While waiting for WD to reply, have you two tried a rollback to 1.16.13 (resetting device in between) and seen any change in networking functionality?
Techflaws wrote:
While waiting for WD to reply, have you two tried a rollback to 1.16.13 (resetting device in between) and seen any change in networking functionality?
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It’s working right now, so the rollback is in my back pocket until it goes down again.
I got a call from WD support. Knowledgeble guy it seems.
Had a new thing happen today. I was watching a show from a network share and all of a sudden the stream stopped. Went back to the home screen and no shares are visible. Restarted the box and “Invalid user name and password”. Nothing changed on my network when this happened, no change to the Master Browser (is and was my server PC)… just boom, the WD TV Live (fw 1.6.13) suddenly forgot how to connect to a network.
I switched over to my HTPC running XBMC and like a properly functioning network client it, of course, picked up the shares like it has done every time I’ve turned it on for the last 5 years. Note that the HTPC had been on for several hours already today and it did not lose network shares when the the WD did.
Update: 3 hours later I turn the WD Live on and… shares are back. Nothing changed (same PCs are on. MB still is my server) on my LAN in the meantime.
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for the 1st time in 3 months, I have lost all but one of my Windows network shares after reversing back from 2.01.168 to 1.6.13
I checked and my master browser is set to one PC Server. This is really weird because I’ve never had windows shares disappear with 1.6.13.
I plan on powering down my WDTVs (I have 3), my windows boxes and then my router and restarting.
This is very frustrating since this was working fine last night.
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deadlock
Any update since your chat with WD?
I’ve had the same issue since I purchased my units little over a year ago. Network Shares randomly become unavailable.
I see some have had success rolling back to older firmware versions but that’s really not a solution and the issue has nothing to do with master browser. We have 4 Smartphones, 3 latops and 1 PC, all of which communicate and share files seemlessly.
WD needs to get they head out of their *** and do something soon or I’ll have 2 used paper weights for sale.
I’m running Win 7 Ult
Asus RT-N16
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jubei04
Any update on the investigation??
I just did lanscan and it turtns out that in my network I have two master browsers. One is assigned to mybooklive, WD Live drive where I keep my media files and the other to WDTVLIVE. Based on this thread it does not seem right, so I am wondering how I can assign Master Browser to my Server computer?
If you can see two master browsers it may be because you have two different workgroups in your network? I saw that with a laptop on my network, I had apparently forgot to change the workgroup name when I bought it 6 months ago but it has functioned ok with the other windows machines on the network. It was only when I used lanscan I noticed the oversight. I didn’t observe any issues though when it had another network name.
barrygreybeard wrote:
If you can see two master browsers it may be because you have two different workgroups in your network? I saw that with a laptop on my network, I had apparently forgot to change the workgroup name when I bought it 6 months ago but it has functioned ok with the other windows machines on the network. It was only when I used lanscan I noticed the oversight. I didn’t observe any issues though when it had another network name.
But my Master Browser is not in the computer, but on my Live Hard disk and other on WD TV Live. How do I change it? It should be on my Server?
Turn off all devices except the one you want to be master browser. Then turn one on at a time. Do a lanscan after each one to ensure nothing switches up on you.
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habskilla wrote:
Turn off all devices except the one you want to be master browser. Then turn one on at a time. Do a lanscan after each one to ensure nothing switches up on you.
OK. I will try. Just confirm is my Server supposed to be the Master Browser? And nothing else?
Calexico wrote:
habskilla wrote:
Turn off all devices except the one you want to be master browser. Then turn one on at a time. Do a lanscan after each one to ensure nothing switches up on you.
I did exactly what you said and now only my server is Master. And it seems to BE WORKING! I am playing files one after the other, just to see how WD is behaving.
Share was found very fast, no wrong password, browsing is smooth and the video is playing without pauses and not freezes in the midle of the play.
I cannot believe that this solved my problems! Will see after a day or two.
Thanks a lot!
NOT!!!
I spoke too soon. Last night it was working as a charm and when I turned it this morning SAME S**T!
I really dont understand how this thing operate.
Now I cannot connect to my WI-Fi. Well it is “connecting” but cannot access anything and when I check network connection it shows IP is valid but cross mark on both DNS and Internet connection.
Update:
WD emailed me directly wanting to setup a call to discuss my “issue”. Will post an update as soon as that call happens.
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Calexico wrote:
I did exactly what you said and now only my server is Master. And it seems to BE WORKING! I am playing files one after the other, just to see how WD is behaving.
Share was found very fast, no wrong password, browsing is smooth and the video is playing without pauses and not freezes in the midle of the play.
I cannot believe that this solved my problems! Will see after a day or two.
Thanks a lot!
NOT!!!
I spoke too soon. Last night it was working as a charm and when I turned it this morning SAME S**T!
I really dont understand how this thing operate.
