Issues with latest Firmware

Techflaws wrote:


Mr-Wolf wrote:

1 Router (Router is configured never to be Master Browser)


And why is that? Since it’s own 24/7 it’s the most suited candidate, right?

Short answer is that, I don’t need to share anything connected to the router, that makes NetBios/SMB disable.

I have to enable router shares to enable router NetBios/SMB service.

Long answer has a lot of factors:

a) I don’t like NetBios/SMB since it was born, it was so long ago I can’t even remember well what were the reasons for that.

I could be wrong because I don’t remember the source of this long hate, but I think some of the reasons were: every machine using it does a lot of broadcasts and I think it advertises shares names to everyone in the LAN, even to non autenticated machines.

b) Because every machine does a lot of broadcasts, I only enable NetBios/SMB if the machines needs to partecipate in the share.

c) My router could never be a good NAS, it lacks the cpu power, besides it also has some firmware bugs, I think  it can’t provide a reliable sharing service, if I enable it, it could be a source of problems if it was elected to be the master browser.

d) If we google MB election criteria, we find out that any new machine that is turned on can be elected to be the MB.

Everytime I turn on my win7 computer (even if it’s the last one to turn on) it will get the MB, if I test it I allways find the MB there.

Longer browser running is not the only criteria: Browser Elections

And quote from here: How Browsing Functions

Quote:“Every 11 to 15 minutes an election is held to determine which machine will be the master browser. By the nature of the election criteria used, the machine with the highest uptime, or the most senior protocol version or other criteria, will win the election as DMB.”

Now, I’m glad you didn’t ask why I don’t use DLNA or UPNP :slight_smile:

Well, if it’s equally interesting please do share.

I have UPNP disabled in my router. Is that bad?

No… The WDTV doesn’t use UPnP for anything that I know of…

Techflaws wrote:

Well, if it’s equally interesting please do share.

Edit:

As Tony says below, the discussion about UPNPalthough interesting is out of topic.

I agree with him and also realized it could cause confusion to readers, because it has nothing to do with the thread topic.

So I’ve cut my reply from here and sent you a PM with it.

Thanks for pointing it out Tony.

Mr-Wolf: that’s a good discussion topic, but it is off-topic for this thread. Post another thread to discuss it or ask a moderator to break that post to a new thread.

My WDTV Live box just prompted me to update the firmware, so I was checking out here to see how many problems people were having. I will defer my “upgrade”.

That being said, I don’t have any answers for people as I have not done the update myself, however I do have a suggestion. Way back when, a year or more, i.e. several firmware releases, I thought I was having a problem related to wifi but it ended up being file sharing protocol, which WD fixed somewhere along the way. BUT, for those of you sharing from a NAS or server capable of multiple protocols, you might try setting up a UNIX/Linux-style NFS share as opposed to Windows/SMB. I had much better results with NFS back at the time (like I said, that problem seemed to have gone away but maybe it’s broken again). My Windows shares used to grind to a halt, freeze up, require reboot of WDTV box. After locking up, certain movies would not play until reboot of WDTV box.

Anyway, sorry for rambling. Just thought I would throw my two cent suggestion out there.

Thanks everybody for saving me the hassle of doing the update myself and having to spend half a day jacking around with it instead of watching movies on it.


Mr-Wolf wrote:

1 Router (Router is configured never to be Master Browser)


Sorry, don’t agree with this; no matter what the strategy. 

I had my share of master browser issues with all the stuff connected here at home.  Yes, I set my main PC on first so it woud become the MB, but it is not on 24/7 like a router is, (plus, sometimes a PC has to be rebooted) and then the network could misbehave; sometimes making a WDTV the MB (not good). 

So, one day last year I decided to connect a portable HD with media on it to my Asus router per instructions.  Guess what?  To my surprise and delight, my router then became the MB and it has been that way ever since, AND I have no more MB issues!  Some routers even have a setting in LAN settings to make the router the MB; WD routers do.

Based upon my experience, I suggest anyone who can make their router be the master browser to do so.

Given all the problems that seem to be coming from this, why would WD let the WDTV become MB ever? I don’t know anything about the SMB protocol but wouldn’t there be an option to handicap the device so it could never win an election?

