Hello everyone. I have a wierd problem. I currently have a WDTV live hub and 2 live plus players. When I try to access network share on the live plus in my bedroom, it works fine. But when I try to access it in my daughter’s bedroom, nothing happens. Both live plus’ are set up the same. I used to be able to access network shares in her bedroom and now I can’t. I tried resetting hers to factory and still didnt work. It is also weird because her live plus is discoverable on the network, Any help would be greatly appreciated.
This is just a WAG, but recently the topic of “master browser” has come up in these forums. Understanding that concept helps explain some of the sharing “weirdness” issues for me.
If there is no master browser in a workgroup, problems can arise. for more info about this concept, and to download a free program (lanscan) that helps discover the master browser, see this link: http://scottiestech.info/2009/02/14/how-to-determine-the-master-browser-in-a-windows-workgroup/
Basically, the computer that is the master browser has to be on for sharing to take place. Turn off all PCs (there is no master browser now) and sharing problems occur. The best way to reset the master browser is to turn off (all the way off) all PCs and WDs. Then, turn on the main PC and it should become the master browser.-- check this with the lanscan program you download from above. Now, turn on the WDs one at a time and check with lanscan again. If you have a master browser indicated for your PC, your sharing ought to work right again.
I would appreciate if you report back with what you discover, and if this helped solve your issue.
Mike27oct,
Thanks for the input. I was reading about master browser too but didn’t really get anywhere with it until your post (thank you). However, before I saw your reply I had read something about routers causing problems with WDTV live and plus, so I reset my router and it seemed to clear the problem for now. This problem happens quite often and seems to clear itself occasionally. But after reading about how to change the master browser, maybe I will give that a try. The funny thing is though, when my daughters room live plus wasn’t working, my room was working and so was the live hub in the living room. That’s what I don’t understand; why was my room working and her’s wasn’t? At the time her room wasn’t working the master browser was the live plus in my room (doesn’t make any sense)??? After resetting my router, the master browser changed to my pc. As of right now, I have access to network shares in all three rooms. I should probably note that my live hub in the living room is hardwired to the router as well as the live plus in my bedroom. My daughter’s room has a wireless connection to the router (I wonder if that makes a difference???). I should also note that all of my hard drives (with my movies and stuff) are hooked up to a USB hub that is hooked up to the WDTV live hub. I have three hard drives hooked to the USB hub that is hooked to the WDTV live hub in the living room. I have no movies or files on my pc. They are all on the hard drives hooked to the WDTV live hub. Do I even need my pc on???
This is a really intersting topic and I am glad that it was brought up. I has some issues finding shares a few months ago during a time while I was rebuilding two of my file servers. It took me about a day to realize that I had shutdown the master browser to workk on it and not shifted it to another machine. Some quick action and I was back up and running no problem. It made me think that this is an issue a lot of people with multiple PCs and a HUB encounter, and then post browsing issues on this board that don’t get solved, and then magicaly are fixed when they reboot their machines.
Thanks for bringing the topic up. I would bet folks knowing about MBs would solve some of the issues we see on the boards here
-P
It is very frustating when something doesn’t work like it should. I will play around with the master browser and see if it makes a difference on my setup. I’m sure it will. According to the link you posted all I should have to do is boot the device that I want as master browser first and then all other devices. I will try different orders; pc first, live hub next, and the other two after. Then I will try a different order like; live hub first, pc second and so on. I will post my results.
Do you think having one live plus hardwired and the other live plus wireless makes a differenced?
Hey ALL,
Since I learned about the Master Browser, I now think 75% of the network problems with the WD are caused by something going wrong with it. 
Seriously, some of us discussed this topic in some detail this past week in the thread below. I think it will help us understand this obscure Windows situation.
Yes, as I discovered, at least one PC (preferably our usual master browser assigned PC ) needs to be on to use WD Network shares.
I think I understand that a device on your network must be the master browser in order for your WD to recognize network shares, but what I am confused about is that I did have a master browser device and I did have access to network shares on all but one of my WD live plus boxes. The only remedy to this was to reset the router which in turn reassigned the master browser to my pc and all worked after that (btw, the master browser was one of the bedroom live plus boxes when I couldn’t access network shares on the other live plus box). I guess I’m confused as to why the master browser assignment changed in the first place and why would resetting the router reassign it?
