Unreliable network share login, Win7/64

Community Archives WD TV Live Networking
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I’ve had the WDLive+ for a week or so, and hooked it to my wired network, set up Netflix etc., and connected to several machines on the network via the PW protected logins.  All worked fine, watched a few movies over the network (mostly on the Win7/64 machine), then later it asked for username/password for that same machine.  I retyped it with no success, and after rebooting both the machine and WD, it did finally connect.

Now, a few days later (after it’s worked fine for those days) it pops up the login info, and when I try to connect is either says 'unable to connect to…" or ‘wrong password’, which is most definitely is not, and has in fact been connecting fine with that username and password.

There are a half dozen machines on my home network, all share folders fine, and I can see the WD in my Network.  I can right click an avi file and play it to the player (from that Win7 machine that it claims the wrong password for).  I suspect that tomorrow or some time later, it will again connect OK, but I’m not happy about having to babysit something that’s supposed to work without a geek constantly manning the controls to keep it working.

i have a Patriot Boxoffice that connects to the network and all machines fine (it uses Samba also) and it’s never had ny such issues.  If it could do Netflix, I’d ship the WD back tomorrow, after reading the forum here and all the apparent problems some have connecting to a working network.  I’ve read the fixes, but I’m not willing to disable password login, or uninstall the couple of Windows Live apps I use in order to please this media box, when everything else seems to be able to handle it fine.

Before suggeting it’s my machine’s configuration, note that I’ve looked through the posts and found no settings that need changing, and it in fact connects and works fine at one time, then later will not connect to the same machine using the same procedure, username, PW, etc.  I even tried setting up another user account with no PW, but still get the same PW error message.

I’ve read the posts that say they use Win7 network shares with no problems, however I also see a lot that have agonizingly-long lasting problems, with no fix other than doing things that should not need to be done.  I can still ship this back to Amazon as defective, because it is if it won’t maintain a reliable connection, and would like to know if others have found this thing a constant battle to keep working.  As I said, I don’t want a hobby to tinker with, I want something that will play media files with no fuss.

I’d be tempted to just use the right-click ‘Play to’ from the computer side, but that can be a hassle, and it doesn’t offer the option for .mkv files, which are most of what I use, and again, I’m not willing to convert tham all to .avi to suit a malfunctioning media player.  Should i just return this now and get it overwith, or is there a real, non-workaround fix for the problems?  It’s a nice little player with some good features, it’s ridiculous that it can’t connect reliably.

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+1 same **bleep** here

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It can’t connect to Windows shares because Microsoft changed their authentication process after the WDTV was designed, built and tested.

If you’re not willing to use the workaround, then yes, take it back, because there’s no timeline for changing the authentication process at WD’s end-- no one can give you a date when/if it will be fixed.  I’m sure it’s on the “to do” list, but nobody has seemed to have heard anything from WD about any commitment to it.

And, if it was fixed, you’ll then end up facing the “thumbnail bug” when you try to use Network Shares, which might further annoy you.

Although, using it through Media Server can be done with .mkv files… you just need one of the Matroska DirectShow filters installed so that WMP will read the .mkv files.

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Thanks.  I’ve been bitten a couple of times by the “they’ll fix this with a firmware update for sure” idea too many times to have much confidence that it will be taken care of, unless they indicate they are making it a priority and actively working on it.  Better to return something than live with the hope that something so seemingly basic will be fixed, then it isn’t.

Which is a shame, because I really like this player otherwise; the only real shortcoming I see is that unlike my Patriot Boxoffice, it has no provision to add a laptop hard drive of its own (that’s really a nice feature, making it more easily portable, and you can add or remove media over the network).

If it wouldn’t connect to the Win7 machine at all, I might be more tolerant of it; but when it connected right up through the network shares, then would, then wouldn’t, (now it still won’t), that indicates something more than configuration issues…either it should work, or not work.  Two other Win7 machines on the network, and it will connect to both, at least right at the moment.

Perhaps the .mkv not showing in the right-click issue is because it’s not associated with WMP, though WMP plays .mkv files fine, so the filters are installed.  Maybe I’ll try changing the association to WMP and see if it then shows up with the right-click 'Play to" menu.

I don’t mind using workarounds, but I do use a couple of Windows Live apps (not the login one they claim causes issues), and there can be issues with not having a password login and certain programs not working correctly; plus, with little kids around it can prevent accidental problems.  I’m not sure why the issue couldn’t be fixed, considering my Patriot box is, I believe, older than the WD+, and it has no network issues (though it lacks many of the features in the WD, which is why I didn’t get another Patriot).

Anyway, thanks again for the info.  Perhaps I’ll return it and watch to see if the issue with networking gets fixed, then buy one again if it does, rather than keep it and hope.  Or maybe I’ll decide it’s OK if I can get it to play the .mkv files through the media server by changing the  association.