Sick and tired of network shares not working

So, the last few months I haven’t been able to see my network shares, at all. I’ve googled my **bleep** off trying to fix the problem, but nothing ever helps. Most  of the solutions I’ve probably tried over and over and over, and I’m running circles trying to fix it.

When I try to connect to my laptop via Network Shares, nothing happens. The loading wheel just keeps on spinning and never finds my computer/shared folders. When I’m on my laptop I can NOT see the WDTV as a network source, however I can see it as a mediaplayer source. When I’m on other computers I can access my laptops shared folders without a problem. 

I did have access to the WDTV a few weeks back when I powered up my old stationary but a few days afterwards I suddenly couldn’t find it and never have after that. 

I’ve made sure, about a million times that the folders have the right permissions, that the computers/WDTV are in the same workgroup, that my firewall isn’t blocking anything (it’s turned off), I read on the FAQ that I should disable my homegroup, didn’t matter if I disabled it or not, and anything else I can think off. The WDTV is connected to my router via cable, and so is my laptop. My other laptop is connected via WiFi but makes no difference.

It used to work fine, but at some point a couple of months ago the network shares just stopped showing up. Not sure if it had to do with my losing internet access for a few weeks or upgrading to Windows 8. Every thread I read about the problem has a different solution and setting on how the advanced sharing settings/home/workgroup settings should be set up and it’s just starting to be so overwhelming I just want to throw the WDTV away.

My WDTV is a gen 3 WDTV Live Streaming Media Player, running the latest firmware (1.13.18).

My laptop is running Windows 8 Professional.

TL;DR:

Network Shares not showing up AT ALL on the WDTV.

Tried everything.

Desperate.

Not sure if I can help completely.  I have a laptop running Windows 7 connected wirelessly, a PC running Windows 8 connected wirelessly and a NAS wired to my router and my SMP is also wired to the router.

One thing I had to do was make sure they were all on the same ‘homegroup’ which you’ve done but also having the same user name and password.

Double check your username and password in SMP settings and make sure it’s the same as your Windows user name and password.  Also make sure UPNP is enabled on your router.

Doing this I have no problem seeing anything.

When all else fails I run services.msc on each PC and make sure the homegroup services are disabled.  Then reboot everything.  Good luck and yes networking a WD is a house of cards.

Yes, hello, just registered here on the community. Having same issues for weeks now, since the latest firmware and a reinstall of Windows 7 64bit. Windows network shares just won’t work. I’m really pissed off. No one seems to have any idea, I’ve googled almost every hit, but without any success.

Let me know if you have any luck with it.

ninepointseven wrote:

TL;DR:

Network Shares not showing up AT ALL on the WDTV.

Tried everything.

Including this?

I am using WD TV live streaming media player

I have very stable homegroup my 3 laptops all are connected very well and I can sahare my media here and there

but when i come to wd tv live its realy giving me a hard time i does not show any media or not evan my shared folders

i tried my best i am sufring this issue from almost 50 days i check netwok seting all fine no problem i can check my facebook account without any issue i can play media with usb no problem but this network issue is un bearable

please soome one help me

Techflaws wrote:


ninepointseven wrote:

TL;DR:

Network Shares not showing up AT ALL on the WDTV.

Tried everything.


Including this?

Yeah, no help there. My DHCP ranges all the way to 254 already, 255 is not allowed. Should I change the range to up to 253 in my router perhaps?

I really don’t think the range matters as long as the WDTV gets the same IP all the time.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

I know you have already tried this but it can cause a lot of issues with networking, but check to make sure none of the computer names are the same. I know it seems not likely but after upgrade’s to the OS it can change your computer name.

Ok I am running windows 7 64bit and lastest FW and I have absolutely no problems latest FW fixed what little I had 

but try checking its not on your pc the problem is advanced sharing options and make sure network share is enabled on the wd

Check on the status of the master browser:  see this link, and download and use the free program there:

http://scottiestech.info/2009/02/14/how-to-determine-the-master-browser-in-a-windows-workgroup/

If more than one PC is in the loop, turning them off and on at various times can fudge up the master browser.  Your main PC should be the master browser when possible.

