Networking this thing is BS. I’ve been trying for 2 days with my Win 7 Ultimate 64bit setup and have tried every suggestion I could find here. I keep getting a message about “Invalid user name or password”! I’m really getting sick of this. Sure I can put stuff on an external HD or USB flash drive and lug it back an forth. But that’s a PIA when this thing should be able to be networked. It works great streaming off the internet or a local drive but no way can I get it to access my shared media folder on my PC. **bleep** shame that my Xbox 360 has no trouble at all accessing the shared media folder and this thing, which is designed to do it, won’t.
I don’t know what is wrong with your setup but it works for me with Windows 7 64 bit like you say you have. Windows 7 is picky and you must set the sharing to be very open for other non windows devices to read. I have mine setup for open read write by any member of my home network and it works. This is not a WD issue… Al
Check your sharing permissions on the Win7, never had any problems with using networking with the WD to upload files.
I don’t know, there seem to be an awful lot of people here having networking issues. So I’m not the only one. I can access the shares with 3 other computers (1 Vista and 2 XP) and an Xbox 360 on the network. Right now I have everything set for full permission and have removed the logon password and it still wants a login and password. But I’ve tried dozens of fixes that I found here. Nothing seems to work.
I had similar problems accessing my win7 64 bit network shares. Although another 32 bit XP machine with the same settings was always accessible by my WDTV Live.
Here is the problem: Win 7 uses network locations to handle network discovery and file sharing. Furthermore it uses the standard gateway settings to determine the network location. If the standard gateway settings are missing the network location will read “unidentified network”. This will mess up network discovery and file sharing.
Here is the solution:
Using a router with DHCP server enabled and both the WD TV Live and your win7 machine plugged in ( wired or wireless doesn’t matter) set your win7 machine to get the IP and DNS settings automatically and use automatic settings with the WD TV Live. This way both will have the router as the standard gateway and you will have network access on both devices (internet access if the router provides it).
Using an access point only or a router with DHCP server disabled you will have to put in the IP address and standard gateway and DNS settings manually (doesn’t have to exist in network). The subnet mask must be the same too.
example:
WD TV Live IP:192.168.0.10 - win7 IP:192.168.0.20
subnet mask for both: 255.255.255.0
standard gateway and DNS for both:192.168.0.1
Bear in mind that the standard gateway of 192.168.0.1 here does not have to exist in this network. It is only necessary for win7 to determine the network location and so none of the devices will have internet access over the router unless it is really the router’s IP.
Here is a special piece of information. With this setup you can use any router or access point to connect the WD TV Live wirelessly to a network if you you don’t have a wlan stick that is supported by the WD TV Live. Connect the WD TV Live via ethernet cable to the router with one of the settings above and connect your win7 machine via wlan to the router with the same method. The WD TV Live will now have access to your win7 machine’s network. In this case internet access could be realized via windows internet connection sharing.
I have tested all the setups and settings above, they work flawlessly. The only issue is bandwidth. To stream 1080p content stutterfree over wlan is a pain. But that is a whole other story.
So I hope that helps and when it comes to networking we should complain about win7 and not the WD TV Live.
I can only confirm that the network support is not quite what it should be. I have a configuration with an Apple Time Capsule and a Windows 7 Ultimate. Both devices are doing Network Sharing which works perfectly well from my Mac and my other laptop. The WD Live also works fine sometimes : from time to time and with regular connection cuts. The YouTube connectivity continues to work perfectly.
