I know many are having issues with the Live and networking, so I hope this helps.This is without changing any public sharing, media sharing, passwords and homegroups are still on , basically a default install of windows.
When troubleshooting you want to take as many variables out of the mix as possible. Start from the basics and work your way up. Some of the steps may seem mundane but please do not skip any of them as the process is very important to finding the problem.
Use a crossover cable. A crossover cable is an ethernet cable that has some of the wires swapped on one end.
If you hold cable ends side by side you will see a different order on crossover cables.Â
A normal cable will have all the colors in the same order. It will not hurt the pc if you use the wrong cable, it just may not work.
Yes this means moving the live and fiddling with the wiring on the pc, but it is a necessary step 
Do not supplement a wireless connection for this part. Connect the Live and pc using the crossover cable.
Now you need to set up the network on the pc.
Go to network settings and tell it you want to manually assign IP addresses.
In windows that is under local area conneciton / properties / Internet protocol V4 / properties
Set it to use the following IP address:
IP address: 192.168.1.1
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway: 192.168.1.2
DNS you can leave blank
Click okÂ
On the live use the following:
IP address: 192.168.1.2
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Default gateway: 192.168.1.1
DNS blank
In windows go to start, in the box type  CMD
In the window that pops up type ping 192.168.1.2
You should see something like below with less than 2ms times and no loss.
C:\Users\mgr>ping 192.168.1.2
Pinging 192.168.1.2 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.1.2: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.2: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.2: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Reply from 192.168.1.2: bytes=32 time<1ms TTL=64
Ping statistics for 192.168.1.2:Â Â Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:Â Â Minimum = 0ms, Maximum = 0ms, Average = 0ms
That shows we have a good connection to the box. If you donât see something like above then you have a firewall or something else in the way. There are too many firewall products for me to tell you how to set it so I would disable them for this test.  If you disable the firewall and still do not get a connection then make sure the lights are lit on the ethernet ports of the WDTV and the pc.Â
The next thing we need to setup is the workgroup. Workgroups are simply groups of devices to make it easier to manage. When you turn on a device on the network the device announces itself to the LMB or local master browser located within its workgroup only. The master browser will be the device with the highest OS level. Here is where it can get tricky. If you have two  pc on the network either of them can become the master browser mainly depending on who was there first. One day you turn on PC#1 and PC#2 was already running so it is the LMB. Next day you turn on PC#2 then PC#1 and PC#2 is the LMB. If you were to turn off the pc that is the current LMB then all the devices start negotiating again to decide who will be the LMB.
The LMB is important because it is what keeps a list of all the shares and what devices have those shares. If you have 2 pc on the network and PC#1 is the LMB but PC#2 has the files you want to access then the WDTV is going to work like: WDTV (I need a file) --PC#1(The share is on PC#2)âWDTV(ok, asking PC#2 for file)-- PC#2(Sending filex)
This is why when the workgroup names do not match you cannot see the other device. LMB only serve to their workgroup , wrong workgroup and the WDTV tries to become the LMB with no shares to access since they are all on the other workgroup. LMB can be a bad thing for home users that turn on and off pc frequently because the LMB will keep moving to whomever was there first. In business it works fine because they have a dedicated server that runs 24/7 and doesnât change, so the LMB is always the same.
Check your pc workgroup name in control panel/ Advanced system settings / Computer name
Make sure it reads WORKGROUP with no spaces or other letters. If not click change and correct it⊠You have to have your network named WORKGROUP for sharing to work correctly.
After you have done that you should be able to open windows explorer and click network located below all the drive letters. You should see your pc and the unique name for your live, mine shows: WDTVLIVE-45F2C You should be able to click it and see the attached drive now. .It works because the Live was set up to not authenticate access to it, as long as the network workgroup is correct you can access the live. You can use this as a way to transfer files to or from the live usb drive.
We already know from above that the important part is the workgroup setting and we know that is correct now. So now we have to work out how the live will authenticate with the pc. On the live the only options we have are name and password. One thing to watch for is that the live is linux based and so you need to choose your name and passwords carefully. Usernames are sent as ALL uppercase by windows but the live will convert those to ALL lowercase and use that for the username. There are settings for samba that overcome this somewhat but we donât know what WD used ,so it is best to use what we know will work. Simplify things by just picking a username in all lower case like: mypc
Next we add a user just for the live. This will let us customize the settings for the live without changing our main settings.
Go to control panel/ User Accounts / Manage another account
Pick create new account
Give it a simple name like mypc
Leave it with standard user
click create account
Now click on the account you just created
click create a password
again pick something simple for the password all lower case
click create password
Close control panel
Open windows explorer and right click the file or folder you want to share
Pick properties
Click sharing tab
Click share
In the drop down option pick the account you just created
Click share
Click done
close explorer
On the live go to video / network share/
enter the account you just created on the pc and the password
Click OK
You should see the files you shared.
Using accounts like this gives you some flexibility you cannot get by just sharing everything. You can now set up accounts for media that you might not want others in the family seeing, like R rated stuff. You can set up an account with just those files shared and on the WDTV nobody can access them without that accounts user/pass. So you could put the kids stuff in one account and your stuff in another and not worry about your 5 year old clicking on a R rated movie. If you do this make sure to set the live as not to autologin and remember to clear your passwords on the box after viewing.
If you can share your video on the live now then congrats !
Now start putting the network back together for normal use. Change the pc back to grab an ip from the router if that is how you had it. Connect the live to the router and make sure you can still share, if not, you know it is the router, that is the reason for taking other parts out of the loop. In homes that have multiple pc on the network donât forget about the local master browser . If the pc that is serving the video is not the browser and someone turns off the pc that is the browser then the network will try to re-negotiate a LMB. That can take up to a minute and during that time your video can stop, pause or quit.
