Unable to access WDMyCloud using ethernet cable and switch [Solved]

[Juicio]

Hi all,

I have a PC and an iMac, and lots of media to access between. Until recently, I have been using USB drives and Google drive to share content, but I was keen to get my first NAS and try this instead.

I got a WDMyCloud, plugged into my Wifi router and could access it fine from both machines. However, as my router is on the oppposite side of the house to my computers, the transfer speeds were just too slow.

To solve this, I purchased a 5 Port Gigabit Ethernet Network Switch and some cat6a cables, to create a seperate network (with no internet access). I disabled cloud access from the NAS drive, and changed the IPv4 Network Mode to static as per many recommendations online.

So the setup is:
Switch

• PC connected by cat6
• iMac connected by cat6
• WDMyCloud connected by cat6

I have the WDMyCloud mapped perfectly and I can access it with no problem from file explorer. The iMac however, cannot connect at all (using Finder >> Go >> Connect to server >> inputting the static IP address - 192.168.1.201

I think I have to change some settings in System Preferences >> Network >> Ethernet - I tried changing the IPV4 setting to Manual, and entered some ip addresses close to the static one, like 192.168.1.219, .222 etc, but it always fails to connect.

I admit I don’t know much at all about networking, but I have spent every night for the last week trying to find a problem like this online, but everywhere says the same - just input the static IP address into Connect to Server then it should appear.

Maybe what I’m doing isn’t possible sharing it between the PC and the Mac using a switch? I thought if anything this might be easier than using it through the WIFI. My only goal is too access large files (I make videos) from both machines - it’s working like a dream (so fast) on the PC… I just wish I could get that on the Mac too.

Just to repeat - there is no internet access to the WDMyCloud and this is intentional - the WIFI is too far away I need faster transfer speeds.

I have uploaded a basic diagram of my setup…

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Here is the error I get on the Mac:

[Juicio]

Any Mac experts on here? I’d really love to get this working… Someone tell me it’s impossible to access from Windows + Mac at once, or I’ve done something wrong?

[Juicio]

Has anyone ever connected a WDMyCloud to a Mac with an ethernet cable?

[Juicio]

Bump.

[sbhoward]

I am accessing the My Cloud Drives with both Windows 10 Laptops and a Macbook Pro running Big Sur. As long as you are sticking with Intel, no problems.

But if you upgrade to one of the new M1 chips, WD states they have no plans to support it. My 2 6TB drives are now doorstops as far as the new Mac is concerned. Am busy pulling data off these drives (via Windows) and will be tossing them. Will never buy WD again…

[Juicio]

What a shame. Sorry to hear that.

My iMac is an Intel 2011, I could connect to it fine wirelessly but having no hope still with my wired connection. Hopefully someone out there has some advice.

[mstargard]

You’re trying by IP address, so it’s probably a routing issue and not a name issue.

You don’t say in your post, but I’m assuming that your new private network is 192.168.1.0/24 (or netmask 255.255.255.0). What is the network for the wifi, and it is connected when you try to connect with the Mac to your wdmycloud?

Check to make sure you are using two distinct network address spaces for the two different networks. So, private is 192.168.1.0/24 and wifi is 192.168.0.0/24. Check also that your netmask is correct on all the nodes. Drawing a picture and labeling your network interfaces with ip/netmask can be really helpful. Open Terminal.app on the Mac and see if you can ping the wdmycloud by ip address.

My guess is that the Mac is looking for the wdmycloud on your wireless network., or alternatively, that the network simply isn’t connected to your Mac. You have link lights, right?

Good luck.

[mstargard]

BTW, love your diagram.

[Juicio]

Hi @mstargard, thanks so much for your reply, I’m glad you appreciate the diagram!

I’m positive the issue is with my configuration, mainly because I’m not sure what I should be doing, or how exactly networks ‘work’! What I have done so far is the result of many hours of Googling picking bits and pieces up all over the place. Learning networking is something on my to-do list…

From what I understand in your reply, it sounds like I need to ensure I am operating two completely separate networks for this to work. I’m not sure how to find this out, so I’ll add some more info that hopefully will be relevant.

