Please Help Network Share Issue

[paulkay]

I just bought my WDTV Live and it is running plugged into my router. Also plugged into the same router is my PC. All of my files I want to view are on the PC or an HDD connected to it via USB. I do not have any NAS in operation. My PC is running Windows VISTA Home Premium.

I followed the standard set up, enabled the network sharing via control panel as per the user manual, flagged the folders containing the video/photos I want to view as public and the WDTV Live found my folders on network shares and everythign was fine.

Then a day later it just stopped. It cannot see the shared folders. The WDTV Live still has a network connection and it appears on my network devices list. The WDTV Live can see my computer as a media server, but does not see any of the files I want to view as they are not in Windows Media Player and I do not want them to be. I just want to view the files in the folders.

I saw the topic here http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Networking/Troubleshooting-Windows-File-Sharing/m-p/92642#U92... and started to follow the advice but got a system error 6118, this is apparently to do with the devices being in different work groups. I tried changing the work group of my PC, and then changing the work group of the WDTV Live so they were the same. This just does not work, my PC only ever sees the WDTV Live in "unspecified" work groups. Ridiculously my own PC appears twice on my list of network devices, one in the workgroup I have created, and once in the "unsepecified" category in it's unwanted capacity as a media server.

I think if I can somehow get my PC to stop trying to act as a media server, or the WDTV Live to ignore it as one it should work, but despite many hours of reading and reseaching on the internet I cannot see how to do this.

I know this may be partially a PC issue and not a WDTV issue but it does seem to me that the WDTV device is very fragile and does not work well with netorks, which is a bit of a joke considering that is EXACTLY what it is sold as!

Anyway rant over and all help greatly appreciated.

[paulkay]

Im not entirely sure how Ive done it but I have registered the WDTV Live to the WORKGROUP on my PC.I think I did this by factory resetting the WDTV Live and then disabling the firewall (standard windows firewall on my pc). The WDTV Live now shows on my network devices list as being inthe same WORKGROUP as the PC.

Using the tests in TonyPh12345's post linked above I return the following results (mine is a very simple system just my PC named "computer" and the WDTV live)

• Microsoft(R) Windows DOS
  (C)Copyright Microsoft Corp 1990-2001.
  C:\USERS\PAUL>nbtstat -a computer
  Local Area Connection:
  Node IpAddress: [192.168.0.8] Scope Id: []
             NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table
         Name               Type         Status
      ---------------------------------------------
      COMPUTER       <00>  UNIQUE      Registered
      WORKGROUP      <00>  GROUP       Registered
      COMPUTER       <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
      WORKGROUP      <1E>  GROUP       Registered
      WORKGROUP      <1D>  UNIQUE      Registered
      ..__MSBROWSE__.<01>  GROUP       Registered
      MAC Address = 00-24-21-AB-11-63

and

• C:\USERS\PAUL>nbtstat -a wdtvlive
  
  Local Area Connection:
  Node IpAddress: [192.168.0.8] Scope Id: []
  
             NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table
  
         Name               Type         Status
      ---------------------------------------------
      WDTVLIVE       <00>  UNIQUE      Registered
      WDTVLIVE       <03>  UNIQUE      Registered
      WDTVLIVE       <20>  UNIQUE      Registered
      WORKGROUP      <1E>  GROUP       Registered
      WORKGROUP      <00>  GROUP       Registered
  
      MAC Address = 00-00-00-00-00-00

For the item 2 test I get the following

• C:\USERS\PAUL>net view \\computer
• Shared resources at \\computer
• Share name   Type  Used as  Comment
• --------------------------------------------------------
• Movies       Disk
• My Pictures  Disk
• Public       Disk
• Videos       Disk
• The command completed successfully.
•  

Now if I go into the WDTV Live menu and select networks shares>windows it prompts me for the username (no password and the it lists all of those shared folders but it says that each and everyone of them has no media content, I have checked on the PC and this is not the case all the files and subfolders are there.

What I cant understand is that all of this worked perfectly out of thebox for 2 days and I changed nothing before it all went wrong.

Can anyone help???

[paulkay]

Well I just tried what was suggested elsewhere and powered everything down, and started it up again in the order PC/server>router>wdtv live.

Now when you look for network shares it sees "computer" and asks for a password and user and whereas before you could get in with anonymous and no password, or my username and no password (there never has been any password protection on the PC) it just continually says that all options entered are invalid username/password.The device is now conmpletely inoperative, I essentially have the worlds most expensive BBC iplayer device.

Ive been troubleshooting this for 5 hours now.

I know home networking is not entirely straigthforward but this must be the most simple set up possible, a PC and the WDTV plugged into the same router.

That WD advertise this device as a network media players and it cannot set itself up to work with minimal input on such a basic system is frankly nothing short of a f**ing joke.

[richUK]

---

paulkay wrote:

I know home networking is not entirely straigthforward but this must be the most simple set up possible, a PC and the WDTV plugged into the same router.

That WD advertise this device as a network media players and it cannot set itself up to work with minimal input on such a basic system is frankly nothing short of a f**ing joke.

---

You say that and I do understand your frustration but for a lot of users, me included, there is no problem connecting into the network. Its just plug and play.

[paulkay]

Maybe, but Ive got such a simple set upI really cant see why it won't work. The most frustrating thing is it worked 100% fine right out of the box for about 2 days and 4 hrs of playing time before it just stopped mid stream and entered this state. Looking on this forum it seems this exact behaviour pattern is pretty common with WDTV Live & network shares but WD themselves decline for whatever reason to get  directly involved in providing assistance. 

I left work early today so I could get home in time to ring WD support before it shut at 4.30. They were about as much use as a chocolate fireguard, the guy basically ended up trying to sell me a WD Mybook live, on the basis it would work better with the WDTV than my PC, if he thinks Im complicating matters further with an expensive NAS which may well only make it worse he's got another think coming!

What Ive ended up doing is plugging an external HDD into the WDTV's USB port, I shall now have to buy another HDD to go into the WDTV live and ferry it up and downstairs every time I add new files from my PC, not what I envisaged when I bought it. Suffice to say, on point of principal I shall not be buying a WD HDD, and shall avoid their products like the plague in future.

Hey Ho.