NAS dropping off the network

[dugimodo]

My NAS is disappearing off my network occasionally. I thought an app that syncs to cloud accounts was responsible so I disabled it and that reduced it from several times a day to just occasionally. It lasted 3 days most recently.
All it takes to fix it is to momentarily disconnect the Ethernet cable and reconnect it. Any Idea how to prove if the NAS or my router/Switch/network is at fault?

There have been a few issues lately but prior to that it has been reliable for just under 2 years (1 month under actually). Then a hard drive failed and I had to re initialise the NAS and set it up again, then a firmware update happened, then this problem. I am running a sync program on the NAS & a network PC that I wasn't before, that's about the last different thing I can try changing since replacing the hard drive but I'd really like to keep using it if possible and it shouldn't cause these issues.

[wainuitech]

When it "disappears" can you ping the IP of the NAS or manually access it Via the Run Command, Eg \\yournasname

If you can open it Via some other Method (From run command) then its still connected, so that will eliminate the network cabling and switch.

[dugimodo]

I'll try that next time thanks. So far I've just been accessing it via mapped network drives or the web interface and both of those stop working, the Qfinder app they supply to make connecting easier can't find it when it happens either.

[dugimodo]

Well it took this long to happen again, but no I can't ping it. I did power up the machine that has Qsync on it last night. Starting to feel like too much network traffic at once is what triggers the issue.
I still don't know if it's a NAS issue or a network one.

[wainuitech]

Got a similar problem at a place, but with intermittent email from a printer.

Suggest you try changing the Router or switch first,ONLY change one component at a time other wise you wont know which one is the culprit if anything fixes it. Really its a process of elimination. OR run some sort of Network Connectivity software that maps and logs continually, then when it drops it should tell you where the drop point is.