HELP ! - Still losing some (but not all) network shares

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Streaming
1

Last week I mentioned that I was losing network shares - actually seeing the network shares literally disappear from the Windows Share box

Environment

-  3  Windows  7 Pro 64 Desktops and a Win 7 64 Home laptop attached to my network.  

- I use wired network connections (a 1 gigabit per second CAT 6 connection).  

  

  • I have two WDTV boxes that have 1 gbs wired connections to the network.  For over 2 years I have been using my WDTV to connect to Windows Shares on these desktops to play video, display photos and music. I have been extremely happy with the product and am playing all sorts of video (avi, mkv, mp4), music (flac, mp3) and displaying photos. 

  • All of PCs and my WDTV boxes are in the Windows workgroup called “Workgroup”.  

  • The WDTV Boxes have specific names.  

  • Though one desktop (called Speedway ) has the majority of my video and music, I still want to get music out of all the other boxes.  I set the master browser as Speedway.   The firmware is up to date on both WDTV boxes and I can see the WDTV boxes in my network from every PC.

  • Homegroup has been disabled on all boxes. 

The Problem: 

I am seeing only Speedway and one other desktop in the Windows Share Box. The other 2 boxes are not shown in the Windows Share box (after all 4 showed up for 2 years) 

 Actions (without resolution) 

  1. I rebooted the PC’s and laptop and restarted the WDTV’s and still no resolution with the missing desktop and misssing laptop.  2 Desktops are showing up in the Windows Shares (including Speedway box)

  2. I rebooted and changed my router

This is really baffling because I’ve had complete success with this product for 2 years now and then suddenly its acting up in the last few weeks. I’ve done no  Windows updates  during that time (I do all my Win 7 upgrades manually)

Now that I have specifically named WDTV Boxes, have removed the pcs from Homegroup and have made sure the Master Browser is set using the nbtstat method (it is set). 

I am baffled again.  any suggestions why now some of my boxes show up in the Windows Share and some don’t.  remember until last week all 4 windows boxes showed up regularly in the Windows Shares.  

Weird. Thanks in advance

2

And just to add more info, I am only seeing the master browser computer now

3

Ouch, the master browser stuff can be a real pain. I know you have already rebooted everything, so I might try booting up in a different order, and choosing a different Master Browser. Recently my WDs have decided that they want to be the MBs and I have no idea why, but it is working so I am not complaining.

  1. I would turn everything off, then go router, one PC and one WD. Check to see which is the MB and if it works. Then add machines one by one, and keep checking to see which is the MB after each one comes online, and what you have access to. You may be able to track if one of the computers/devices has gone rogue and is sending out mass browser requests.

  2. Try the exact opposite, boot one WD (it will become the MB), then boot the next and check if they can see each other. Then one by one add PCs doing the same checking as above.

As I said in the first paragraph, recently my WDs have decided to they want to take over the MB role, I have added several new IP devices to the net which may be causing this. Anyways, when I take my HUB down, then my SMP will take over the service, all the while I have 2 win7 servers, a win7 client and a win8 client. When the HUB or the SMP are the MB, all WD boxes (live plus as well) can connect to anything they want. Not so when one of the Win7 servers is the MB. No idea why, but maybe you are in the same situation so it’s worth a shot trying one of your WDs as the MB,

I have installed Lanscan on every computer which is a really quick way to see whats on the network and which machine is the MB. It does all the stuff we do at the command line with the click of a mouse. Well worth the download.

Lanscan v1.54

Nasty stuff, but as long as they can connect, who am I to complain about which device is the MB.

Good Luck

-P

4

I’ve rolled back my firmware from 2.0x to 1.6x.  That seems to have helped things  

Another that helped is that I can skip around Network Shares by using my DLNA Server (J River).  It shows up under Media Shares and is also great for playing FLAC, MKV and other video/audio formats