NASLite Network Attached Storage

Hello,
I am a bit confused about the time settings in NASLite SMBG: GMT vs local time.

The documentation states on p.6:
"Change Date and Time - Set NASLite-SMB computer date and time. Provided values must be GMT time."

I have followed the recommendation and set the NAS box to GMT, but the other computers are at GMT +1 (=our local time zone).

So now an Excel file (residing on the NAS box) I edited shows it was last accessed at 17:02, whereas locally, this was really at 16:02.

Occasionally then I have run into the following error messages when saving Excel files:
"The file "name.xls" may have been changed by another user since you last saved it. In that case, what do you want to do?
Save a copy?
overwrite changes?
OK, Cancel"

(I am not aware that anyone else on the network has edited that file in the meantime)

Since I have not had that problem before those files residing on the NAS Box, I concluded that this may be related to the difference in time setting.

For ftp access/ synchronisation, I could see a benefit working GMT based, but is there any reason to also do that on a LAN for SMBG?

Any hints? Please advise.
Thanks,
Thorsten Indra

P.S.: How does NASLite handle file-locking anyways? What would happen, if I opened, say an Outlook pst file (residing on a NASLite powered box) on two different computers at the same time - who would have write access?

Hi Thorsten,

The reason the NASLite times are off by an hour is because NASLite is not capable of handling daylight savings time. You can compensate by setting the NASLite clock +/- an hour to get windows to display the correct time. The NASLite GMT setting is absolute, but Windows assumes the reported time is adjusted by the source (since NASLite reports to be WinNT).

As far as file locking, UNIX does not support the same file rights/permissions as Windows, so samba attempts to emulate via “nt acl support”. That emulation is not 100% equivalent to what Win2K/XP and Office2K/XP require. The condition is handled much better in samba 3. NASLite of course uses samba 2.0.10.

File locking in a simpler form is implemented as first-come-first-serve bases. The first machine that opens the file is theoretically the machine with the write rights. All machines that open an already locked file will have to do with read-only access.

Hope that helps.