Solution to network shares problem

#1

The problem: You click on ‘network shares’ on your WDTV and nothing happens. However, if you wait some time (up till half an hour), it all of a sudden DOES work ! This last part is very important. If even after half an hour still nothing happens, then this solution is not for you and you have some other problem, which this tutorial won’t solve.

To simplify this solution, just download this file and extract it to the root of an USB drive. Plug the USB drive into your WDTV Live, it should tell you it has found a new FW and install it:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=DF4O4JH5

After you’ve installed it and rebooted, it shall again tell you it found a new FW; you can just ignore that, you’re done.

However, if it still doesn’t work, you might have to edit 2 parameters on your server’s registry, you can read about that here:  http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20030224081842949 but it short that boils down to setting:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SYSTEM -> CurrentControlSet -> Services -> Browser -> Parameters->IsDomainMaster to TRUE 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SYSTEM -> CurrentControlSet -> Services -> Browser -> Parameters->MaintainServerList to Yes

Alternatively, you could also try to flash the latest WD beta FW, this should solve the issue as well !

#2

[never mind]  would delete the post if I could…

#3

your link doesn’t work.

#4

TonyPh12345 wrote:

(I’m not convinced, but won’t argue) 

I can understand why you’re not convinced: under normal circumstances it really shouldn’t matter who wins the master browser election. HOWEVER (!!) WD modified the sourcecode of Samba. I’m pretty sure that’s where a bug slipped in. Haven’t really pinpointed it yet (eg WHY it causes problems when it’s master browser), but I HAVE verified that this was the problem: every time I had problems (and it would take 2-5 minutes before my network shares appeared), the WDTV was master browser. Every time I didnt have problems, my PC was master browser. Then I applied my fix and the problems have been gone ever since.

Of course I did quite a bit of debugging to come to this solution. The problem is that when you click on ‘network shares’, the WDTV quires the master browser for all workgroups, all their clients and all their shares. If the WDTV has taken on the role of master browser, it won’t notice your server and will only reply with itself as the workgroup member.

#5

Yeah, the original point I was going to make was that you’re approach is a bit forceful.

It’s simpler to go smack a registry key in the media server to get IT to be the master browser and set its priority the highest.   

I had that article bookmarked, but the bookmark now references something totally unrelated, hence my recant.

I think you’re right that the whole Master Browser thing is suspicious, jut not “convinced.”   I set my NAS box to be the Master, and never have the issue.

#6

TonyPh12345 wrote:

 

It’s simpler to go smack a registry key in the media server to get IT to be the master browser and set its priority the highest.   

 

 

Agreed, that’s what I tried first of course. However, even if I set my server to Domain controller INCLUDING the highest priority, the WDTV would still win the election every now and then (and hence cause problems).

#7

TonyPh12345 wrote:

 

 I think you’re right that the whole Master Browser thing is suspicious, jut not “convinced.”   I set my NAS box to be the Master, and never have the issue.

 

Not everybody has issue’s. Really, I think it’s just a small percentage of users out there who have this problem. Why ? Really don’t know, but i DO know that my solution fixes it (I have been problem free for 3 weeks now, whereas I used to have problems every day)

#8

The fix I have been using is to do a scan with mylanviewer and “poff” it works. If I don’t do that its waiting time baby.

This fix feels more solid thanks alot for it. However I want to know if there’s any risk in bricking the device? Can I still force it back to other drivers should I need to at a later state?

#9

Dddaya wrote:

The fix I have been using is to do a scan with mylanviewer and “poff” it works. If I don’t do that its waiting time baby.

 

This fix feels more solid thanks alot for it. However I want to know if there’s any risk in bricking the device? Can I still force it back to other drivers should I need to at a later state?

No risk to brick your device. You can always flash back original FW if you’re not satisfied with the homebrew solution.

#10

Just an addendum… I was having this issue with my network, the WDTV would not see my computer for 15 to 20 mins, turns out the generic drivers that Windows 7 installed for my NIC were the issue, I updated my NIC drivers and bam, it works perfectly now.  Just another thing to add to the list of things to try if your not working correctly.

#11

grog1975 wrote:

Just an addendum… I was having this issue with my network, the WDTV would not see my computer for 15 to 20 mins, turns out the generic drivers that Windows 7 installed for my NIC were the issue, I updated my NIC drivers and bam, it works perfectly now.  Just another thing to add to the list of things to try if your not working correctly.

Well, it must be said, that if you have this problem, it appears, goes away and appears again. You might think you’ve fixed it, while you might get the problem back next day. Not saying your fix falls into that category, but I am suspicious (I had similar ‘fixes’ going for me when I was investigating the master browser issue, when the ‘fixes’ wouldnt be working anymore the next day :wink: )

#12

The smb.conf file appears to be a unix text file without CR/LF’s, just CR (I think. Appears as a long line). What happens when I edit this on a windows machine and it adds the cr’lf pairs, will it still be parsed?

#13

Fangles wrote:

The smb.conf file appears to be a unix text file without CR/LF’s, just CR (I think. Appears as a long line). What happens when I edit this on a windows machine and it adds the cr’lf pairs, will it still be parsed?

Yeah, you can use wordpad, no problem.

#14

One more question, anyone knows if this problem has been forwarded to WD? I tried to but I got a silly email back… Anyways this feels like a minor update.

Going to try this solution later thx again for posting it. Btw updating NIC didn’t help for me but I got a little bit faster internet and a little less lower ping out of it :wink:

#15

You might want to try the new beta firmware to see if it solves your problems.

#16

Beta firmware? sounds interesting can be found were?

#17

Dddaya wrote:

Beta firmware? sounds interesting can be found were?

http://www.wdc.com/wdtvlive_prerelease/

#18

Thanks for that   SjefDeKlerk, really wasn’t sure.

On a side note, I found the new beta firmware from WD yesterday and aside from one of my shares on my shares on my system not appearign and a faulty port on my network switch, everything actually seems to work now.

I’ve been watching episodes of doc martin from my computer to the wdtvlive for the last 4 hours. Oh, my aching back!

#19

Guys I cannot get this to work, pluggin in the usb key does nothing I cannot get it to recognise the new firmware.

Can I also ask, instead of downloading a file and asking everone to go in and edit certain bits inside the file, would it not make more sense for one person to just do it and then upload the correct file to e.g. rapidhshare etc - that way everyone does not need to mess with it just download and plug in.

What can I now do since I can’t get the firmware to install?

I tried the beta firmware here:  http://www.wdc.com/wdtvlive_prerelease/ but it got worse, it looks all grainey and its really slow. I’m doing the rollback now I hope this works.

Help!!!

When are WD going to release an official firmware updateable over the web that fixes this???

#20

After you tried the Beta, did you do a system reset?   No one has mentioned that “it  looks all grainey and its really slow…”