NASLite Network Attached Storage

I have a NASLite+ server (PII 400 512MB RAM) with 2 disks - Disk-1 6GB Seagate ST36422A, Disk-4 200GB Seagate ST3200826A

NAS is wired to US Robotics wireless ADSL router. Dell PC running XP connects via wireless. Both NAS disks accessable to the PC but can only write for a few minutes (approx 3 mins) before network is dropped.

SMB log shows a few minutes worth of the following messages...

for dev = 1641, inode = 212996, tv_sec = 429cb04c, tv_usec = 4838d
[2005/05/31 20:11:36, 0] smbd/oplock.c:request_oplock_break(1204)

request_oplock_break: no response received to oplock break request to pid 503 on port 1029 for dev = 1641, inode = 245762

Dialog pops up on Windows Explorer 'Cannot copy <filename>: The specified network name is no longer available.'

The network only drops and is immediately available again in Windows explorer.

Is the the problem the PC NIC, router or wireless?

A bit more info that may be relevant...

Sys log contains the following...

Jun 2 18:16:20 white user.info klogd: ThunderLAN driver v1.15
Jun 2 18:16:20 white user.info klogd: TLAN: 0 devices installed, PCI: 0 EISA: 0
Jun 2 18:16:20 white user.info klogd: dmfe: Davicom DM9xxx net driver, version 1.36.4 (2002-01-17)
Jun 2 18:16:20 white user.info klogd: ns83820.c: National Semiconductor DP83820 10/100/1000 driver.
Jun 2 18:16:20 white user.warn klogd: sk98lin: No adapter found.
Jun 2 18:16:20 white user.info klogd: forcedeth.c: Reverse Engineered nForce ethernet driver. Version 0.25.
Jun 2 18:16:20 white user.info klogd: 8139cp: 10/100 PCI Ethernet driver v1.2 (Mar 22, 2004)
Jun 2 18:16:20 white user.err klogd: 8139cp: pci dev 00:0f.0 (id 10ec:8139 rev 10) is not an 8139C+ compatible chip
Jun 2 18:16:20 white user.err klogd: 8139cp: Try the "8139too" driver instead.
Jun 2 18:16:20 white user.info klogd: 8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.26
Jun 2 18:16:20 white user.info klogd: PCI: Found IRQ 11 for device 00:0f.0
Jun 2 18:16:20 white user.info klogd: eth0: RealTek RTL8139 at 0xc8800000, 00:02:44:71:d6:bc, IRQ 11
Jun 2 18:16:20 white user.debug klogd: eth0: Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8100B/8139D' [/i]

...does this indicate that the NIC is not compatible? If so why does it work for a few minutes. If the NIC is the problem how do I install the correct driver or if I buy a card from the supported list is the driver for it already installed?

I'd appreciate any help on this. Thanks

The above line clearly indicates that your NIC is compattible and initialized. My guess will be that the problem is with your wireless.

my lowly dog 2cents.

Internitent wireless connection can come from alot of differnt problems.

Check you signal strength.
Check that the channel you are using is relatively quiet.
Trying pining the NAS box with the -t option for about 10 mins and watch the stats... they should stay roughly the same for the duration
Check you ADSL router for any silly IDS or ARP security settings.

Thanks for that suggestion.

PC will happily ping for any amount of time with no problem with a 1 or 2ms response time. When I start the copy, this goes up dramatically as expected with timeouts about every 10 to 20 attempts.

But at the same time, about 3 mins into a copy, the network drops. Ping shows 'Destination host unreachable' twice (at the point the copy fails) before resuming...

Reply from 192.168.1.100: bytes=32 time=8ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.100: bytes=32 time=12ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.100: bytes=32 time=470ms TTL=64
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Destination host unreachable.
Destination host unreachable.
Reply from 192.168.1.100: bytes=32 time=2ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.100: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.100: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=64

...I've also now tried a laptop connecting to the NAS via wireless and this works perfectly - very fast. Difference is laptop has Windows 98 (PC has XP) and laptop has US Robotics wireless card (router is USR too), whereas the PC has a Linksys USB device. Signal strength on both laptop and PC are very good. Channel is very quite.

At least this proves NAS, NAS NIC and router are performing OK. I now suspect either the Linksys USB device or some setting in XP.