I can’t figure out how to access shares that I created. I’m testing it with a Win8.1 computer but will mainly be using it with Win7 computers. My PC sees the EX2 but when I mount the public share all I see is the default folders and not the public share that I created. I was able to create and access an iSCSI share but I haven’t been able to find any documentation on accessing a regular share. I was able to see the shares using the WD apps but I need them available for other software.
I plan to use the EX2 in a small office with a relatively small portion of it devoted to shared files (e.g. QuickBooks) and much of the rest of it devoted to full image backups of 2 or 3 computers using Rebit. I’m currently doing it with an older NAS from another manufacturer.
GaryCW - I can’t comment about Win 8.1 as I only have Win 7. I can tell you a simple way to access all your EX2 shares from Win 7 and maybe the process in Win 8 is similar, if not identical, and perhaps you can figure out how you can adapt this method to Win 8.
The easiest way in Win 7 is to go to start menu and click Network. That’ll pull up all your network devices including the EX2. Open it up and you should see all the available shares (assuming you created an user with username/password on your dashboard that matches your Win 7 username and granted access to that user for those shares…even works if you have blank password for your Win 7 username). Now you can either open the shares up like a Windows folder or for easier future access you can rt-click and map a drive to that share. I personally prefer the shares to be a single-click away so I created shortcuts on my taskbar that open these shares up instantly. You will have to google for how to create taskbar shortcuts to network shares.
Hopefully for Win 8 the process is not too different.
That works for public folders but my Windows 8.1 username has a space in it and the EX2 won’t accept it as a username so I can’t do that. I wouldn’t want to have to ask users for their Windows passwords so I could set up the EX2.
Yes, usernames with spaces are going to be an issue. Can’t help you there. In Unix/Linux often times though from the command prompt you can get around issues like folders/files with spaces in their names by enclosing the names in double quotes. I wonder if EX2 will let you create an user name with space if the username is enclosed in double quotes…I dunno, but worth a shot.
And yes, I can understand that you can’t ask the Windows users for their passwords…that’s gonna be an issue. The only awkward way to resolve that is to setup the usernames without setting a password (i.e. password is turned off) and then go to each of your users’ desks and using their computers’ you login to the web dashboard and then turn on the password switch, which’ll prompt them to enter their passwords. At this point you can ask them to enter their Windows passwords.
I believe if you don’t sync the passwords, it’ll still work as long as the usernames match but they’ll be prompted to enter whatever password you decide to setup their EX2 usernames with. It’s kinda difficult to use these kinds of things for an office environment.
However, if you use Windows Active Directory for your office network then you can add the EX2 to that and your users can be created based on their Active Directory profiles and therefore will be able to use their windows usernames nd passwords. You’ll have to lookup the EX2’s PDF manual on how to do that. You can find the setting to join Active Directory from dashboard’s Settings -> General -> Services section (near bottom of page) -> Active Directory.
