wake up NAS when powering on Mede8er?

[Jamie]

Got a 400X2, movies on a Synology NAS. Every time I turn on the Mede8er and select my movies folder on my NAS, I get a "Disappear!" message. When I select the folder again, it is found. Apparently, my NAS is still starting up during the first attempt and not up and running until the second attempt.
Is there a way to send a wake up signal to the NAS during the Mede8er startup phase, so the NAS will be ready by the time the Mede8er is?

[Maasbommel]

What type of Synology NAS do you have?
Do you have enable some sleep mode on it, or is it only disk spindown on your Synology?
I am asking this, because I have not seen this yet in combination with my Synology.

How much time do you have to wait after your Mede8er is booted fully to not get this message?

[Jamie]

It’s either the DS112 or the DS211, I always mix up those numbers. Anyway, it’s the 2-disk version from 2011 and it’s not the “+” or the “j” version. It contains 2 x 2TB storage space, which is configured as 2 separate drives (no RAID setup). I use my NAS for backups from our home computers and for media storage.
I think it takes about 15 seconds to power up my Mede8er, after which it shows me my Favourites. Each Favourite is a folder on my NAS. When I click on a Favourite folder I can hear one (or both?) of the HDD in my NAS spin up. Before the NAS is fully operational though, my Mede8er is already showing the “Disappear!” message. So I have to press Enter again to remove that message and then press Enter once more to give that Favourite folder a second try. By then, the NAS is fully powered up and the Mede8er finds the folder without any problems. Of course, this only happens the first time after I turn on my Mede8er. Once we’re in business, it stays in business, unless I do not use it for more than X minutes and my NAS goes to sleep again.
Because I do not use my NAS for downloading, webhosting, mailserving or whatever, I really do want it to go to sleep when it is not in use, to save power. I just want it to wake up a little earlier. Therefore, it would be great if the Mede8er could send a wake-on-lan signal (or whatever it’s called) to the NAS during the Mede8er power up process. That way, my NAS would power up simultaneously and be fully operational by the time the Mede8er is ready.

Oh, and one more question while we’re at it: after power up, when the Mede8er shows the Favourites section, it takes an additional 5-10 seconds before it will respond to any command from my remote. Is that normal?

[harmar]

there's a feature request with this topic here http://www.mede8erforum.com/index.php/topic,5838.0.html
i consider this topic another vote for this much desired functionality ...

[jer1956]

Oh, and one more question while we’re at it: after power up, when the Mede8er shows the Favourites section, it takes an additional 5-10 seconds before it will respond to any command from my remote. Is that normal?

We are begginning to  believe that "control inputs" are polled, not interupt driven. So if the CPU is 100% occupied doing something..you lose all control  until it's finished.

[Maasbommel]

I think it takes about 15 seconds to power up my Mede8er,

I timed this and on my side its around 31 secs on an X2.
When it shows the Favorite screen if you have put it to boot default from favorites in setup, it is still busy starting up processes and network processes, I am sure it takes a bit longer then 15 secs.

When I click on a Favourite folder I can hear one (or both?) of the HDD in my NAS spin up

I have seen some more people having this effect, but as said, I don't have it while my disk in my synology are set to spin down too. I have the impression that it is heavily dependant what kind of disks are used and what the spin up time is on those before the Mede8er decides to show the message (and time out on the connection request by selecting the favorite).
Or it is dependant how the initial network connection was made (browse by workgroup or hard on ip number by using My_Shortcut under network).
I have 2 nasses, 1 Synology with 2,5 inch laptop drives (4x) and a Proliant Server with 4x 2TB 3,5" disk in it.
Both dont give this issue and are configured to spin disks down.

Question: With what method did you create your favorites to your shares? Did you create those by browsing over network/workgroup under network, or did you use the My_shortcut under Network?

And another question:
Have you tried to use NFS to connect to your NAS from your Mede8er and do you see the same timeout then too?

[Jamie]

there's a feature request with this topic here http://www.mede8erforum.com/index.php/topic,5838.0.html
i consider this topic another vote for this much desired functionality ...

You're right, will add a +1 there!

We are begginning to  believe that "control inputs" are polled, not interupt driven. So if the CPU is 100% occupied doing something..you lose all control  until it's finished.

I see, is that also why it doesn't immediately react to the Play command during fast forwarding?

I timed this and on my side its around 31 secs on an X2.
When it shows the Favorite screen if you have put it to boot default from favorites in setup, it is still busy starting up processes and network processes, I am sure it takes a bit longer then 15 secs.

Very well possible, I just "timed" it from memory. Will do a reallife timing tonight!

I have seen some more people having this effect, but as said, I don't have it while my disk in my synology are set to spin down too. I have the impression that it is heavily dependant what kind of disks are used and what the spin up time is on those before the Mede8er decides to show the message (and time out on the connection request by selecting the favorite).

Could be, mine are Samsungs Eco Greens, not the fastest disks out there. Can that time out be adjusted by just a few seconds?

Question: With what method did you create your favorites to your shares? Did you create those by browsing over network/workgroup under network, or did you use the My_shortcut under Network?

Used the browsing method.

And another question:
Have you tried to use NFS to connect to your NAS from your Mede8er and do you see the same timeout then too?

I used NFS from the start, ironically to prevent network speed issues ;-)

[Maasbommel]

Question: With what method did you create your favorites to your shares? Did you create those by browsing over network/workgroup under network, or did you use the My_shortcut under Network?

Used the browsing method.

I asked this because making a network connection by browsing over Network/Workgroup and then creating a shortcut to favorites might take more time to connect because it needs to resolve the network ip and that takes some more time.

Suggest to try this way of connecting to your shares:
http://www.mede8er.com/Mede8er_X2_Add_Shortcut.html
Then use the saved connection under My_shortcuts and create some favorite to a folder.
Then retry again under favorites accessing that link to see if you get the timeout again when your NAS disks are spinned down.

[Jamie]

Will try that tonight, thanks for the help!
BTW, startup time appears to be about 30 seconds here as well. That is, 30 seconds to show Favourites, then another 10 seconds till it responds to remote control signals.

[Jamie]

Suggest to try this way of connecting to your shares:
http://www.mede8er.com/Mede8er_X2_Add_Shortcut.html
Then use the saved connection under My_shortcuts and create some favorite to a folder.
Then retry again under favorites accessing that link to see if you get the timeout again when your NAS disks are spinned down.

Finally got to this. And it seems to work! However, in the mean time I also updated my NAS to DSM 4.0 so maybe that has something to do with it as well. I know, never try two solutions simultaneously...

[Maasbommel]

..... only the results counts but it would have been nice if you knew which change did the trick......