Drives won't stay networked

[AlexanderCS]

I've got an issue that's really been stumping me here, not sure if it's my own ignorance or a legitimate issue.

The setup is a small office that has 6 machines on a Synology DS213+ NAS unit (that's what the prior tech left them with--in the winter we might move to a server but for now this is what I'm supporting). All the machines have mapped drives to the NAS.

The only machine on Windows 8.1 was mapped just fine. The two changes that have occurred recently are: Switched RMM to N-Able, Had users build stronger, longer passwords. Switching the passwords required me to switch the password locally as well as in the Synology panel.

Now, every morning that this person logs in, they get the "Could not reconnect all drives". I had thought I'm mapping the drives correctly, but perhaps that isn't the case. I map it, choose the drive letter, specify the path (\\SERVERNAME\Data), select "Reconnect at logon" and "Use different credentials" (Since the username and password for the Synology is not the same as the local user)... is this not correct? But every morning she logs on to the drives not being mounted properly. The "Windows Credentials" in Credential Manager also gets wiped out. The thing is, the drive will map properly and allow access if I set it up again and even if I restart and log off the machine. It almost seems like some scheduled thing is causing it to drop.

I have tried (not in order):

-Recreating the user in the Synology admin panel
-Ensuring the user permissions are proper
-Manually entering the Credentials
-Enabling "Always wait for the network at computer startup and login"

None of this has given me any joy so far. I'm told I can write a script to just mount the drives on startup, but I'd like to figure out the root issue and I don't want to put a batch file with the password plain text.

Tonight I'm going to disable most of what I've got N-Able doing. Perhaps the maintenance or scans I have it do interfere?

Any help much appreciated... sorry for the long post, pulling my hair out over this.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Treat it like a workgroup setup...have the Synology user accounts match what they log onto Windows with.
N-Able (or any RMM) has nothing to do with this.

 

[AlexanderCS]

Wait a moment.

It's currently setup as a workgroup. So if I've got the windows user set to something generic (Associate, since at the time we didn't know the name of the hire) and I recently set the Synology user to her actual name... this is what's causing my problem? I thought I could have the Synology user whatever I wanted to long as I "Used different credentials" when mapping. If that's not the case, I'll need to change the user back to a generic name, or change the Windows user.

I didn't -think- it was N-Able doing anything, but I was running out of things to try. Silly of me, N-Able has been great for my business.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

I always prefer the old fashioned NT way of setting up peer to peer workgroups...and that is, on the "server" (which is just a desktop acting as a server...not a true server, else it would not be workgroup setup)....have all the user accounts entered on the server that the workstations log in using. Exact matching usernames and passwords.

And if Win7....under network/sharing center, advanced sharing options, drop the 128 bit networking.

 

[AlexanderCS]

Ah you're right, I forgot to mention... one of the Windows 7 desktops is being used as a "server". If that's the proper way to do it there, I'll follow your advice which will get me hooked up as far as PC Law is concerned (they connect to the desktop to get PC Law since they wouldn't provide support if it was on a NAS)

However, this issue also affects the drives mapped to the Synology. Should I follow the same procedure and make the Synology user and Windows 8.1 user accounts match username and password exactly? This is where my confusion comes in... I thought if my NAS had an account "Shannon" I could just click "Use different credentials" when mapping and type that information in, even if the Windows account was named "Associate".

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Use different creds can sometimes be...challenging. Totally a preference thing...but I just prefer to do it the old fashioned way (hey I'm old old OLD school)..but that works.

 

[AlexanderCS]

An update, doing it the old fashioned way seems to have worked where trying to use different credentials certainly did NOT.

I'll be getting everyone switched over to using the same credentials later this week (after I deal with one of their desktops that blew a motherboard)

Thanks Stonecat!