Asus RT-AC68U Samba share not showing/working in Windows 7?

[Kawboy]

I'm upgrading from an old Asus RT-N66U to an AC68U and I'm having some trouble getting the USB 2.0 attached HD (3TB WD My Book) to show up in Win7's File Explorer and RT-AC68U doesn't show up as a networked device. I got the same drive set up in the 66 ages ago but may have forgotten the exact extra steps needed, if any. I've set up the Samba share in the firmware (latest stock Asus) but the enabling seems different from the 66 (no slider for anonymous samba access on the 68). The drive is working because I can access it through my Android phone with anonymous access at 192.168.1.1. No changes in ES File Explorer settings from the 66, just navigated and files were visible. ESFE showed the router model in the directory listing whereas the 68-connected drive just shows 192.168.1.1 with no name/label.

If it matters, I got an error 401 message through the Asus router setup program just at the end of the initial setup and had to use Firefox and the web interface to do the initial setup and change the default admin password.

I've googled and searched SNB but can't quite find the same problem mentioned.
Shame, because faster USB file access was one of the main reasons I wanted to change from the 66.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Post a screen shot of your Samba settings.

 

[Kawboy]

 

[ColinTaylor]

Your firmware version is prehistoric . Install the current version, reset it to factory defaults and manually configure it again.

 

[ColinTaylor]

Just remembered that you can't go straight to the latest firmware version from where you are. You need to install an intermediate version first. So install RT-AC68U_3.0.0.4_376_3626-g9a8323e which can be found in the ASUS-OEM-CFE folder here.

 

[Kawboy]

Yeah? No warnings to upgrade firmware so I figured it must be current. My bad. I figured I'd at least get a warning seeing as it was plugged into the net for hours last night before I gave up. Will do so after swapping it back into service and repost.

 

[Kawboy]

And thx for the upgrade-in-steps warning. I was just going to click upgrade on the router after it had 'net again.

 

[Kawboy]

Ha! Upgraded to 376_3676, went into settings, and it instantly told me I needed new firmware. That's the behaviour I'm used to. Will upgrade again and see if Samba behaves better. Seems to be stuck on "Download firmware..." at the moment though.

 

[ColinTaylor]

When you get the current firmware version (3.0.0.4.384.45149) installed don't forget to do a final factory default reset before manual configuration. There have been significant changes to the firmware and you want to make sure none of the old settings got carried forward.

 

[Kawboy]

Will do, thx. Reluctantly. I spent some time copying static IP assignments etc over from the 66 so that computers, printers, cameras, etc stay in the same place and port forwarding works. Ya gotta do what ya gotta do though. It is running on the latest firmware at the moment and I didn't see it in the network neighbourhood after the upgrade but ran out of time to play with it, reboot every thing, check settings, etc so plugged the 66 back in so the LAN functioned while I'm out. Will keep this thread updated when I can play with it again.

 

[Kawboy]

Well, the AC68U is installed and showed an error on the drive when it was plugged in. It didn't show this before. The built-in scanner didn't seem to fix the file system issue that was reported so I unplugged it, plugged it into the computer, and did a full scan and file system repair and then plugged it back into the 68 and set up Samba again. Voila, the share was up and running properly and has been operating flawlessly since then. So, it looks like it was possibly a drive error not being caught or reported properly right away that was messing things up even after the firmware update. Thanks for the help!