Keep losing connection to AFP & SAMBA shares
Hello,
A couple of weeks ago, I purchased a QNAP NAS for use as a Time Machine backup, Squeezebox Server and Media Server. The QNAP sits in our basement (in an apartment block) and connected via Homeplug ethernet adaptors. The idea here being a "Semi" offsite storage and media server in case of loss in our apartment.
The speed to the basement via the Homeplugs is not terribly fast, but I was getting 25mbps when I tested it, and it seems stable. It is fast enough to stream most types of HD video that I have tried.
My problem is this: I keep losing connection via the AFP or Samba shares. Now, I'm not terribly advanced in computer tech, and only a bit more of a year in on Mac talk since I came from a Windows world. So, please be gentle with me :O)
When the iMac (late 2010, now with Lion) wakes, it may or may not make a connection with the NAS via AFP or SAMBA. I know when it has made a connection by two ways. 1) I can see the shared AFT or SAMBA folders in Finder and 2) Time Machine could make backups.
I started noticing though, every now and again, Time Machine would fail to make a backup as it could not find the backup server. I noticed on those occasions that I could also not see the AFP or SAMBA shares in Finder. They were visible when Time Machine was working fine.
Now, if I put the iMac to sleep, and woke up, it often would then re-connect to those mentioned shares, and Time Machine would start immediately. However, at some point it would disconnect from those shares and when that happens the only way I could reconnect is to sleep and wake again. (though sometimes after waking, it still would not connect via AFP or SAMBA). Using the Go>Connect to Server option in the Finder menu will not connect to AFP or SAMBA if it has disconnected as described.
Now, I know that the network connection to the NAS is fine, because even when I can't connect via AFP or SAMBA, on the same iMac, I can successfully ping the QNAP server and I can connect to the QNAP via the browser admin portal - this is all from the same iMac which at the same time may not be able to connect via AFP or SAMBA. I can stream music from it to my Squeezeboxes as well.
So, the problem seems to me at least, to be either a Mac Lion issue where there is a fault or problem with AFP or SAMBA connections to remote servers, or a QNAP problem in accepting AFP or SAMBA connections. As we stand, QNAP are claiming they have no such issues and the problem is with my iMac, so although I am not terribly convinced in their assurances, I wanted to see if anyone here may know if Lion does indeed have the odd issue that I described and if there is a solution.
My Mac is connected via an ethernet cable, directly to my wireless router's Cat5e Switchport (why? because I was having problems with wifi dropping since updating to Lion and found this to be more stable). Another ethernet cable from the same switch then goes to a Powerline adaptor. The NAS is directly connected to another powerline adaptor in the basement.
Could it also be an issue with the Switch? It is afterall just part of the router my ISP gives me. Has there been reports where routers can block AFP or SAMBA connections, or drop them, whilst allowing other protocols to connect through?
I would seriously appreciate anyone's help here. I have had to stop my Time Machine backups, as in the last week, twice it seemed to have become corrupted and is forcing me to do a whole new backup from scratch. This really bothers me, as I then have to connect the NAS directly to the iMac for at least 24hours for that backup to finish, and during that time all my data is at risk of being lost. I am suspecting that the backup became corrupted when the AFP share dropped out at a crucial time in the backup (is this possible?)
Thanks in advance for your help.
iMac (27-inch Mid 2010), Mac OS X (10.7.2)
