Trouble re-connecting to network shares

Using Windows 7 network shares.  I turn my pc off when it not in use.  I have media library enabled on wdtv.  If I turn the wdtv on first and then my pc it has trouble connecting.  I will select my pc on the wdtv but then the circle keeps spinning.  I have to restart the wdtv and then it connects to the network shares no problem.  Sometime the spinning circle renders the wdtv unresponsive so a hard boot is necessary.

Someone mentioned that assigning a static IP might help, but this fix did nothing.  All devices on my network have static IP’s.

I built a NAS so that I could leave the thing on 24/7 but the NAS didn’t work out. So now I’m back to my original setup.

Anyone have any ideas? 

Yeah, both the hub and the live don’t like it when the server “disappears” from the network. It tries for a while to reconnect, the gives up.

You could try leaving your Win7 machine turned on or you could purchase a MyCloud NAS and store your content there (I do this) and not worry about your Win7 machine.  Why didn’t the NAS solution you built work out?

Yeah, I know Tony!  That’s what I said in my OP.  So everyone is using a device that they leave on 24/7?  My main pc is too high performance to leave on 24/7.  It pulls around 150 watts on average load and 100 at idle.  Too expensive.

Well, I tried freeNAS but it seemed like overkill for my needs.  Thought unRAID would be better since it only spins up one drive at a time but the transfer rates were too slow.  OpenMediaVault was a joke.  Windows 8 was ok and now I am experimenting with nas4free.  Having a NAS really adds to my workflow.  I need to rip to my main pc so I can disect the rip to determine seamless branching titles.  Then its monitored by MyMovies to download the artwork and metadata, then I need to send it off to the NAS with transfer rates ~50MB/s, it’s kind of a process.

blanker wrote:

Yeah, I know Tony!  That’s what I said in my OP.

Sorry, I though by “Any Ideas,” you were asking if we knew why it was happening the way you describe.

Yes, I have several NAS devices that stay on 24x7.   One of them, my QNAP TS-412 is configured as the Master Browser, and unless it gets crosseyed, never changes.

Most of my media is on a TS-412 6TB RAID5, but almost all of my BD Rips are on an EX4 9TB RAID5.

Then I have a My Cloud 2TB (Single disk) used as my Cloud server.

I have a My Book Live 1TB that’s my WD Photos and iTunes servers, and also use Twonky to stream out to the audio system in the pool area of my yard.  

Then I have another QNAP TS-412 8TB RAID0 that’s a backup NAS installed in another location in my house.

blanker wrote:

So everyone is using a device that they leave on 24/7?  My main pc is too high performance to leave on 24/7.  It pulls around 150 watts on average load and 100 at idle.  Too expensive.

 

Well unfortunately having “servers” that come and go can cause problems since many network protocols assume continuously up servers (except for occasional crashes).  I have a relatively efficient machine (<90W) running Linux, that serves the following functions for all the other machines in our house:  DNS (way faster than ISP’s DNS), NTP, shared files for my wife and I (e.g., accounts, scans, etc.), RAID backup shares, video shares (for multiple WD SMPs), music server (for multiple Squeezeboxes).  While it obviously does cost something to run, I absolutely want it up 24/7 (several machines run backups overnight to the RAID), and think it is worth the cost, especially since everything always works so I don’t have to waste my time waiting for things to restart/resync.  If you don’t want to “waste” electricity, then be prepared to waste  your time.  If you only occasionally need the video serving, then I don’t see what the big deal is about restarting the WD units after you restart your server?  You can feel good about not wasting the SMP’s <5W draw too.

I think there is a lot of great info in this thread.

If you plan to keep some or all of your video/audio data on another machine, either expect to keep it on 24/7, or expect be rebooting your SMP all the time.

I keep a media server and a file server with several bays running 24/7 and have very few issues with any of my 3 WD boxes. Both Servers were built to meet their own specific purpose (RAM, CPU, Drives, MBoard etc). Sure it costs in electricity, but here in Seattle we dont need AC very often, so it’s easy for me to justify.  :laughing:

You could always take the (very) easy way out. Buy a USB Hub, put it on the back of your SMP, and add a whole bunch of external drives. Rip to your main PC, copy/move to SMP’s drives, and then back that up to whatever NAS you decide to build or buy. The SMP will just be reading it’s local drives and all will be well. Wouldn’t have to leave the NAS on except for backups, and no power would be used when you turned off your SMP.

Good Luck

-P

@blanker

I leave the WDTV on 24/7 since I access it frequently throughout the day.  I also shut down (i.e. sleep mode) my Win 7 each night.  I have no problems with the WDTV, because I always have a master browser running – via my router.  See if your router can be made to constantly be the master browse,r and it solves a lot of issues w/WDTV.