Agree TF, it likely ought to be blocked, but because the WD device CAN, be the MP, it often DOES (soon as it can sneak in).  It might not be blocked for this reason:   If the MB disappears, (turned off PC) “somebody” better take over, or the WD might not work with shares at all!  Just a guess.

I used to be able to beam via DLNA, from an Asus tablet, using the Twonky Beam and Skifta Android apps.

After the latest firmware update, I still can intermittently, but I have to keep updating the Live Streamer’s settings.

It’s almost as if the Live Streamer isn’t storing my preferences. When I go to the Network Settings/Network Setup menu, “Wired” always seems to be highlighted, instead of “Wireless.”

Has anybody else noticed this?

mike27oct wrote:

Mr-Wolf wrote:

1 Router (Router is configured never to be Master Browser)

 

Sorry, don’t agree with this; no matter what the strategy. 

 

I had my share of master browser issues with all the stuff connected here at home.  Yes, I set my main PC on first so it woud become the MB, but it is not on 24/7 like a router is, (plus, sometimes a PC has to be rebooted) and then the network could misbehave; sometimes making a WDTV the MB (not good). 

 

So, one day last year I decided to connect a portable HD with media on it to my Asus router per instructions.  Guess what?  To my surprise and delight, my router then became the MB and it has been that way ever since, AND I have no more MB issues!  Some routers even have a setting in LAN settings to make the router the MB; WD routers do.

 

Based upon my experience, I suggest anyone who can make their router be the master browser to do so.

 

 

I’m not suggesting people not to use the router as master browser.

I was just saying my configuration, so we could try to find differences that made shares disappear to some people.

Tech Flaws asked why I didn’t use the router as MB and I justified my choice for my setup and specific HW problems.

Like your choice is based on what works best for your setup, I also have a strong reason for my choice, point c) alone, my router can’t provide a reliable sharing service (FW bugs).

Besides that, because I never had a sharing problem, I won’t turn on a sharing service in the router that I don’t need, so the router could be the MB, it won’t add value to my setup.

I agree with you (and Tech Flaws), If someones router does a better MB job, then it’s a good candidate.

justinionn wrote:

When I go to the Network Settings/Network Setup menu, “Wired” always seems to be highlighted, instead of “Wireless.”

That’s normal.  That’s not an “indicator.”  It’s only a selector of which page you’re going to go to next.  

Techflaws wrote:

Given all the problems that seem to be coming from this, why would WD let the WDTV become MB ever? I don’t know anything about the SMB protocol but wouldn’t there be an option to handicap the device so it could never win an election?

   mike27oct wrote:

Agree TF, it likely ought to be blocked, but because the WD device CAN, be the MP, it often DOES (soon as it can sneak in).  It might not be blocked for this reason:   If the MB disappears, (turned off PC) “somebody” better take over, or the WD might not work with shares at all!  Just a guess.

Although I never experienced a problem with WDTV MB, based on your experience, it could happen.

I think It would be possible to add that option, it would work like you say.

For example, my Zyxel NAS has an option to prevent it from being the MB, they say it doesn’t support non-ascii character computer names…they recognize a limitation in their MB implementation, I’ve used that option and NAS shares still work well.

EDIT:

The point I was trying to make, with my 1rst post in this thread, is that I have no problem with WDTV MB before or after the FW update, but based on others experience, I don’t discard the possibility it could be a problem in the long run.

OK, I’ve spent the day trying to diagnose my problem. I updated one of my devices, and again, access to my Windows shares was very slow. Wire Shark should a lot of retransmissions. Rebooted everything, and now its fine.

So, I tried updating my other one. It is very slows, have retransmit problems and I cannot figure out why. I moved him to where the other one is and he works fine. The one that works is closer to my wireless router. The one that doesn’t is closer to my other access point (identical hardware, but not doing DHCP and NAT, and on a different channel).

I moved the bad one back and again it has problems. The wireless network showed 2 bars. I moved it to a different channel and now I have 4 bars, but still it’s slow and still retransmits. I cleaned the contracts on the cables and ports with contact cleaner, thinking they might be corroded, but it didn’t help.

I benchmarked my network from my laptop for both access points, and I get identical results. So, it seem like there isn’t a issue with my network (at least as far as this simple test is concerned).

