Windows 7 and vanishing SAMBA shares

konnihall wrote:

Setting all computers to the same workgroup is the solution for some users but that is not possible for me ( computers from work ) http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1195085

well I triple checked… and ALL my computers and Devices are in the same WorkGroup…

They all are in the same subnet… 192.168.1.x / 255.255.255.0

If its really a question of habing 2 “Master Browsers” active at the same time… is there a way

to see which computer is the active “Master Browser”?

So that I could go trought all of my PCs and see if thats the case…

Well if they were in 2 different subnets then it would be easier to point at that as the reason why some PCs stay connected and the rest don’t. If all PCs are in the same subnet and workgroup there will be just one master browser, which for this matter is better than two.

You can check which PC gets elected as master browser from a DOS window, typing NBTSTAT -n  on each PC.  Only the master browser PC will have an MSBROWSE entry in the table given by that command. After that you can try letting a different PC taking over as master browser (usually the same PC will get elected, it depends on OS version, uptime etc…). There’s a registry key to tell a PC to never get elected, though it would be easier to simply turn off that PC for a while and then another one would get elected, then you can check the WDTV again.

billstpor wrote:

You can check which PC gets elected as master browser from a DOS window, typing NBTSTAT -n  on each PC.  Only the master browser PC will have an MSBROWSE entry in the table given by that command.

 

Thanks for you time billstpor,

 

I ran the “NBTSTAT -n” command on all my computers, but none actually had a MSBROWSE entry…

In fact all of them had the PC name and the Workgroup name repeated twice… so 4 entries

 

So I turned off all computer and just let 1 open… after 10 minutes, the command still returned the same values… no MSBROWSE entry

If there is no master browser there must be some kind of problem in the network. It’s possible that the switch is not properly broadcasting all the packets sent by the computer browser service, thus preventing the election of the master browser. It’s a bit strange that you don’t have more problems sharing stuff between your PCs though, or seeing them in “my network”.

You should check out the configuration of your switch, if it’s one of those that has a web setup you could take a look at the settings and check if you can enable/disable options that relate to multicast (like IGMP snooping). Even better, if the switch and the router are physically close to each other you could bypass the switch plugging a few PC’s directly to the router’s ports, and see if one of them becomes a master browser, then you’d know the switch is the culprit.

Btw another way (possibly easier) to check which one if any of the PC’s is a master browser, from a single PC, is typing  NBTSTAT -a     , replacing with each of the local IPs of the other PCs in the workgroup, like NBTSTAT -a 192.168.1.4   That way you don’t need to move around the PCs to check it.

well, well how funny s this…

I was actually remotly connecting via VNC to my other computer and running the NBTSTAT - n command

And none of them had the MSBROWSE entry.

But I tried doing that NBTSTAT -A IPaddress command… same result… until I did a typo

and did it with the IP of my 2nd Router the WRT610N… (being used only has a switch and Access Point)

Well it has a .__MSBROWSE__. entry, but it reports a MAC address of 00:00:00:00:00:00

And running the command with my DNS-323 IPs, also reports a MAC of 00:00:00:00:00:00

And running the command on my main router (WRT300N) causes a “Host not found” error

And the D-Link switch where all my devices are onnected to does not have its own IP address…

Hm that’s weird to say the least :stuck_out_tongue: The fact that the WRT300N doesn’t have a host name isn’t weird at all (it’s just a router, it doesn’t need to have a NetBIOS host name), but the fact that the other router does, I’m not sure… It may have to do with the fact that this other router has USB storage, so it needs it for the the FTP or the media server. Btw are you sure the table you see when you did NBTSTAT -a corresponds to the router and not something else? I mean, if it is I guess along with the MSBROWSE entry you should see a couple entries that look like WRT610N or something.

If you are 100% sure that the router is in fact participating in the browser election (and getting elected too) there must be something in its web setup to prevent it from getting elected. Maybe temporarily disabling the USB drive could do the trick for troubleshooting purposes. Or you could try improving the chances of the other PCs to get elected via registry hack. Finally you got the more drastic measure of bypassing the WRT610N, connecting the switch to the main router, again just for troubleshooting.

Yes, I’m sure its the router… I do see WRT610N repeated 3 times, and the Workgroup name “GAMES” also repeated 3 times along side the …__MSBROWSE__. entry

And strangely enough since I noticed that I tried the WDTVLive and no disconnect this time…

Remember that I said that I had powered off all PC and Devices… well I actualy had left on

the main WRT300N router, the second WRT610N router, the switch and my main PC (Win7 64bit)

The reason was because of my network setup…

theres a switch and the WRT610N connected to the main router (WRT300N)…

my main PC and DNS-323 are connected to the WRT610N

the rest of computers and the WDTVLive are connected to the switch

So if I would to unplug either of the routers or the switch… No computer would be on a “network” so they would not be able to see one another… and I guess no “Master browser” election would have occured…

I was aiming to have the main PC elected has master browser by having it he 1st computer on the network… but I guess the WRT610N got it instead… and it looks like its working fine like that…

But for better understanding of the issue I’ll continue to test the issue… like you say, removeing the USB share on the WRT610N and re-checking its configuration…

It is unfortunate there is not something easier for people to use in the home to do file sharing. Everything the home user has access to was created for the business world then trickled down to home so it is bogged down with unecessary things like master browsers , domains and workgroups.  There is an easy fix for it but WD hasn’t provided access to users as of yet. All they have to do is allow telnet access to the box without having to install custom firmware.