Now I cannot connect to my WI-Fi. Well it is “connecting” but cannot access anything and when I check network connection it shows IP is valid but cross mark on both DNS and Internet connection.
Welcome to my life. I’ve found that the master browser thing is not the core issue with what we’re experiencing. It may help you to find shares, but for some reason these darn boxes just love to forget about them.
Here’s a quick update since my last post:
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shares came back, so I stuck with 2.01.83 or whatever until my hand was forced
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they’re replacing the road out front, so that means a lot of power disruptions. Came home to find everything off, so that means that my WDTV box gets to have a FIELD DAY with boning me. Shares were gone again.
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I’ve tried every manner of maneuvering I could think of, short of the factory reset: various combinations of clearing the network share info, doing a device restart (not reset) and clearing the share info again, turning shares on and off and clearing the info again, etc. Each time, what I did before wouldn’t work. It’s almost comical. I initially tried a factory reset, and that didn’t work either.
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fed up, I flashed back to 1.16.13. Everything worked and worked smoothly for a while. The only thing I don’t like is that you can’t add favourites without adding them to the media library (you can add favourites in 2.01.83 without them being in the library).
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I’ve had the old firmware completely lose the shares, too, but it’s far more infrequent. It’s similar to what adiabatic mentioned a while back: I wasn’t watching, but trying to load a video. When I opened the final folder the video was in, it just circled and loaded forever. I restarted, and each time I restarted I got one folder farther away until finally it lost the shares. I tried everything I could think, but the only thing that worked was waiting it out. The shares popped up again eventually having done nothing. Odd.
So, in short, I rolled back to 1.16.13 and it’s still crappy but workable. I would say you get what you pay for, but I expect more having paid $100.
dmbottawa wrote:
Update:
WD emailed me directly wanting to setup a call to discuss my “issue”. Will post an update as soon as that call happens.
Actually, please do. I got the same thing but passed it up because I don’t want to go through all the troubleshooting and being talked to like I’m some soccer mom who can’t open the Google. I mean, computers are machines and it’s simple cause and effect. Half the time, having the power cut off to the WDTV while the box is on (which is ALWAYS, which is stupid) does it. The other half of the time, there’s no direct cause (that I can decipher) leading me to believe it’s a faulty product. So it is what it is, I suppose.
CasanovaFly wrote:
I mean, computers are machines and it’s simple cause and effect.
And that’s the problem right there cause we don’t know the cause which is why the bug hasn’t been fixed. We assume it’s (dual) master browsers or UPNP that’s throwing off the WDTV in some networks but that’s not 100% certain.
Just to add a little more info to this whole windows shares discussion that seems to be going on in several threads I experienced something strange in my home network.
I have a simple home network, a MyBookLive NAS, 2 windows 7 PCs, 1 windows 8 laptop and my SMP. I play media from the HDD attached to the SMP as well as media from the NAS and one windows 7 PC. (I also have a Samsung TV and an LG TV that can play media from DNLA servers but I rarely use them).
Like a few other I experienced dropped network issues at random times. I solved this by dropping windows shares and using linux shares exclusively for streaming media. haven’t had any problems in weeks now.
HOWEVER: While browsing for source inputs on my Samsung TV I noticed that the MyBookLive NAS was not listed as a media server. I checked in my WDTV but the MYBookLive was still listed under media servers. I thought it must be the TV. I checked the LG TV, and like the Samsung the MyBookLive was not listed. I checked the windows media players on the 2 windows 7 PCs and like the TVs the MyBookLive was not listed as a media server. I checked the dashboard in the MyBookLive and the media server was operational.
So something happened within the windows network that blocked all the windows PCs and TVs from seeing the MyBookLive as a media server. But the WDTV could still see it and play media from it.
Turning the media server off and then on again in the MyBookLive allowed all machines on the network to again see the MyBookLive media server. For 3 days. Then the same thing happened again. The WDTV SMP could still see the media server, the rest of the network could not. I dont know what this all means except that something seems to be happening to windows networking and that only started recently. To me this issue seems to indicate that it may not be the WDTV firmware that is solely to blame for these networking issues.
It’s so annoying…
The only “solution” that works for me is to reset WD box.
So…had a call arranged for the evening of July 23rd with a WD rep by the name of [Deleted] and received NO CALL. Not only that, I then receive a request to fill out a satisfaction survey. Unbelievable!!!
I’m sure others have figured this out but I’ve found a workaround that works for me when no network shares appear.
Step 1
Turn off Router
Unplug WD Media Device(s)
Shut down all PC’s/Laptops
Turn off WIFI on Mobile devices
Step 2
Turn on the network device that you wish to stream from. i.e. network share
Turn on Router, wait for it to initialize
Plug in WD Media Device(s), it should power on as soon as it’s plugged in and connect to the network
Turn on WIFI on Mobile Devices
Going through this process has worked for me every time, but it’s just a workaround and the network shares WILL disappear again at some point.
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