ES file explorer cannot find server

[tescoid]

Hi there. I'm tearing my hair out with this.

As the threat title suggests, I cannot find the server via as file explorer. What makes this frustrating is that the server is the default gateway as I have a USB device plugged into my router, and my nexus 10 uses this gateway to access the internet.

File explorer can see other devices on the network, and other devices on the network can see the server files, so I don't know where I'm going wrong. Also, this is a new problem. I used to be able to see the files fine up until a few days ago. The timing was similar to the upgrading of android 4.2.2 but I don't know if this is related.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Old_Bull]

Did you tell it to scan? I use the same app on all my devices and I click on the left side and choose LAN, then scan.

 

[tescoid]

Yes, but I'm afraid that comes to nothing.

 

[Old_Bull]

I would reinstall it and restart your router and storage device. If that fails, I don't know what else to suggest.

 

[Phil42]

Is your phone rooted and are you comfortable with using the Terminal?

If so, you can send a ping command to your router's IP address and see whether or not it replies.

 

[tescoid]

Phil, I won't lie: I don't know what a lot of that means. But surely if the tablet can access the internet via the router then there is no problem in communication between the two, no?

 

[Phil42]

Phil, I won't lie: I don't know what a lot of that means. But surely if the tablet can access the internet via the router then there is no problem in communication between the two, no?

In *theory* if your tablet can access the Internet through your router then the tablet and router have a two-way connection. But there are a lot of different networking parameters which have to be set up properly and it's possible you can end up with a situation where some things work and others don't.

Download Ping & DNS from the Playstore (I don't think it requires root) and see if you can Ping your router. (Typically the router's address is 192.168.2.1, although there are other IP addresses commonly used.)

If you're on Windows download and install Wireless Network Watcher. It will show all of the wired and wireless devices on your network. Your Tablet should show up as one of the devices on your network.

Then the hard part - Google, Google, Google. You almost are certainly not the first person with this problem and there's probably a solution somewhere online.

 

[tescoid]

In *theory* if your tablet can access the Internet through your router then the tablet and router have a two-way connection. But there are a lot of different networking parameters which have to be set up properly and it's possible you can end up with a situation where some things work and others don't.

Download Ping & DNS from the Playstore (I don't think it requires root) and see if you can Ping your router. (Typically the router's address is 192.168.2.1, although there are other IP addresses commonly used.)

If you're on Windows download and install Wireless Network Watcher. It will show all of the wired and wireless devices on your network. Your Tablet should show up as one of the devices on your network.

Then the hard part - Google, Google, Google. You almost are certainly not the first person with this problem and there's probably a solution somewhere online.

Thanks Phil for your reply.

I'm afraid I'm getting nowhere with this.

I downloaded the app you recommended and pinged the router with out any trouble. And I have looked as hard as I can on the internet to see whet the problem is, without luck.

I've tried to access the router's USB drive on other devices, and have found I am able to do so on my iPad, but not my nexus 4 or 10. I am able to see other network devices from my nexus and I have the same trouble using the nexus using other network apps. This has led me to conclude the problem is with the nexus, not the router, apps, or USB drive. This would make sense as the problem started when I updated system software to android 4.2.2.

Do you have any idea how this can be remedied?

Thanks again.

 

[tescoid]

@Phil42,

I have done a bit more work on this.

I plugged in a USB stick instead of the drive to see if this was the problem and still nothing. Other devices on the network were able to see the files on the stick, however. This has led me to conclude that the problem is definitely with Android and these devices accessing samba servers.

I installed AmdSMB and tried to access this way. Again, no luck, but the error I'm getting from this app is:

smb://yourserver:445/ java.net.UnknownHostException: yourserver
PWD
smb://yourserver:445/ java.net.UnknownHostException: yourserver

Does anyone know what this means?

Also, I have tried static IP and this does nothing.

Any help would be HUGELY appreciated.

Thanks, all. And happy new year!