Nonstop (so far) networking issues

WD Legacy Products WD TV Media Player
1

Just bought a WD TV and after fighting with it for a week I’m just about ready to cry “Uncle!” and take it back (or smash it with a hammer…) Here’s my set up:

D-link 826L router

1 computer connected directly to LAN port on router

1 WD My Cloud 3TB connected directly to LAN port on router

3 computers connected through powerline network adapters

about a dozen other devices (ipad, notebook, phones, gaming consoles, etc.) connected wirelessly.

All devices have been assigned dhcp “reserved” ip addresses. All devices/network connections have been working without major reliability issues

To this I added a WD TV, mostly to play content stored on the My Cloud (music, photos and home videos) and access Internet radio and other streamed content I may find worthwhile (fortunately I can get Netflix on another device). My experience so far has been as follows:

Out of the box, had trouble connecting to my wireless network. Unit could “see” the network SSID, but couldn’t get an ip address. Eventually got connected by rebooting the router. Was able to access the My Cloud and show photos and videos on my TV, and play music through my stereo - great! Unfortunately, I have found that after the unit shuts down the wireless does not reconnect on startup and the only way to get it back is to reboot my router! Rebooting my router everyday to use the WD TV - not so great.

So today, with the WD TV again unable to connect (through wireless) after startup, instead of rebooting the router I made a wired connection to the WD TV though powerline networking. The WD TV immediately got its ip from the router and I was back in business! I’d have to buy another powerline adapter, but it would be an acceptable work-around…

Well, not so fast! Have now discovered that the WD TV occasionally loses contact with the My Cloud, sometimes right in the middle of streaming content. Off will go the content, up will pop the message: “The previously selected content source has been disconnected.” (I was using “Media Server” as my content source). When I select “Media Server” again, it shows other computers on my network, but not the WD My Cloud! **bleep**?

If anyone can provide any insight into (1) how to keep my 2 WD products communicating reliably over the network or (2) how to maintain a wireless connection to the WD TV without rebooting the router every day, it would be greatly appreciated and might save a little black box from harm!

Thanks for reading!

2

curtis4 wrote:

If anyone can provide any insight into (1) how to keep my 2 WD products communicating reliably over the network or (2) how to maintain a wireless connection to the WD TV without rebooting the router every day, it would be greatly appreciated and might save a little black box from harm!

Thanks for reading!

I would use linux shares to communicate between your 2 WD products. Since I did that I have never had network problems. You can always install haneWin NFS server on your windows PCs and use linux shares throughout if you wish. In my experience they are very stable.

As for your wireless connections issues sorry I can’t help, I have a 5 year old netgear router and have never had connections issues. It serves 2 PCs and a NAS hard wired, plus 2 laptops, android tablet, 2 smart TVs, blu-ray player, printer, 2 smart phones as well as the WDTV wirelessly (is that a word!?)

But try linux shares, see if that helps

3

Barry, thanks for the reply. How do I set up linux shares?

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Linux shares, NFS, needs to be turned on in network settings of the WDTV, page 199 in the manual. Then you ought to be able to find your NAS through network shares in the WDTV, it will show up as an IP address. I have a MyBookLive but I am assuming that the My Cloud works in a similar way and is a Linux box that supports NFS natively. Best of luck!

5

Thanks again, I’ll try that, but it brings another question to mind. When I choose “Network Share” as my content source to play music, I see the folder structure where the music files are stored, but I don’t get any server functionality (ie. content aggregation, the ability to sort on metadata, etc.). I don’t mind browsing folders to look at photos or videos, but the metadata is required to make it useful as a music player. Is there a way to get this when using NFS?

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I added my network shares to the WDs My Media Library. All my mp3s are taged with embedded cover art and it works resonably well, sorting on artist, album, genre, folder etc. You can try it and see if it works for you.

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Hi Barry, I’ve now tried using NFS shares through the WD TV Media Library. So far the connection to the My Cloud seems more stable than when using Media Server, however, navigation using Media Library seems slow, much slower than when navigating with Media Server. Has anyone else experienced this?

The difference is most noticeable when browsing photos, where the Media Library interface is painfully slow (even though it does not show folder thumbnails, like the Media Server UI does). Overall, the Media Server interface just seems to work better, if only it would keep a reliable connection!

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Ok, I take it all back. WD TV just quit playing music while connected to My Cloud through NFS, with the message: “The previously selected content source has been disconnected” bla bla bla. The My Cloud is now nowhere to be found, not through Media Server, not through Linux Share. How do you guys work with this thing?

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I had that message when using windows shares but never NFS.

I would suggest you clear the media library (in system setup) and let it rebuild, depending on the number of files you have that could take a while. Then turn the machine off by holding the off button down for at least 5 seconds. Just a quick pressof the off button sends it into standby mode which means it is still connected to the network which is not what you want, you want it to disonnect itself from the network.

Turn the machine on again, it will take longer as it has to reconnect to all your shares. Wait for any messages to disappear, then set it into standby, a quick press of the off button.

Wait maybe 10-15 minutes before turning it on again. The reason for the wait is that by default the media library is refreshed when it’s put into standby mode. Then try to use the machine and see how it goes. That’s the procedure I use when I suspect the media library is corrupted and has always worked for me. Best of luck!

10

Use a cable.

Wireless & powerline will always have intermittant issues - unless you are a guru.

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bok007 wrote:  powerline will always have intermittant issues- unless you are a guru

i’ve been using my Netgear XAVB1004 for 3 years without any “intermittant” problems  (chose it over wireless, for speed & reliability reasons)

12

I had plenty of issues with networking and devices “seeing” one another. One WDTV was able to browse a share fine, just not play anything from it.

SInce I set all the devices to static IP addresses I have not had a hiccup. Try that instead of DHCP reservation (or keep the DHCP reservation, but also fix that IP on the device).

Give that a try, make sure you reboot all devices and your router when done.