UnitiServe and QNAP

Posted by: Gurux on 26 December 2013

Hi everyone

 

And Marry Christmas. 

 

I've been using streaming products for a while. My music is stored on a QNAP 659 Pro II. The NAS is connected to a SG300 Cisco managed switch. Port trunking, load balance (IEEE 802.3ad), jumbo frames (MTU 9000), the works. The switch serves media to a host of devices plus my iMac, also port trunked to the switch. All static IP's, saved in my router's config table (Asus RT-N66U). 

 

A Dune Smart connects to my QNAP via NFS without any issues, streaming anything, including Blu-ray iso, without a glitch. A Popcorn Hour A400 connected via Samba, streaming anything, including Blu-ray 3D iso without a glitch. My Arcam AVR750 connects to my Twonky server, plays music without any issues (but with hardware limitations). A Linn Kiko in the other room sees my Twonky server, plays any file without any issues. I had an NDX and later an NDS, recently sold because of space restrictions, they connected fine to the QNAP and played music without ever having an issue.

 

Enter UnitiServe, initially purchased as a ripper.  I tried to set it at the time as a UPnP transcoding server but it didn't work, I didn't have time to fiddle with it so I continued to use Twonky.

 

Now my NDS is  gone. I have a V1 and I want to use UnitiServe as a streamer for a simple, small, uncomplicated set up. And I can't.

 

UnitiServe registers fine on the network, I see it from my iMac and I can access the folders. My router and switch see it, it is registered with a static IP address, everything looks fine.

 

UnitiServe can see my NAS and the various folders. I use the admin user name / password so it should have unrestricted access. My Multimedia folder where I have all my music and films (two separate folders within the folder) is shared, the admin account has unrestricted access, UnitiServe's IP is allowed. And yet when I try to connect UnitiServe to the folder the dot goes orange, then green but within 30 seconds red again. I tried everything, every setting, I enabled and disabled services I have never even heard of on my QNAP (in fact the settings are probably a complete mess now), I followed that QNAP tutorial available in the support section to the letter, I created the three folders, I copied some music, with, without a password, anything, everything - no joy. I connected it to various unmanaged/ managed switches (Netgear included) or directly to my router. I never managed to connect to the stored content on the NAS. 

 

I have wasted hours and hours of my life trying to get this to work, searching forum threads, support pages, reading networking stuff etc. I am getting to the point where I am so fed up that I I am seriously considering selling it. I am not an IT expert but I am probably slightly above average, everything else works in my house and works well. 

 

Do you have any ideas, suggestions, "secret" settings to share?

 

Many thanks

Dan 

 

Posted on: 26 December 2013 by Claus-Thoegersen

You need to add the share to the list of shares the serve searches. If you have a Windows pc try using the desktop client and see under music repositories, scannable network shares. Your music share should show up, but maybe not when it is password protected. The easiest way is to disable any user authentication until you have the shares setup, and then activate the user authentication and add username and password to the active share.

 

Posted on: 26 December 2013 by Gurux

Hi Claus. And many thanks for your answer. Unfortunately I haven't used Windows in years but I have a Windows 7 disk so I could install it in Bootcamp. Once I do it if I understand  correctly I have to install a Naim desktop client which will provide more options than the IP based Mac interface for the Serve?

Posted on: 26 December 2013 by Bart
Originally Posted by Gurux:

Hi Claus. And many thanks for your answer. Unfortunately I haven't used Windows in years but I have a Windows 7 disk so I could install it in Bootcamp. Once I do it if I understand  correctly I have to install a Naim desktop client which will provide more options than the IP based Mac interface for the Serve?

No you can do this using n-Serve for OS X.  In the Maintenance menu, pick Network Shares.  There is a button to "Add New" which I believe is what you're looking for.

Posted on: 26 December 2013 by Claus-Thoegersen

I am not sure how much yu can do from the webinterface, since I use the dtc 95 percent of the time. There is a Windows version called desktop client dtc and to confuse everybody a mac version of the desktop client called n-serve as I remember it. You may be able to find it on the mac app store.

 

On Windows you need the version of the DTC that is the same as the firmware version, e.g. 1.7 has one dtc and 1.6 has an older version.

http://www.naimaudio.com/search/node/desktop%20client

Posted on: 26 December 2013 by Gurux

Bart, you can indeed but it's a very odd interface and it was by pure chance that I discovered the switch between Library / Radio / Maintenance. Anyway that didn't do the trick. 

 

I installed Windows in Bootcamp. I ran the NAS simulation tool, no problems, QNAP passed all tests. I could access folders etc. UnitiServe couldn't. I ran the IP tool and discovered that UnitiServe was actually set to DHCP by default so I set it to static and saved the IP address. Now, surprise surprise, the shared became available. 

 

First of all I created a share as per Naim's instructions with no password, universal access etc. I copied a couple of folders on it and UnitiServe could finally scan them / play them. Great.

 

The folder with all my music however, although online and accessible, is in a "pending" state and I can only see three albums so far (I have over a hundred).

 

Also on 24/92 I get  stutter / drop outs. I checked my switch - UnitiServe auto-negotiates 1000 full duplex (oddly because I thought it didn't support gigabit speeds). I tried to manually set it to 100 full duplex, half, 10 (high res content became unplayable). I enabled / disabled flow control. I disabled Jumbo frames. No improvement. 

 

Considering I stream Blu-ray 3D iso on this network it is a bit frustrating. Anyway at least it's a step in the right direction. Many thanks for your help. 

Posted on: 26 December 2013 by Bart

Did you change the name of the windows workgroup for the nas to Naim?

 

Default is usually "home."  Change it to "Naim" if you've not already.

Posted on: 26 December 2013 by Gurux

Hi Bart. Yes, Naim it is. 

 

A couple of switch/NAS/UnitiServe  reboots later I have about a third of my albums available in the playlist now although some of them split over several folders. Not sure why UnitiServe doesn't see albums where Twonky did (I am pretty sure my metadata are fine - bliss took care of the job) but never mind.  

 

And the performance seems to be fine, including 24/96. It will probably take more fiddling but I'm getting there.

 

 

Posted on: 26 December 2013 by Bart

My guess is that it takes a while to index the contents of folders you're trying to add, and that's what's slowing down the process of you seeing the folders added and the contents all there.

 

I am setting up a new nas as I type this (giving my son my Synology 212j, and setting up a 213j with 2x2tb WD Red drives for myself).  The uServe saw my newly created folders almost instantly . . . but they were empty, of course. 

 

It sounds like you're on the right track!

Posted on: 26 December 2013 by hungryhalibut

Perseverance will ultimately pay dividends. I had some, ehem, challenges setting my system up, and Bart was one of those who helped me no end. Now it all pootles along happily. So take a deep breath and remember that you'll get there.