With telnet people could log into the box and edit the smb.conf file like you can on the custom firmware and solve all their networking issues. It is just a simple text file. That would solve most of the issues, like the smb.conf I use below. It makes the WDTV live box itself always the master browser.  The reason for doing that is because the WDTV Live never turns the networking functions off, they are always active even when turn off the box with the remote. It only uses about 10 watts of power so it makes a perfect 24/7 browser .

The problem is WD has it set to the default OS level and when a windows machine is connected or the election process is initiated (samba does this every 15 minutes whether needed or not), the windows pc gets switched to being browser.  Turn that pc off and it goes back to the WD and kind of plays a game of musical chairs with every power cycle of a pc :)  

I can understand why they didn’t make it the default browser, it would play havok on people that have work networks or complex home networks. But for the average home user, it would work great.

[global]

Workgroup  = Workgroup

local master = yes

os level = 34

name resolve order   = lmhosts host wins bcast

socket options  = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=65536 SO_SNDBUF=65536

guest account   = root

server string   = WDTV LIVE

NetBIOS Name    = WDTVLIVE

[public]

public = yes

writable = yes

printable = no

use sendfile=yes

path=/tmp/media/usb/USB2/drive

Although this is a little off-topic, it may shed a little light upon what is going on.

I have my HDTV Live hooked up via Ethernet to a WRT610N.  The WRT610N connects to a WD Essentials 1.5Tb drive via USB.  The Media Server is enabled on the WRT610N.

My intention is to use the HDTV Live primarily as an MP3 player hooked directly to my Denon AVR via HDMI.

What I am finding is that MP3 playback from the Media Server is being interrupted by a network drop on the HDTV Live exactly every 30 minutes, aligned to the point at which MP3 playback was started.  You can set your watch by it !  If I turn all other LAN connected devices off (ie. all my PCs), the problem still occurs, ie. it has absolutely nothing to do with Windows 7.

Switching uPNP on / off on the router has no effect.  Disabling network shares on the HDTV Live also has no effect.  In fact nothin I do on the HDTV Live, or the router, has any bearing at all on the problem.

This is a firmware issue and is present in the latest 1.01.24 release.

Incidentally, I have a Pure Sensia DAB radio connected over wireless to the WRT610N.  That can stream MP3s from the WRT610N Media Server all day without ever dropping the network.  The issue is local to the HDTV Live.

Well I’ve noticed that on v1.01.24 of the WDTVLive

The Workgroup on it is set the value “Workgroup” - discovered this using the NBTSTAT -A IPAddress

IPAddress beign the WDTVLive IP

I’m guessing here that your Computers and Router are set to a different workgroup…

So you will have 2 Master Browsers in the same network… one on the WDTVLive and the other one

in a computer or the router…

Since you can’t change the WDTVLive Workgroup in v1.01.24, try changing the workgroup of your WRT610N and Computers to the value “Workgroup”

Yemble wrote:

If I turn all other LAN connected devices off (ie. all my PCs), the problem still occurs, ie. it has absolutely nothing to do with Windows 7.

The reason why the problem still occurs may be because the WRT610N is set as a Master Browser at the same time your WDTVLive is… because of the different workgroups…

No matter if the WRT610N has uPnP or shares enabled or not… it still can get elected has MasterBrowser…

@Buhric

I had overlooked the worgroup name setting on the WRT610N which is hidden within the Storage\Adminstration section.

However, having now changed this setting to WORKGROUP and put all of my PCs into WORKGROUP , I am still experiencing exactly the same 30 minute network dropout as I was before.  I have also verified with NETSTAT that WORKGROUP is the only registered NetBIOS group name.

So, my conclusion remains unaltered that there is still an underlying networking fault with the HDTV Live that occurs every 30 minutes when playing MP3s off an external media server which is NOT Windows related.

I am having the same issues. I have a Win2003  server, Win XP, OS2, Windows 7 mixed network. All using SMB networking. This problerm only seems to have happened since the WDTV upgrade to latest firmware but I cannot be 100% sure as yet.

