Setting up a second EX2 ultra

Hi I’m afraid I am not the most knowledgeable about networking. I have bought a second EX2 ultra to run alongside my existing one which is already up and running. I have read that when I set it up I willl have to give it a different IP address/name to the existing one but I am unsure how to do this. can anyone advise please?

If you go into the Settings on the EX2 Ultra, the very first option in the General tab is device name, you can change it there. As for different IP address, your router will do that automatically. The EX2 Ultra doesn’t set the IP. Hope this helps.

The EX2 doesn’t set the IP address. . . .unless you tell it to in the settings/utilities menu for fixed IP address.

For any NAS unit, it is best to let it default to the IP address assigned by the router. If you want to assign a fixed IP address (there are good reasons to do this), then you really should assign it from the router.

And yes. . . you MUST make sure that the Device name for each NAS is unique - - - otherwise things will get wonky.

Thank you both for your replies, the trouble I am having is how to even set up the second one in order to get into the dashboard and give it a different name. When I go to the setup address and click on EX2 Ultra, it just takes me into the admin login for my existing EX2, it does not give me the option to set up a new device and admin account etc. I tried disconnecting the existing one and then i couldnt access the page at all. Im sure this is all very basic but I am stuck!

Let me guess: Your existing unit is using the default WD device name.

. . … which is the same as the default WD device name of the new NAS.

The way out:

  1. disconnect the first EX2 Ultra (pull the LAN cable, not the power cable) (See the hitch below)

OR

  1. Go into the existing EX2 ultra setup menu and . . .change the device name to something unique. (Better)

There is a hitch here: OS/5 on WD devices has this nasty trick of registering the IP address and the device name with an external DDNS service. If you use the device name, the system is actually going out to the internet to resolve the device name against the IP address. (moronic. . .and one of the reasons I don’t use OS/5). Two choices:

Wait awhile for the device registrations to resolve (few hours?) OR
Log into your router, figure out what IP address was assigned to the new NAS. . .and access the dashboard by directly typing the ip address into your web browser.

Thank you so much for the response again! It was what I needed

I am all sorted now and just for completeness I did it by accessing the dashboard for the new EX2 via it’s IP address (found by logging into the router) and setting it up, renaming it etc.

Yes, you can use multiple EX2 NAS drives inside your home, each connected via Ethernet to your home network.