I assume there is some configuration issue with my network, but I can’t figure it out (and I also can’t figure out why I have no problems with the old firmware).

Edit: Oh, one thing that seems odd. When WD first comes up, it’s on the video tab and I see the lines blink is quick succession. When I am on the “bad” connection, they blink slower. I don’t know if that means anything (e.g., like something is bogging down the cpu).

my thoughts, you dismissed my comments about your network not being up to the task but

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Streaming/Issues-with-latest-Firmware/m-p/638519#M25618

here

http://community.wd.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Streaming/New-Release-WD-TV-Live-Streaming-Media-Player-Firmware-Version-2/m-p/640175#M25794

you state your running Linksys WRT150N

which has a maximum connection rate on N band of 150 mbps, general thoughput is usually half so 75 mbps is likely the maximum theoretical thoughput

which assums it’s configured correctly for N spec and does not need to try and pass through walls or any distance or deal with interference from neighboring networks,cell phones, etc …

2 bars out of 4 is not good

as I already suggested, you need to increase your bandwidth if you don’t want studdering slow videos over windows shares

yes the retransmitts are an issue, but that’s likely caused by only have 2 bars, sounds like signal strength is likely down to the 50% neighborhood

I understand what you are saying, but again, it works fine with the old firmware. No retransmits, no slowness, not issues. Plus, the other device on the network (other access point) works fine. To say that my network is completely at fault, is ridiculous. It clearly is able to sustain the required throughput with the old firmware.

I have no neighbors within range, and no devices in the house that are broadcasting at or near the freq. the wireless is on. I normally get about 130 mbps on both access points.

I know the new firmware doesn’t like the one access point, but I can’t figure out why.

There are quite a few devices that run in that range such as a microwave.

There doesn’t have to be a hardware fault but there can many times be a software fault outside the wd.

Quite a few routers have firmware that hangs on to old dead conections and info long after they are of use (linksys bad for that)

Narrowing down whats at fault can at times be hair pulling mad since older firmware works fine at times but possiably for the wrong reasons.

it was simpler when i owned a boxee box since that thing was always at fault and had software that was a joke.:frowning:

Yeah, I understand that (and I didn’t have a microwave or any other applicance–other an the fridge, obviously–running).

I’ve reset the entire network several times.

I agree that the fault isn’t necessarily WD’s fault. There may well be a configuration issue with my equipment, or it could a combination. My only point is that for KAD79 to be completely dismissive and say that my hardware is too slow to stream my files, is wrong (and I see that he posts the samething to a lot of people having issues with the new firmware). It obviously CAN handle the traffic. It is doing so right NOW.

So, it is either some configuration of my network that the new firmware doesn’t like, a bug in the firmware, or both. I’m just asking for a little help in determining what that is, and not to be just dismissed out of hand with a trite “oh your network is so slow.”

first off, I thought that would raise some eyebrows a bit, but I appreciate you taking it with a grain of salt

and I will admit that I state the bandwidth issue often

it’s probably because I spent way more time then most testing my network

if you search the forum

you’ll fnd a link to bandwidth_test script (cmd line access required - I’m not helping with access)

and you’ll also find a lot of detailed output of bandwidth testing for both smb and nfs

in my experience, most people set up their network incorrectly, resuling in bandwdith issues, like a network defaulting to G rates, instead of N etc

but given the above info

130 mbps link rate div 2 = 65 div 2 (only 2 bars) = 32.5

that’s pretty low

some thoughts, have you tried different wireless channels, even if nobody is congesting the area, a different channel could improve or worsen the issue, you will not know until you try

maybe try to place the router / bridge higher, so as to receive a clearer signal

windows doesn’t natively support nfs, but if you’re comfortable freenfs runs on windows, and nfs has much better throughput compared to windows/smb shares

some other thoughts, linksys pretty much worthless in my book, I’m still hanging onto an old E3000

didn’t work at all till I put DD-WRT on it, and even with DD-WRT it still desperately needs to be replaced

so I guess in short, I’m willing to help with idea’s, but I fail to see where the hardware will be capable of most blu-ray content, since it’s going to be very close to your maximum throughput

and quite a number of blockbuster titles will be well over, I’ve got blu-ray’s with bit rates up to 50 Mbps in my library