Apple Time Machine on Synology NAS

[#1]

Hi,

Since I changed from broadband to fibre with plusnet I am getting very intermittent connection to my apple time machine backup for my MBP. I can see the admin page on the synology NAS and can connect via the finder to see the files via afp://servername.local as the NAS suggests I get an intermittent connection. I have tried to turn Bonjour broadcast on and off and it makes no difference? Any ideas. Just to let you know I have no coding experience but can use terminal with the appropriate suggestions and can adjust settings on my router.

Thanks,

[#2]

@newbie1

On the face of it, this seems to suggest that the router you got from Plusnet (I guess the Hub One) works less well with the Apple time machine and your NAS than the previous router.

Can you use your previous router "behind" the Plusnet Hub One ?

I would also look for any firmware updates for the NAS and try time machine connected by cable rather than wireless.

I've found time machine can be a bit hit and miss and occasionally needs to be reset with my WD MyCoud. It is generally OK but has its moments. newer firmware on the WD seemed to improve matters.

[#3]

One other suggestion, try making the 5GHz WiFi network SSID different to that for the 2.4GHz.

I've found various WiFi devices get upset by both networks having the same name.

You can change this in the advance settings.

Well covered in the following thread.

https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Making-5-GHz-have-separate-SSID-with-the-Hub-One/td-p/134955...

[#4]

Thank you for the advice.

I think I have not explained my set up clearly. The time machine back up is the software on my mbp that uses a standard folder on my synology NAS as the backup destination. I have tried to wire my MBP to the router but I still cannot connect via afp but on wireless and wired I can connect via smb which is the windows way to connect to the synlogy. My NAS is up to date. I have read there are apple connectivity issues but I cannot understand the fact that everything connects from my MBP to Synology except via the path afb. Tried the wireless changes and still no luck. 

If I connect via smb and then immediately to the server via afb it will connect and back up. Obviously with back ups the amount of times I remember to do that will not stop me kicking myself a lot when I need my back up! 

[#5]

Hello @newbie1

I wonder if this has some sort of name resolution element.

I don't have a Hub One in use or a Synology NAS so can't really undertake any meaningful experiments.

I would recommend trying a static IP address for the NAS then setting the time machine up to point at the (static) IP address.

I read (but can't confirm) that the DHCP scope for the Hub One is 192.168.1.64 - 192.168.1.253 so, say 192.168.1.50 would be a suitable IP address to set the Synology to (at least for a trial). Default gateway would be 192.168.0.254 and subnet mask 255.255.255.0

I don't think the Hub One can do DHCP reservation.

Give that a go and see if it helps.

[#6]

Thank you again. It had always been set to static but something your post has just highlighted is my static is 192.168.1.10 which is not within range. Shall I change it? Not being an IT professional as it is connecting via smb I thought it would be fine. I thought if the range was set it just would not connect at all.

I have also turned off and turned on all file services on the NAS on the suggestions of other websites. If that does not work will change the ip to within range.

[#7]

No luck with all those changes 😞 The smb route is now intermittent as well. 

[#8]

I don't have a hub one or an Apple device, but one thing that might be worth trying is ( if it's possible) to turn off the IGMP snooping in the router. I assume it would be on otherwise anyone with PlusNet's TV offering would see degraded network performance - particularly on WiFi.

I think Bonjour uses multicast protocols for discovery. If the router is IGMP snooping it may be blocking multicast traffic.

[#9]

@wisty an interesting suggestion.

I didn't see that in the settings while I used a hub one.

@newbie1

I would return the NAS address to your original setting and see if SMB access is restored.

I would also try the Synology support channels to see if it is a common problem. I'm not convinced that going from one ISP router to another would be likely to break Apple's discovery process. I doubt that the Hub one reacts in any way to Bonjour.

I believe the Hub One shared USB storage facility will use SMB. It might be worth putting a USB stick in and trying that as an experiment, to compare with the NAS.

[#10]

@wisty I cannot see a snoop setting if that is what it will be called on the router. 

@markhawkin I have switch from static to auto ip and it seems to have connected again instead of going to the old ip address. Let us see if that lasts. I have looked at the synology sites and a few people have experienced similar problems but does not seem to be a common one. 

If not I may just dig out my old netgear gigabit router and use that instead if it works with the fibre broadband. 

[#11]

@newbie1 - What exactly do you mean by an ‘intermittent connection’?

Using CMD+K from finder I entered afp://nas.local and was then prompted for my U/P I was then offered a list of potential mount points, I chose ‘home’, which was then mounted and a link to it appeared on my Desktop. Hence my confusion by the meaning of intermittent.

By default when connecting to a remote share the default protocol used will be SMB as AFP is deemed to be legacy but would be used when SMB isn’t available on the target machine. As a consequence of this I disabled AFP on my NAS and  made some tweaks to SMB; using File Services, I went to advanced settings and set the Maximum SMB Protocol to SMB3, the Minimum to SMB2.

I’m using an iMac via WiFi to an Apple AirPort Extreme which is connected to a switch into which the ports of my NAS are connected.

If this is any use to you I then went on to create myself a Shared Folder on the NAS called TSArchive and a User specifically for the Time Machine (TSUser). On the Advanced tab of File Services I set Bonjour to ‘Enable Bonjour Time Machine broadcast via SMB’ and ‘Set Time Machine Folders’ to TSArchive.

Back on the iMac I selected the now broadcast share as the archive point and set off a back up, as you can see below.

[#12]

So when I say intermittent the backup disk will not connect all the time depsite using afp:etc I use finder/server/go method but essentially the same method. It connects sometimes through smb and shows up on the finder window and shows me all the folders. This is using the keychain for the password etc. The time machine folder will not work unless it happens to connect with the afp route. When it does I can back up. I have the time machine set up to the folder on the synology. It has perfectly through a house move and 3 different providers and has this issue with this router solely. 

When I changed the static address to within range it stopped connecting via smb as well. Has been connecting via smb when switch to auto dhcp but still intermittently connecting to afb and allowing backups keeps saying there is a problem connecting please wait till available even though I can see and access the folder via finder if I try connecting via afp:etc. If I just press back up it says try backing up again when available.  When I alter the synology it will seem to connect for a back up then I cannot connect again later in the day.

Will try your suggestions and see if they make a difference.

Thank you for everybody for trying the resolve this issue I really do appreciate your comments and efforts. 

[#13]

I have changed the smb to max at smb3 but I cannot find the broadcast via smb option on my nas unfortunately. 

[#14]

@newbie1 - I'm running DSM 6.1-15047 on a Synology RS815+ so for me the broadcast via SMB can be found by going to Control Panel > File Services > Advanced Tab as you can see from this image.

Also, my iMac's running macOS Sierra v10.12.3

[#15]

@newbie1

A bit of a Google about the BT home hub 5 (of which the Plusnet Hub One is a variant) suggests that there is a problem with Bonjour.

http://www.spider-e.com/wp/?p=289#comment-11922

Perhaps it is the hub after all.