Yesterday I switched over to NFS (“Linux Shares”) because I was tired of unstable SMB shares. So far so good. You can set up an NFS server for Windows pretty easily with haneWin, which is 30-day shareware (I’ll likely pay the $20 if it works for me).

EDIT: Also, it seems you can run SMB and NFS shares alongside each other.

Checked out the master browser tip, when I ran the .exe from the fella it turned up with “System Error 53” in my cmd, so I checked it out manually with nbtstat on the WDTVs IP. Seems to be picking up master browser, which I guess is bad? Not sure how to fix it. Tried googling all sorts of stuff but everything ended up as a dead end.

This is the result of using nbtstat on the WDTVs IP and this computers IP.

C:\Users\Oskar>nbtstat -a 192.168.1.6

Anslutning till lokalt nätverk:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.8] Scope Id: []

           NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table

       Name Type Status
    ---------------------------------------------
    WDTV <00> UNIQUE Registered
    WDTV <03> UNIQUE Registered
    WDTV <20> UNIQUE Registered
    ☺☻ __MSBROWSE__ ☻<01> GROUP Registered
    MSHOME <1D> UNIQUE Registered
    MSHOME <1E> GROUP Registered
    MSHOME <00> GROUP Registered

    MAC Address = 00-00-00-00-00-00


Bluetooth-nätverksanslutning:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

    Host not found.

C:\Users\Oskar>nbtstat -a 192.168.1.8

Anslutning till lokalt nätverk:
Node IpAddress: [192.168.1.8] Scope Id: []

           NetBIOS Remote Machine Name Table

       Name Type Status
    ---------------------------------------------
    LAPTOP <00> UNIQUE Registered
    MSHOME <00> GROUP Registered
    LAPTOP <20> UNIQUE Registered
    MSHOME <1E> GROUP Registered

    MAC Address = BC-AE-C5-12-FC-82


Bluetooth-nätverksanslutning:
Node IpAddress: [0.0.0.0] Scope Id: []

    Host not found.

C:\Users\Oskar>

Are workgroup names the same?

yes, you can run them alongside each other

but NFS is quite a bit faster

I ran a few speed test which you can see here

http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-TV-Live-Streaming-Discussions/HD-files-are-buffering-what-can-I-do/td-p/519534/page/2

the difference between NFS and SMB is night and day

ninepointseven wrote:

Checked out the master browser tip, when I ran the .exe from the fella it turned up with “System Error 53” in my cmd,


Weird.  Never a problem with the two versions I have used.  Try downloading lanscan again.  You can even run it right from the zip file without extracting.

 

This is what the Lanscan screen looks like.  In this you see two wireless Epson printers, my main PC (only one on now) and the two WD Live Plus units.  The PC is labeled as master browser.

 

Lanscan Capture.JPG

drhoads wrote:

Are workgroup names the same?

Yeah, worknames are the same. Tried 14 different workgroup-names, nothing. Anyone else with some tips? Still getting Error 53 when I try the program, but as it’s been established the WDTV takes over as master browser.

I bought WD TV Live to replace a tired Diamond Media. Hard-wired ethernet. I get all the menues, can show all photos, can get internet weather and online shows (eg comedy net). My music and video files are displayed, but do not play (now). Two days ago music and video played just fine, except one file collection which may have been “protected”. That file used to play on my Diamond Media player.

I cannot find a similar issue on the logged questions/answers. The none-playing music and video files show their thumbnail pictures. Upon “play” I just get the little whirly arrow forever.

Its not smp or nfs which has issues with the wd.

The wd removes shares from media library if it doesn’t get a quick enough response.

This is much more noticeable on wifi then it is on wired connections.

The only way to get the share back is to reboot the device and if the shares are awake(not spun down or sleeping) you get all your media library shares back most of the time.

Frankly it would have made better sense to grey out shares rather then remove them if they don’t respond quick enough for the wd as this would return to active shares once they responded.

They are aware of the problem and working on it so I guess this problem time is coming to a end.