Sharing (via WiFi) a NAS connected via ethernet to a MacMini

April 10, 2008 1:31 AM

Hi, I have a WiFi network to which a MacMini (with Leopard) is connected. An ethernet NAS disk (ReadyNAS NV+) is connected directly to the MacMini via ethernet. The shares of the NAS disk are correctly mounted on the MacMini.

My goal would be to be able to see the NAS shares also from other Macs connected to the WiFi.
This is roughly the architecture:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ MacMini ------ethernet------ NAS-disk
DSL---WiFiRouter
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OtherMac

The NAS-disk is configured to advertise itself via bonjour and appletalk: in fact, when I connect the NAS-disk directly to the WiFiRouter via ethernet, both the MacMini and the OtherMac see the shares of the NAS-disk.

However, when the NAS-disk is connected vie ethernet as above to the MacMini, then only the MacMini sees its shares. I tried to put the shares of the NAS-disk as shared folders in the File Sharing part of the Sharing panel, but apparently they are not accepted (I can not drag them there, nor are they selectable from a file browser window). I also tried to do an Internet Sharing from Airport to Ethernet, but to no avail.

Any suggestion?

posted by franconi to Computers & Internet (12 answers total)

I am not a network ninja, but I'm pretty sure what you're looking for is called "bridging" -- connecting the two separate segments of the network (wifi and wired) so that they share the same address-space and data. Google finds me this article but it's a bit dated and I don't have enough hardware on hand right now to try it out.
posted by Alterscape at 2:30 AM on April 10, 2008

for the NAS device to be directly visible to OtherMac, it needs to be on the same network - the only way to do that with the layout you've described is by having MacMini bridge the wired and wireless networks together. this is easy in Linux, but I've not seen this done with OSX (may well be possible, but I've not seen it done). it also sounds like the built in file server is refusing to share out a volume that's mounted from the network, which is on the face of it a reasonable call, but annoying to you. SharePoints is a 3rd party tool for managing exported volumes which may not be so picky about what it exports.
posted by russm at 2:35 AM on April 10, 2008

Oops, comments in the link I just posted suggest that the solution presented there will NOT, in fact, solve your problem. However, network bridging is what you need to do. I don't immediately see any other good solutions on Google -- everybody seems to be talking about Internet Sharing, which will not actually bridge the networks (it does NAT, Network Address Translation, instead). I'll keep googling, though!
posted by Alterscape at 2:35 AM on April 10, 2008

hmmm... while the setup Alterscape found is called "bridging" by it's author, it's actually just putting the wired devices behind NAT on the machine the article calls "Ethernet Basestation"... this is the configuration you already have, and (as you've found) doesn't work...
posted by russm at 2:39 AM on April 10, 2008

Why can't you plug the NAS ethernet into the wifi router? Unless there are no ports for it, that would be the proper method to use. In other words, the NAS should be publishing its shares on its own, there's no need to publish them through the mini. Since the wifi router should be using the same ethernet segment on both the wired and wifi ports, the NAS should be discoverable from both Macs.
posted by disclaimer at 4:55 AM on April 10, 2008

Getting this working will be rather painful. The way you've configured it, the NAS device is sitting in a different physical network than the DSL, which means that signals it sends are, in essence, blocked by the Mini. Internet connection sharing won't work for you either, because that's meant to allow machines on the shared network access to the broader internet; it doesn't allow traffic originated from outside to reach back in, which you need. Further, the Mini wouldn't be broadcasting the Bonjour messages, so the other Mac won't see it easily anyway.

The RIGHT way to do this is with a flat network. Normally, you'd plug both the mini and the NAS device into Ethernet ports on the wireless access point. The WAP will function as a bridge between the two network types, so everything just magically works. If you don't have enough ports on your wireless device (like if it's say, an Airport Express), you should be able to pick up a decent little 10/100 switch for twenty or thirty bucks with the three ports you'd need. (NAS, Mini, and router.)