My DHCP server and primary DNS was on the OS/2 box  and recently I changed over to using the Win2003 DHCP server and also DNS server. I will have to go back to the OS/2 box as the DHCP and DNS server.  I don’t think it’s going to make any diffrence though. But I have have to try it.

If you are still getting dropped connections download wireshark to see what it going on with the network. It is the only way to troubleshoot things like this. Trying to change settings and guestimate what the problem is can take forever. I know it can be frustrating but often when you find the cause the result is that the entire network works better because you fixed a problem that was likely effecting other things as well.

http://www.wireshark.org/

Thanks, but no thanks.  This is a bug that I expect WD to fix.  I have spent more than enough time on it already.

Yemble wrote:

Thanks, but no thanks.  This is a bug that I expect WD to fix.  I have spent more than enough time on it already.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news but there is no bug in the WDTV Live networking for them to fix. The box runs linux and uses the standard linux network libraries and programs found in millions of devices and computers.  It has the same file system support, same network code , same chipset for the interface as a linux pc.

The only thing I can think of they could do would be to make the smb.conf editable by the user so people could change things like workgroup names. Other than that there really isn’t much that will fix the situation for people who have a windows networked home.   People are just going to have to learn that windows isn’'t the only way of doing things.

Rubbish!  There is a bug to fix here and it is between the Linux based Media Server on the WRT610N and the Linux based DLNA player on the HDTV Live.

Absolutely nothing to do with Windows!!!

The way WDTV Live handles samba shares is wacky. There should be a way to manually enter a network share through the interface (like XBMC.)

I also had problems with disappearing shares. Like you, I have the WRT610 and used that as the master browser.

If I ssh into the WDTV Live (requires hack), and run smbclient  I can see the Windows 7 host and share. But  these shares do not show in the interface.

I have also set the WDTVLIVE workgroup to the same as all other PCs. And NBTSTAT confirms the only device on the network running the master browser service is the wrt610n. All other computers on the network can see the win 7 shares and visa versa through SMB. They include a MAC and 2 Linux boxes.

This morning the Windows 7  shares were there (as well as the Linux and Mac ones). Later in the day the Win 7 shares were gone. Tonight,  I decided to start the master browser on the Win 7 PC.  Now the Win7 shares are showing up under WDTV Network shares, and the master browser has automatically been shut off on the wrt610N.

I wonder how long they will stay this time. But either way it seems if SMBCLIENT on the LiveTV was able to see these shares then they should be listed in the interface.

Please add an option to manually add shares.

This morning I got up and the shares were still showing on WDTVLIVE. I started another Win7 computer and it showed up under Network Shares too. Cool.

Later I checked to see what happened to the Master Browser service. Low and behold it is running on the WDLive TV. All hail the hacked firmware. So far so good. I wonder what decides the master browser election service. It is very wierd and seems like a bad idea. 

I’ve noticed  if there is a multi-homed or RAS machine on your network becoming the browse master. It could become the master browser for the wrong subnet so disabling the Computer Browser service on that computer might be a good idea.

If you can’t disable it, unbind client for MS network or File and print sharing from adaptors that are on another subnet and have no use for this… Hamachi, VPN connections et c etc.

Anyway something I wanted to ask,  is  having the master browser running on the WDLIVETV  the best option? I thought having it running on the router would be but that turned out to be a problem.

Finally solved my disappearing network share issue!


My setup: Wired gigabit ethernet, DLink DIR-655 gateway router, NetGear gigabit switches.

My symptom: When I first got them WDTV live, I accessed video files on my Windows Vista machine via shares. With the early firmwares (1.01.11 I believe), network playback of video would stop after 10-15 minutes. Later firmwares seemed to fix this (1.02.21 and later), but then at some point (a day or so later), my server completely disappeared from the WDTV menu. My network printer was always visible.

My solution: It turns out that my printer was always visible because I had reserved an IP address for it in the DHCP server on the DIR-655. Once I gave my Vista box a reserved IP address, everything worked fine. Note, I tried a fixed IP before this (outside of the DHCP range) and that didn’t work either.

I hope this helps someone.

-AndyW

I have the same problem.

3 PCs:- 2 on Win7 and 1 on XP

WDTV Live Firmware 1.02.21 / 1.03.38_V

WRT610N v2 Firmware 2.00.00 B05

All of the above are in the workgroup, WORKGROUP

All 3 PCs have access and can see each others Network Shares in windows and can also see WDTV Live in Networks.

However, from the WDTV Live, only the XP shares are visible. Win7 shares from both PCs never get detected no matter what.

After reading this thread, I checked which PC had MASTER BROWSER status. After a few hours of testing and rebooting, I conclude that my WRT610N always gets MASTER BROWSER status.

SOLUTION:-

Changed WRT610Ns storage workgroup to HOME. (storage-administration tab)

VOILA. 1 of my Win7 PC got MASTER BROWSER status and the WDTV Live can now see all Network Shares from all PCs.