NAS real or virtual?

[Hugh Noble]

Dear Forum members

With ideas and assistance from a fund of Forum correspondence, I think I have my physical set-up as good as my ears can appreciate. I now want to concentrate on data manipulation.

I am confused between such statements as "set B2 as a NAS drive". and the possible need to purchase a separate NAS hard drive. My needs are quite modest and I am considering a WD Red 2TB NAS Drive if I need such. Would this be adequate? Would this need housing and a separate power supply? What is the difference between a NAS drive and an ordinary external drive?

While skiing questions, what is the intended purpose of the micro-usb socket on my B2?

I am delighted with my B2, enjoying the theoretical challenges as well as the sound results. Wish I had done this years ago.

Thank you for the good advice.

Hugh Noble

[Daniel Taylor]

Your B2 can be set up to be used as Network Attached Storage (NAS).  No need for an additional drive.  It's very convenient to have the B2 set as NAS so that you can copy files to/from it just as you would any other attached drive.  Whenever making changes via NAS, always be sure and run the Scan Disk command to update the B2's internal listing.

I had forgotten that the B2 even had a micro USB socket, so I had to go look.  ;o)  AFAIK, it is unused.  Possibly there for production testing or some such thing.

[Peter Lowham]

Hugh,

Daniel is correct.  The B2 can act as a NAS.  You can enable this on your B2 by going into the B2's menu options as shown below (this is using the latest software release dated 09th Jan 2020)

On the B2 go into 'Menu' - 'Settings' - 'Maintenance' - 'Start NAS'.

This starts up NAS on the B2.

Then, on your PC, assuming you are using Windows 10, check that 'SMB1.0' is enabled.  You do this by going into:

 'Start '- 'Control Panel' - 'Programs and Features' - 'Turn Programs and features on or off' (top left on the screen) - Scroll down to 'SMB1.0/CIFS File Sharing Support'

Click on the '+' on this option to open it up, and check that 'SMB1.0/CIFS Client' and 'SMB1.0/CIFS Server' boxes are ticked.  If not, click on each of these to enable them.  Click 'OK' to confirm the selection.

Close down all of these windows.

After a few minutes, if you open up Windows Explorer, under the 'Network' section you should see an icon called 'BrennanB2'.  If you click on this, you should see a folder called 'Music'.  If you click on the 'Music' folder you should then see all of your music listed.

You can then manipulate these files and folders as you require from your PC, as if the files were on your computer.

It's a great way of managing your music files on the B2.

As Daniel says, you don't need a separate NAS drive at all.  However, you should back up your B2 music to your PC or other storage area as a matter of course.  In Windows Explorer, I created a 'BrennanB2' folder on my PC, then dragged the B2 'Music' folder over to the PC 'BrennanB2' folder.  It took a few hours to complete, but it was worth it to know that I could, if necessary, rebuild the B2 from scratch without having to re-rip all my collection.

I bought a Brennan BB1 in September and built it by enabling NAS on the BB1 and just dragged the B2 'Music' file onto the BB1 in Explorer.  A few hours later my BB1 had all of my B2 music. All done in one 'drag and drop' click operation.  Superb!!

Regarding your other query, I looked up the B2 back panel diagram on the Brennan site and the micro-USB is shown as 'Not in use'.  I didn't realise that there is a micro-USB slot!  My B2 is an older model (about 3 years old now) and doesn't have this.

Like you, I love both the B2 and BB1, and have had many many hours of pleasure from them, and I wish the same for you.

Regards,

Peter.

[PMB]

Hi All,

The micro-USB is part of the standard Raspberry Pi PCB - 

shown left of the HDMI socket in the photo. This is used to power the RPi in stand alone applications. It is not used or to be connected to on B2.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Simon]

Hi Peter,

Thank you so much! I have been struggling all weekend to work out why I couldn't see my Brennan files on my laptop having turned on NAS but it was as simple as turning on the SMB1.0/CIFS files! I am now a happy man!

Cheers.

[Mark Fishman]

SMB/CIFS 1.0 support is not necessary. I am using Windows 10, I have no SMB 1.0 support enabled (neither client nor server), and I just mapped my B2 as a network drive using this command:

net use I: \\192.168.0.5\music brennan /USER:192.168.0.5\root

(I: in this command is the drive letter to map; \\IPaddress\music is the server and share; brennan is the password; and the stuff after /USER: is my B2 and the username ON THE B2)

NOTE THAT YOU SHOULD USE THE IP ADDRESS OF *YOUR* Brennan INSTEAD OF THE IP ADDRESS OF MINE. If yours isn't 192.168.0.5 then you should put in the correct IP address for your Brennan.

