WDTV Live / 1.04.17_V / Network Shares Not Visible - XP.SP3

[sixsicsix]

Hey gang,  i just upgraded to 1.04.17-V.   when i browse to videos and network shares i dont see anything auto-populating.   i went into settings and setup my workgroup the same as my network.   My ‘server’ is an xp sp3 box, all the windows live stuff has been long uninstalled.   i have a boxee device on my network accessing the same network shares without problem, so i assume they’re configured properly.   aside from that, they did work before.

check network connection works fine, i can get out to the net, deezer, youtube etch… i can even see my wdlive unit in my local network devices.    not sure what to do next…

[sixsicsix]

wow, after browsing 10 pages of the forum here, i see this is a pretty common problem.  

[sixsicsix]

how do i go about getting support from WD on this?   seems like a pretty common issue.  

[TonyPh12345]

Boxee Box doesn’t implement SMB the same way the WDs do.

The Boxee Box only looks for SERVERS ONCE.    When you configure the BB, the box remembers the full URI to the source and mounts them without need for a master browser.

The WDTV REQUIRES a correctly-functioning Master Browser on your network.

I would check into that possibility.

[sixsicsix]

thanks.  this led me down the right road.   i have a tomato router and it had been enabled as ‘master browser’ by default.  i removed that, but then found my windows 7 laptops were taking ownership.   i put in the reg key IsMasterBrowser to FALSE on all my windows 7 machines, and set it to TRUE on my xp machine.  

nbtstat -a showed that my xp machine was now the master browser.

things are working well now.

If WD is reading this,  you should change the way wd does this… i cant imagine a lot of people being comfortable doing those kinds of changes.

[TonyPh12345]

Be forewarned…   That registry change could have some undesirable effects.  

I’ve had no problems when my Win7 boxes get elected.   Were you having issues with that?

I have had COUNTLESS problems when my routers became browser, too.   So my NAS is now configured as Master, but all the other PCs are still eligible masters.

Since you’ve told your Win7 boxes to NEVER be the browser, what will happen if you shutdown your XP box?  ;)   If your XP box is never down, that’s one thing…  But some day you might forget that you made those changes!  

[sixsicsix]

yeah,  well the way i read the description of that key, it didnt necessary mean they’ll never become master… it’s more of a poling priority.   you’re right though, i’ll have to keep that in mind.   at the moment i serve everything from this xp machine, so it’s not a big deal… i’ll try to not forget though. ha