Is there some reason why you can't do it that way? The way you're trying can probably be made to work, but it's going to be painful, requiring hacking on the Mini until you can come up with some workaround that will function. I can think of one or two you could try, but before I get off into that... would the solution above work for you? It's the right way to do things, requiring almost no effort at all.
posted by Malor at 4:58 AM on April 10, 2008

+1 Malor. I have a NAS box, two wired computers, and one wireless computer. They're all connected to my wired+wifi router, which is downstream from my cable modem. So, to diagram it,

modem == router == Mac 1
                == Mac 2
                ~~ Mac 2
                == NAS box
==: ethernet
~~: wifi

Almost all wifi routers also act as an Ethernet NAT box; if yours does not, they're cheap enough.
posted by adamrice at 6:31 AM on April 10, 2008

Nthing to plug the NAS into the network and not to the mac.
To be more specific, I use the NV+ at work for backup & share purposes, and it is not intended to be plugged directly into a computer. Reading through the user manual, I don't recall them even mentioning to do so. Closest you get is plugging an external HD into the NAS.
posted by jmd82 at 7:09 AM on April 10, 2008

Getting this working will be rather painful. The way you've configured it, the NAS device is sitting in a different physical network than the DSL

I misworded that. Substitute 'wireless' for DSL, I was just reading off your diagram without really thinking about it.

adamrice has a good diagram. You want to go from the DSL phone line to the DSL modem with the phone connection, and then Ethernet to the 'WAN' port on the DSL modem. Then plug in all your wired devices to the 'LAN' ports on the modem. Finally, have your wireless clients connect wirelessly, and everything should just work.

The WAP should be the center of everything; by hanging the NAS off the Mini, you're splitting your network into two, which is painful.

If you HAVE to connect the Mini wirelessly, and you still want full Ethernet speed to the NAS from the Mini (wireless is slow), buy a second WAP, preferably a Linksys WRT54GL. Make sure to get that exact model.... the regular G and GS versions suck, you want the GL, possibly Linksys' only decent product. Flash the Linksys with the DD-WRT or Tomato firmwares, and set it up in 'client bridging' mode. that way, the diagram ends up looking like this:

DSL----->DSL modem----->original wireless access point
                                    ~
                                    ~
                                    ~
                                    ~ -- Other Mac (wireless conection)
                                    ~ -- WRT54GL in client bridging mode
                                                    = 
                                                    = Mini connected with Ethernet
                                                    = NAS connected with Ethernet

This will make your network 'flat', even though you have two segments, and everything will once again just work.
posted by Malor at 7:30 AM on April 10, 2008

Does the drive also have a USB or firewire connector? If so, you can mount the drive on the mac mini and just do normal OSX filesharing to see the drive from other computers on your network.

(I'm sure there's also a way to do it over ethernet, as other posters have mentioned. I just know this way works, since I've got an external drive connected to my Mac Mini, and it works fine for me over a wireless network. I even run Time Machine this way.)
posted by wyzewoman at 8:08 AM on April 10, 2008

Response by poster: hey! Thanks for your suggestions. Indeed, the problem seems to be the fact that there are two distinct subnets. I have just bought an ethernet gigabit switch (a D-Link DGS-1005D, 36€), where the NAS, the MacMini, and the WiFi router (an Apple Airport Express) are directly connected via ethernet cables. This architecture now works:

NAS
+
+(ethernet)
+
GBSwitch
+ +
+ +(ethernet)
+ +
+ MacMini
+
+(ethernet)
+
WiFi AirportExpress
"
"(WiFi)
--------------------WALL--------------------
"
"
WiFiRouter --- DSL
"
"(WiFi)
"
OtherMacs

thanks again to all
--e.
posted by franconi at 6:27 AM on April 11, 2008

Ah, cool, you did that exactly right. Congrats!
posted by Malor at 10:36 AM on April 11, 2008