I'm glad you're having success, but SMB 1.0 is a serious security risk if your computer is also connected to the public internet, or to any other computer that is so connected. It isn't needed for Windows 10 to map a drive letter to a B2 using the NAS function.

[Simon]

Thanks Mark, I will look at that.

[PMB]

Thanks Mark, very useful. I'll be checking it out today.

Paul

Brennan Support.

[Peter Lowham]

Hi Mark,

I agree with you post above.  However, drive mapping will only work from the PC to the Brennan on this direct connection.  Therefore products such as Sonos will not work in this situation as they cannot 'see' the mapped drive.

So Sonus and other similar types of user will need to enable SMB1.0 on their PCs if they want to connect their Sonos (or similar) systems to the Brennan.

My advice is to always ensure that your anti-virus is kept up to date.  This should always be the case as Windows 10 has a number of other security issues which have yet to be fixed.

Regards,

Peter.

[Daniel Taylor]

I still have not read any explanation of why the settings on your Windows computer would have any effect on your Sonos devices being able to access a NAS disk.  If you control your Sonos system with your phone, for example, it is the settings on that phone which should allow access directly to the NAS device.  I don't see how the Windows computer enters the picture at all.  Perhaps I have a basic misunderstanding of the Sonos system.  But I am not aware of there being any requirement that you need to have a PC in the Sonos system.

[Mark Fishman]

> Sonus and other similar types of user will need to enable SMB1.0 on their PCs if they want to connect their Sonos (or similar) systems to the Brennan.

I must be missing something, probably because I don't have a Sonos system. According to https://support.sonos.com/s/article/78?language=en_US, "Storing your music on a NAS drive eliminates the need for a computer", i.e., one does not have to have a running MS-Windows computer in order to use the B2 as a NAS with a Sonos system. The Sonos and the B2 "talk" to each other directly.

Also (same web page), "Sonos works with any NAS drive that supports the SMB(v1) / CIFS file sharing protocol." The B2 is the SMB server, and it supports SMB 1.0, so there should be no need for the MS-Windows computer to get in the middle of that connection. Thus I would think that there's no need to have SMB 1.0 turned on in the Windows computer.

The troubleshooting tips at the bottom of that Sonos support page seem interesting, especially about copying playlist files to the NAS share. Since I don't have a Sonos system, maybe someone else could try that.

[Peter Lowham]

Mark, Daniel,

I don't have a Sonos system, but on reading some articles, the situation is that Sonos provides a desptop application for PC and Mac called 'Sonos Desktop Controller' which gives much more functionality than the base Sonos devices offer; for example enabling multi-room setup, alarm setup and other functions. The informaion given here is for those who are using a PC to manage their Sonos systems.

If you google 'how to use the sonos controller desktop windows 10' you will find more detail on this product.

Over the past months there have been quite a number of posts in this forum requesting help on this topic, so there is a need for a solution.

Regards,

Peter.

[Daniel Taylor]

Peter,

Thanks for clearing that up for me. 

[Mark Fishman]

> Sonos provides a desktop application for PC and Mac called 'Sonos Desktop Controller'

> google 'how to use the sonos controller desktop windows 10' 

I've looked through a few of those articles, and the situation is no clearer, except that it is no longer possible to set up a Sonos system using a Windows computer and their "Desktop Controiller" application. You MUST have an iOS or Android (mobile) device in order to do the initial setup of a Sonos system. That function was removed from the Windows application.

My reading of the explanations about the "Sonos Desktop Controller" is that your Windows computer talks to the Sonos system, not to the NAS drive, since it's the Sonos that plays stuff from the NAS, and not the NAS that forces music into the Sonos.

In other words: B2 is the NAS, Sonos connects to B2 using SMB 1.0, Windows application (which does not have to see the NAS at all) talks to the Sonos so you can pick what to play from the list of stuff that the Sonos is aware of.

The protocol used between Sonos and B2 should not have anything to do with the protocol that MIGHT be used if you want to have the computer itself see the B2's drive. The computer isn't "between" the Sonos and the B2 at all.

-- m.