On my PC, ipconfig in cmd tells me:

Ethernet adapter (the cable that goes off to the switch in my diagram):
IPv4 address … 192.168.1.220
Subnet mask … 255.255.255.0
Default gateway … (blank)

Wireless LAN adapter WiFi:
IPv4 address … 192.168.1.242
Subnet mask … 255.255.255.0
Default gateway … 192.168.1.254

On the Mac, in Network, the settings are:

Ethernet: Configure ipv4: Manually
IP address … 192.168.1.219
Subnet … 255.255.255.0
Router … (blank)
Status: connected (green icon)

WiFi: Advanced >> TCP/IP tab:
IP address … 192.168.1.70
Subnet … 255.255.255.0
Router … 192.168.1.254

I try to ping the drive’s ip 192.168.1.219 in terminal on the mac I get
64 bytes from 192.168.1.219 icmp_seq=0/1/2 etc time: 0.000 ms and it repeats down and down.

Now, these IPv4 addresses look the same on the WIFI as the Ethernet, except the last 3 digits, which is telling me maybe they are in fact on the same network? So I need to change the IP address of my Ethernet connection on both machines to a different address? I’m not sure what the rules are… I am I right in thinking that the 192.168 must remain the same, but then I can change the .1 to .0 or .2 and then the last number can be anything up to .255? So I could rename it 192.168.2.10?

I’ll just reiterate: the drive is accessible perfectly from the PC, it’s just the Mac that can’t access it. Seems weird to me that it’s working on one not the other!

I eagerly await your reply. Thanks again for your help.

[mstargard]

OK, so you’re definitely using 192.168.1.0/24 for both networks, which is going to land you into trouble.

Move your wired private network to 192.168.2.0/24.

In IPv4 networking, the IP address has a network component, and a host component. These are separated by the netmask. In order to fully appreciate this, you need think about each number in the IP address in binary. Consider your 192.168.1.0/24 network. The first three numbers are used for the network because 8bits + 8bits + 8bits is 24 bits. That’s the /24 at the end which is called CIDR notation. The other way of representing this netmask is 255.255.255.0 which is 11111111.11111111.11111111.00000000 in binary.

When you boolean AND the netmask and IP address, you’re left with just the network portion. This is very important to a computer because that is how it decides where to send the packet. Every packet it sends, it has to make a routing decision, which goes something like this:

Is it me? (localhost or one of my ip addresses)
If yes, connect to my self.
If no, then…
Is it on a locally connected network? ( the network portion we just worked out with the netmask)
If yes, then connect to that host directly. It does this by asking for the hardware address of the device on the ethernet using the arp protocol. It asks the question “who has 192.168.1.x ?” and accepts the first response it gets, usually from the device that has that address. The reply is the hardware address which is uses for ethernet communication. It stores this hardware address in the arp cache for about 10 minutes. You can see these using the “arp -a” command on the command line.
If no, then send the packet to the default gateway.

Then the default gateway makes the same decisions, and so on for each computer until your packet reaches its destination.

So, in short, you need to run two different network addresses for your two different networks otherwise it is ambiguous which network your computer will send these packets to.

[mstargard]

You know, you could simplify things by running a long network cable from a LAN port of your wifi router to a port on your little switch. In this scenario, put all the devices on the same 192.168.1.0/24 network by configuring your network interfaces on all your devices to use dhcp. They will get their addresses from the router.

Then, turn off the wifi on your PC and your Mac. They will still communicate between themselves and the wdmycloud directly over the wired network, and they would communicate with the internet over the wired network. The wifi would be available for cellphones and tablets.

The wdmycloud would also have access to the internet for updates and cloud connectivity. You have to decide if this meets your security requirements.

[Juicio]

Your replies are incredibly useful, thanks so much for taking the time. I hope you had a happy & healthy Christmas.

Your binary and bits explanations I am partially familiar with from some basic entry-level networking videos I have seen. However, I’m a bit unsure on how to actually move the wired network, and how the networks are defined. I have three places where I can type in IP addresses

1. The PC Ethernet adapter settings properties
2. The WDMyCloud admin>>Settings>>Network menu, by clicking Static toggle
3. The Mac network settings

I think this is what you meant by the IP address having a network component, and a host component. I guess I have to change all three to 192.168.2.0?

