Solution: Cannot access QNAP NAS from Windows

The problem: You cannot access the SAMBA (SMB) shares on your QNAP NAS from the Windows File Explorer and after you tried, access to the web interface also stopped working. The NAS is still accessible from other PCs on the same network.

The reason: Windows will first try to connect to your NAS using your Windows login credentials. If this fails too many times and Network Access Protection on your NAS is enabled, your PC’s IP address will be banned:

QNAP Network Access Protection

You can see the failed login attempts in the System Connection Logs (if enabled for SAMBA):

QNAP System Connection Logs

Solutions

There are many threads about this issue on the QNAP forum proposing various solutions, such as:

  • Creating a user account on the NAS with the same user name and password as on Windows.
  • Disabling Network Access Protection on the NAS.
  • Making all folders public.
  • Disabling all guest shares on the NAS to force Windows to show the network credentials dialog.

I tried a different solution which I found here. I left everything on the NAS unchanged. In the registry of my Windows PC, I enabled insecure guest logons for the SMB client. This allows the PC to connect to SAMBA shares which are not protected by a password (such as the Public folder on a QNAP NAS).

This registry setting can be found under Local Computer Policy -> Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates ->Network -> Lanman Workstation -> Enable insecure guest logons:

Windows Registry editor

Note: The description says that “if you do not configure this policy setting, the SMB client will allow insecure guest logons.” This was not true for me on Windows 11 21H2, the setting had to be explicitly enabled. On other PCs running Windows 10, the described behavior was correct and the entire problem never appeared.

Now (and after the IP ban period has expired, of course) it was possible to access the NAS through the file explorer. Clicking on a protected folder brought up the Enter network credentials dialog:

Enter network credentials

Why did this work? Apparently, Windows only tried to use the current user credentials once when connecting to the NAS and then used guest access. As this resulted only in a single failed access attempt, the PC’s IP address was not banned.

For further support, please visit the QNAP forum

Change the keyboard for an existing language in Windows 11

The problem: You’ve added several languages with different keyboard layouts to Windows 11.

Windows 11 language bar showing multiple languages with different keyboards

However, you want all of them to use the same keyboard (in this example “United States-International”).

The solution

In the language bar, click on More keyboard settings (or go to Settings > Time & language > Language & region).

Click on the three dots on the right of the language you want to change and choose Language options:

Windows 11 Language & region settings: Language options

Under Keyboards, click on Add a keyboard and add the keyboard you want:

Windows 11 Language & region settings > Language options: Add a keyboard

Finally, remove the original keyboard:

Windows 11 Language & region settings > Language options: Remove a keyboard

Your language bar should now show multiple languages with the same keyboard:

Windows 11 language bar showing multiple languages with the same keyboard

Easy CPU cooler replacement for Acer PO3-620 i7 10700

Buying Acer’s Predator Orion gaming PC is one way to get an RTX 3070 graphics card without paying absurd prices. However, it comes with a standard CPU cooler that is loud and not very effective.

I replaced it with a Xilence XC026| I4026 (Amazon.com / Amazon.de affiliate links), which led to a significant CPU temperature drop under load. While this doesn’t turn the PC into a quiet machine, the cooler can be installed without replacing the backplate.

All you have to do is modify the cooler itself by moving the two brackets that hold the large screws as shown below.

Original configuration

CPU cooler in original configuration
Bracket at the bottom of the cooler

After modification

Modified CPU cooler
Bracket after being moved (ignore the incorrect orientation of the bracket the back, I wasn’t paying attention and also might be stupid)

On one side you can remove the fan to fasten the small bracket screws. On the other side there is very little room (this is the only challenge with this procedure):

Very little room to access screws on one side
Still easier than removing the motherboard to replace the backplate

Follow the instructions that came with the cooler for the rest of the (simple) installation process.

CPU temperature at full load

Temperature after 30 minutes of Folding@home, ambient temperature 24°C:

I found the recommendation for this cooler on the German Acer forum.

How to recover the name of a deleted disposable Yahoo email address

With yahoo!mail you can configure up to 500 disposable email addresses, which you can easily delete at any time. The name always consists of a base name and a custom part.

If you have deleted a disposable address and also forgotten its name, but now need it again to receive messages, there is a problem: without knowing the custom part of the address, you cannot easily recreate it. Unfortunately, yahoo!mail does not show which addresses you have used and deleted in the past.

However, this does not mean that Yahoo does not keep track of all email addresses that are somehow related to your account. If you have ever received a message on your disposable address, it may very well be possible to recover the name of the address using the method described below.

  1. Go to https://mail.yahoo.com/getmydata
  1. Under ” Contact data extracted from message”, click on Download:

You will be asked to enter an email address to be notified when the download is ready. This will take several hours.

  1. Once you get the notification that your download is ready, click on Download file.
yahoo!mail download contact data extracted from messages

Unzip the downloaded file and open ContactsData.json with Notepad (or any other suitable software, e.g. Notepad++).

Search the file for the known part of your throwaway addresses (the base name). This should give you the names of all your disposable addresses that have ever received a message. Note: See update below.

Finally, recreate a disposable address with the same name.

Update August 2021: This method may not work anymore. During my last test, it only returned a small number of aliases, all of which could also be found in (received) emails.

A user-friendly desktop wallet for Namecoin (NMC)?

Yes, such a wallet exists, though it is still in beta: AtomicDEX (desktop version only) supports Namecoin (NMC).

Namecoin (NMC) in AtomicDEX

You can even use the built-in “atomic swap” feature to trade your NMC, for example, for Komodo (KMD), which you can hold in the wallet and collect rewards or sell on many popular exchanges like Binance (affiliate link). Make sure you read the instructions first (found under Support). The atomic swap protocol requires that the maker and taker stay online and monitor the blockchains involved.

Exchanges which accept Namecoin can be found here.