NAS either (assuming you mean from the internet) so get that fixed first.

Can the PC/Macs see each other? My first guess would be that either

1) Your old configuration used fixed IP addresses which are no longer valid
2) You have a DHCP server running somewhere that needs to be reconfigured
3) Your last internet provider supplied DHCP and your new one doesn’t.

The NAS could be related to this, ie it can’t talk to anything as it has the wrong or no IP details, or it could be firewall related. Get the PC/Macs working first and the NAS might start working too.

I have had similar problems with a client who has cable connection. The Internet seems intermittent at best and you need the router to valid the connection before it will allow any locally connected devices to access the Internet. Log into the router and see what it thinks is the status of the connection. You may need to reboot the cable modem and router in order to get a connection. Once you get the Internet working then investigate why the remote access to the NAS isn’t working!

Great – thanks all … in response:
– we can log into the router via cable (oddly, only the Macs allow this, not the pcs)
– the network is: ethernet switch plugged into the direct internet cable connection; the router plugged into the switch; the NAS plugged into the router; pcs and macs connect to the NAS wirelessly (the Macs currently see the router Vs the PCs that don’t see it)
– remote access – yes, not in the office (where I am now and desperately after some docs)
– we have had internet up and running, and all the Macs saw the NAS. The PCs didnt see it
– TonyD – your 3 points sound v likely … any chance you can guide as to what we do need to do vs each point
– shakey – yep ours seems intermittent. We’ll try logging into the router

Thanks all – really appreciate the assistance

Shouldn’t the router be plugged into the internet, then switch into one of the routes sockets, and NAS either into the router or switch?
Not sure what the switch is doing in your config.

ethernet switch plugged into the direct internet cable connection; the router plugged into the switch; the NAS plugged into the router;

Do you really mean a ‘router’ or a wireless access point? A router takes internal network traffic and ‘routes’ it out to the internet (and the other way round), while an access point simply connects wireless traffic to the internal wired network.
If you do have a router then I would say this should be your network:
[internet connection] – [router] – [switch] – [macs/PCs/NAS].

edit: wired devices (NAS and computers) could be connected to either the LAN ports of the router or the switch – but the latter is easier and probably more efficient.

To expand on the above a bit more you should check that your IP addresses are right. The LAN port of the router should have an address such as 192.168.x.1 and the NAS should be given a fixed address of, say, 192.168.x.2.
The Macs/PCs could either have addresses assigned by the DHCP server of the router (make sure this is set up to give out addresses of 192.168.x.3 – 192.168.x.100) or fixed addresses of 192.168.x.3 and so on – I prefer fixed addresses unless it’s something that moves such as a laptop.

If using fixed addresses, make sure that the gateway is set to the address of the router (so 192.168.x.1)

(sorry if your knew that stuff already)

If it’s cable coming in then there is no need for the router.
Socket in – switch – other devices.

^ I’ve never used cable so apologies for slightly incorrect info from me!

So if there’s no router required, what carries out firewall/DHCp duties – if it were me I’d put a hardware firewall in before the switch.

thanks all. Well the internet disappeared for a few hours completely. We are now set up as follows:

– switch into the wall socket which I think is a wireless access point
– router into the switch
– NAS into the switch

The Macs can see the NAS wirelessly which is a great start.

The key challenge now is to get remote access. The guys (and none of us are tech proficient) have looked at various suggestions above and nothing obvious has jumped out.

If anyone could provide a really simple step by step check list for us to get remote access that’d be great.

it certainly wasnt this painful in the previous office!

And thanks for all the help so far – much appreciated

Does the switch have a configuration page? (usually 192.168.n.1 IP address entered via the browser).
If not then the internet connection needs to go into the router which you configure via a webpage.
The switch goes into one of the ports on the router and then the PC’s and NAS go wherever is convenient. I would recommend a fixed IP address for the NAS so make sure the router DHCP is set up correctly so that it does not allocate the fixed address. (eg fixed addressing from 192.168.n.2 to 192.168.n.10 with DHCP allocating from 192.168.n.11 and upwards). The other fixed IP addresses can be used for network printers etc for office printing.

What sort of NAS is it? Does it explain how to access remotely in the manual?
If not, you’re going to have to get into the switch or router as Sandwich mentioned. Look for something like ‘Port Forwarding’.

If anyone could provide a really simple step by step check list for us to get remote access that’d be great.

Considered something like logmein.com?

@Aus

Plug a PC / laptop DIRECTLY into the wire the office gives you – and tell us the IP it offers.

Then we can establish what type of connectivity Excell are offering…

I don’t understand what the router is doing in your setup – seems like it’s not required.

If you do what xiphon says with a PC, open a command prompt window (type command prompt in the search box) and type ipconfig /all.
Copy the text here.

thanks all … I had to work away (because of the internet prob) – will do as xiphon has suggetsed and ressurect thread on Monday …