"last content source....error" driving me, the wife and kids nuts!

>>>    If my computer which has network shares is shutdown at night, the WD box thinks the shares are gone.

This is normal operation of shared networks.  It has to do with what is called the “master browser”.  The master browser has been a topic of discussion in a couple of threads this week.  See these thread links for more details:

http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Hub-General/Network-Shares/td-p/528100

http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Firmware-Networking/Cannot-connect-to-network-shares-on-new-Windows-Server-2012/td-p/526800