XPS 17 9720, Thunderbolt issue

Are you connecting to the device directly by Thunderbolt 4 (i.e. the system connects to a glorified USB-C device), or are you connecting to it over Ethernet (in which case both the notebook and the NAS need to be connected by Ethernet to the same router -- or to two different routers configured to talk to each other, either over Ethernet or Wifi to Ethernet?

Yes, I connect them directly via NAS Thunderbolt 4 port to XPS 9720 USB-C (Thunderbolt 4?) laptop port. This direct connection between the laptop and NAS, via a thunderbolt cable, must to create a direct connection. It must be located in the network section and, as a result, gives us an access to a NAS via a network functionality identical to a connection via an Ethernet port, only via Thunderbolt 4 speed (IP over thunderbolt).

This seems like a typical NAS, at least as far as I can see.  It needs to be set up over Ethernet -- in other words, you need both the notebook AND the NAS connected to the same network over wired Ethernet and on the same network/subnet -- plug both devices into your router and then use the interface to configure and set up the NAS.

You can, once it's set up, connect it directly to the notebook over Thunderbolt to access the drive directly (or so the manual says), but you cannot set it up over a Thunderbolt connection -- you must do it over a network (part of the name of Network Attached Storage).

During the initialization process, it prompts us to connect to Thunderbolt. Let's skip this step and connect to NAS via a network cable. We do whatever is required. Initialization, creation of a pool, etc. After all the required procedures, we connect to thunderbolt and it still doesn’t work. NAS tells us that the connection is broken, but the laptop doesn’t say anything, it doesn’t even give an error.

To test the theory, I did the same thing only on a Mac and everything worked as it should, including the initialization process via thunderbolt.

To check what is going wrong, we can connect the Mac and PC in theory through one Thunderbolt cable together.

But the device manager displays 2 new devices with an exclamation mark NCM Date and requires a driver update for it. And additional 2 network adapters, yes, those IP over thunderbolt, but they are empty and they only contain the inscription fatal error. I wonder if it is possible to force a Mac and a PC to connect to each other, and if this is done, maybe this will solve the problem with connecting to NAS? I might be wrong, looks like a problem with the driver or controller firmware?

You'll at least need to install the drivers and provide each device an IP address -- unlike the connection for two Mac systems, the Windows notebook will require manual network connection.

I checked with an HP laptop and it automatically creates a Thunderbolt network adapter when you connect the NAS and everything works. MAC works. Dell just doesn’t respond.

Maybe there is a manual way to create such a Thunderbolt network adapter and manually set the network parameters there? Maybe work around?

This is a problem with the driver or controller firmware, we need some kind of video review or something, otherwise people will buy DELL XPS and then it turns out into a problem.