Sometimes it just makes sense to periodically reboot EVERYTHING in the home network to release any gremlins that have gotten in. This is especially relevant after a power outage or flicker. One time my network was slow, and I remembered a power flicker the day before that only lasted a split second. Sure enough, two of my network switches had their brains scrambled by the event, and just unplugging, waiting a moment, and plugging them back in fixed the problem.
Whenever I reboot the entire system, after the modem and router are back up, I have always started my network switches and Win 7 laptop first (it is the master browser, too) and then start up the other components, e.g. , wireless printers, WDs, Rokus, etc) Strange problems have disappeared this way, and some were likely related to master browser issues I now think.
The master browser on a network is “elected” by a process involving ALL eligible master browser candidates. As long as all of the candidates are able to operate as browser, it’s largely irrelevant which device wins the election.
But there are circumstances where poorly coded samba servers win the election, and fail horribly in properly assuming the role. My Lnksys E3000s are like that. If they ever won the role, all kinds of havoc would follow, so I had to take measures to assure they would NEVER be the browser of the workgroup I care about.
As long as folks have a reliable, stable master on their network, Samba “browsing” (a/k/a discovery) is pretty much trouble-free. In the three years I’ve been using WD products, I have *never* had problems finding ANY of my shares/servers EXCEPT when the elected master browser malfunctions. I’ve seen malfunctions MANY times on Linksys devices, a few times on my QNAP and WD devices (maybe three times in as many years) and next to never on Windows boxes.
Master Browser issues are why I wrote the Networking Troubleshooting guide a while back.
http://community.wdc.com/t5/Networking/Troubleshooting-Windows-File-Sharing/m-p/92642#U92642
OK, during the time I have spent on the computer tonight, the master browser has mysteriously changed assignment again from my pc to my master bedroom WD live plus player, hence disableing my daughter’s WD live plus from accessing network shares once again??? **bleep** is going on? Any ideas? is there any way to force the pc to remain the master browser?
Extra info: I have not lost any connection to the network in the past few hours I have been on here or reset or turned anything off.
Thanks again
TONY, thanks for chippin’ in and for the late night reading assignment!
>>> As long as all of the candidates are able to operate as browser, it’s largely irrelevant which device wins the election.
OK, got it, and since I want my best PC, the Win 7, to win the election, I always turn it on first to get the ball rolling.
>>> I’ve seen malfunctions MANY times on Linksys devices
Perhaps this explains why I have less network problems now, since I replaced my Linksys WRT54G with a more modern ASUS RT-N66U router a few months ago.
Getting very frustrated. I now have lost network share access on my bedroom WD live plus player even though it is acting as the master browser and my daughter has regained network share access on her WD live plus player. This is driving me crazy. Last time when I lost access to newtwork shares on her player, the player in my bedroom was master browser. This makes no sense at all.
For some reason the master browser keeps re-assigning itself to different devices and randomly disabling network share access on one or both of the bedroom WD live plus players. I’m going insane.
That can happen if the network itself isn’t stable…
It’s strange because I have had a very stable network and everything has been working fine for quite some time. Any other suggestions?
Is there any way to force my pc to remain as the master browser?
Have you turned everything off yet amd started from scratch?
Well, after many hours of experimenting, it doesn’t seem to matter which order I boot the devices up. Sometimes the master browser will be the pc. Other times it will be the master bedroom WD live plus or my daughters room live plus or the living room live hub. And now it changes assignment of the master browser randomly throughout the hours, consequently disabling one or both of the bedroom live plus’s. I have also found out that I don’t even need the pc on or hooked up to the network, as the movies will play without the pc since all of my hard drives are hooked directly to the live hub in the living room. So, I am at a standstill. I am concluding that this may be a router problem since that seems to be the only common link that will temporarly enable all devices to have access to network shares (only temporarily though). Any other input would be most appreciated. Everything used to work very well for months and then suddenly all **bleep** broke loose.
As a side note: The living room main WD live hub has never lost access to the network shares, whereas the bedroom live plus units randomly lose access to network shares.
Yes I have, to no avail.
Right now the living room live hub is the master browser, whereas ten minutes ago it was my bedroom live plus. And now my daughters room has access to the network shares and my bedroom does not… I don’ get it.
What brand is your router? What kind is it? How old is it? Can you see where I am going? TIme for a new router?
The router is an excellent router Netgear WN600 WNDR3400.