Symptoms :
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you just see ‘net work shares’ but when you no computers are shown;
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you have a connection but it drops for no particular reason;
In my opinion, there is definitely something wrong with the network support - at least for connectivity to a Windows sharing - of the WD TV Live support. Note that i had the impression that things are going smoother with streaming (but that doesn’t allow me to re-use my ISO video’s - i think)
Again, something is wrong obviously with your setup. Blaming WD-TV Live will more than likely delay you solving your problem. There are lots of posts about people’s network problems that in the end are some issues having nothing to do with the WD-TV Live. It could be the cable, it could be the router, it could be sharing permissions, it could be wrong IP address, it could be different workgroup, it could be lots of things, yes including a faulty WD-TV Live… Al
I have Windows 7 Pro x64 on two machines and x86 on a laptop. They can all see my shres just fine. However, the WD tv live can not. It sees my computer just fine but i can’t get past the username/password. It just keeps saying invaild username/password. The problem is obviously not with my windows shares since other windows machines can all see eachother and access shares. The one thing i was thinking could be the workgroup name. I tried changing my workgroup name to “workgroup”, but that still didn’t help. I notice or i haven’t found in the WD settings where to put the workgroup name…could that be it? In any case, i’ve read through the other threads about network sharing issues and still no luck with any of the suggestions. Is it a WD issue? Is it a windows issue? Honestly, i don’t care…i just want to get the thing working. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
How about setting the shares in your pc with permissions for “everyone” for read first, then if that does not work, set it for read/write. This would not require username and password to read the shares… Al
I’m not saying that the WD TV Live is faulty, I’m saying that the network capabilities are flakey. It works great with an external drive or internet streams. Like I said befroe, I have 3 other computers and an XBox 360 on the network and they all “just work”, no jumping through all kinds of hoops to access the network shares. Yes, obviously there’s something in my setup that the WD TV Live doesn’t like. But what that is…well…who knows. Like I said before, I’ve tried everything I could find in this message board and nothing has worked. It shouldn’t be this difficult. I stand by my statement that the networking capabilities are not ready for prime time.
This post solved my problem:
Which post? The one with the video link? Or the one about the Windows Live ID Sign-in Assistant? I’d found that video and followed all the steps in it before. However, that’s the first mention of Windows Live ID that I’ve seen. I’ll give that a try tomorrow. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Hot **bleep**! I uninstalled Windows Live Sign-in Assistant and I can access my network shares now. Uninstalling it doesn’t seem to have affected any other programs either, so all seems good now. Now the question remains…why?
You ain’t the only one mate.
I have no problem accessing internet capabilities or using drives directly on the box.
It’s network sharing which is just rediculous. Mine works fine for an undetermined period of time before suddenly dropping out and saying connection lost (anywhere between 5-30mins). This is just bs because internet still works so there should be nothing wrong with the network. It is VERY VERY VERY picky, and this should not be the case especially considering their advertising campaigns. *Plug it in and it just works, it’s that simple* Yea… whatever WD. I can almost guarantee no one here had that experience without having to do at least something to try and get it working as it should. Pretty much wasted money getting the Live version for the extra premium when all I really get is an original with flakey network sharing but spot-on youtube etc…
I agree the networking is not up to shape, ive disabled ALL security to my shares which im NOT happy about ive disabled password protected shares just like in the youtube video followed it to the letter i still get an invalid username and password, its really annoying me. I’m currently using the WD TV Live as a glorified networked usb hub, a massive waste of 180AUD
I got this shortly after release and have had no issues. [text deleted]
IT WORKS!!! I, too, uninstalled Windows Live Sign-in Assistant and I can now see all of my Windows 7 network shares! I’ve been pulling my hair out just like everyone else, and this worked right away. Uninstalled Windows Live Sign-in Assistant, rebooted the PC, and the WD TV Live FINALLY sees every **bleep** video file I’ve shared, ISOs included! Power cycling the WD TV LIve wasn’t even necessary. THANKS!!!
I was reading this thread and just about to tell you to uninstall Windows Live ID Assistant, but I see you already did and now it works for you. I had the same problem as you, as well as a bunch of other people, the stupid thing kept on wanting a name and password and no matter what I did it kept on wanting it to access my network shares on Windows 7.
I uninstalled Windows Live ID Assistant and it worked right away…now I just wonder why this program does this to the WD TV Live and how come there has not been an update from Western Digital to fix this annoying bug?
Your post sounds more like an Idea or a Feature Request. The best place for this is in our Ideas Lab. This way someone from WD will be sure to see it. However, I would search first and make sure that there isn’t another idea similar to yours that you could add your post to and vote on.
Ideas Lab
http://community.wdc.com/t5/community/categorypage/category-id/idea