I’ve encountered a problem at the first hurdle. On my PC, in ‘adapter settings’ >> ipv4 properties >> IP address, I tried amending the IP address as you said, to 192.168.2.0 (keeping the subnet mask as 255.255.255.0, as I think this what the /24 means?) but it wouldn’t accept this, flagging up the error:

“The combination of IP address and subnet mask is invalid. All of the bits in the host address portion of the IP address are set to 1. Please enter a valid combination of IP address and subnet mask.”

Maybe I have to change the subnet from 255.255.255.0 or the DNS below, which I have set at 8.8.8.8 preferred and 8.8.4.4 alternate? Or pick another IP address? I’m not smart enough to decrypt that error message.

In the WDMyCloud dashboard>>Settings>>Network, if I click on the static toggle, I can amend/define the static IP address, the subnet mask, the gateway and the DNS.

However… I am quite worried about changing these. There is a popup that says that I might make the drive inaccessible. I get it - if I change the static IP address to 192.168.2.0, and something goes wrong, I then won’t be able to regain access to this admin panel. I currently access it by typing the IP 192.168.1.201 into my browser.

If I change it, and then try typing it into the browser, and it doesn’t pull up the WD Admin login page, then I think I might be doomed. I can’t think of another way to restore it - I’ll have to fix it some other way, if that’s even possible?

Is the IP address the only value that should be changed, what about the gateway and the DNS? The other editable settings in the WD admin window are:

IP: 192.168.1.201
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.254
DNS: 192.168.1.254

Sorry to drag this out. I’m sure I’m probably overlooking some simple answer here. Hopefully this thread might help others in the future, although I suspect your last message about having seperate networks was probably the final solution, I just need to execute this stage!

Thanks in advance.

[Juicio]

Believe me, I would much rather run a long cable from the router to my desk. But it would have to go around the dining table, through the lounge, up the stairs, and over to where my desk is, into our spare bedroom, which my partner wouldn’t be too happy about!

Next year, we will be moving into a new build home, with ethernet access in each room. So I will be able to station the NAS & switch right beside the WIFI router, and have high speed direct access as well as cloud connectivity, as well as a much simpler network (I hope!).

[mstargard]

Let’s map out your new network. The network is defined by the devices that communicate with it, so you’ll have to change the IP’s for all three devices.

These values are for the network adapter wired to your little switch.
mycloud 192.168.2.10 netmask=255.255.255.0 route=empty dns=empty
PC 192.168.2.100 netmask=255.255.255.0 route=empty dns=empty
Mac 192.168.2.101 netmask=255.255.255.0 route=empty dns=empty

These values are for your wifi adapters on the Mac and PC.
PC dhcp
Mac dhcp
It should assign 192.168.1.x with a netmask of 255.255.255.0, and a gateway of 192.168.1.254. I don’t know how you manage DNS on your network. Maybe dhcp is setting this property to something like 8.8.8.8.

So, carefully change the mybook to have a static IP address as assigned above. If you’re forced to enter values for gateway and DNS, just enter the IP address for the device again. It doesn’t matter because this device won’t be able to route to the Internet because there’s no router on that network. The device will disappear until you set up the network on either the PC or the Mac to see it.

Now change either the Mac or PC as assigned above and see if you can talk to the mybook’s web interface. Upon that success, change the PC’s network settings.

Now the PC should be able to ping both the mybook and the Mac on the 192.168.2.x network, and the Mac should be able to ping the other devices. The PC and the Mac should still be able to use the internet.

[Juicio]

I just got round to trying what you said, and it worked like a dream. I’ve learnt a lot, so thanks very much for your help.

Easy access to the NAS from both Windows and Mac machines over the new separate network. Internet connection via WiFi was maintained on both, I didn’t have to change anything with the DHCP etc.

It wasn’t that hard really, you made it sound so easy.

You have proved the kindness of the WD community and I’ll do my best to pass it on.

Happy New year!