Weird: laptops detect WD TV Live, PC-s don't

So…I’ve managed to wirelessly connect all of my 3 laptops (2 of them Win7, 1 Win XP) with WD TV Live, WD Link also detected WD TV and external disk connected to it and I could also map it.

But still, the 2 PC-s I own don’t recognize WD TV, nor the external disk. It is even more weird, since I have no problems connecting to the internet and to other PC and laptops in network. PC-s dont’ recognize only WD TV.

Could it be that the wireless network card in PC-s (the same one in both of them →   http://www.canyon-tech.com/archive/connectivity/wireless/CN-WF511) is somehow not compatibile with WD TV? I can’t think of any other option left…

I really doubt that the issue is related to your card, are you using the same home group for the each PC? Can you ping the WD TV from your PC?

Also, when you use the WD Link software, what error ( if any) you get?

Tried a differnet WiFi card, still doesn’t work.

I actually don’t even have a homegroup (but workgroup is the same!), but the laptops work, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

Initially, I’ve been getting an error saying something like “device can0t be detected”, but now I don’t get any error at all.

It does sound like a network setup issue only.  Was your sharing network properly in place before adding the WD player?  Take the WD out of the picture for a while by turning it off.  Now, can every laptop and desktop see each and all of the other computers in the network?

It would seem to me that if this is the case, then the WD ought to be seen by all computers, too, when it is turned back on.

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Since you tried another WIFI card, that eliminates the card being the issue, and points at a networking issue. I know with Windows, my XP/Vista/7 machines popped up when it saw my WD NAS and TVLIVE as an UnPnP device and I had to enable it to use it/see it. My MACs/Linux machines had no problems from the get go.

Like others said, see if you can ping it from those machines, and ensure the machines can see all the other devices on the network. I put everything on static ip’s or use DHCP reservation in your router set up so I know nothing changes on my network unless I initiate it, it is a lot easier to troubleshoot network issues with static IPs and viewing the IP tables form the router. If you are not using a WORKGROUP, you can always just create one to ensure that is not the network problem also.

What type of firewall/ant-virus programs are running. Is there a slim possiblity maybe something blocked it?

I think you are trying to set up network sharing of files correct?  I was having the same problem and I realized it was because I made a stupid oversight.

my pc’s were connected by wire to my modem (which has a built in router) but I also have a wireless router thats connected to my modem that gives wireless signal to all my wireless devices (such as WDTV Live)

thus the wireless devices are actually on an entirely different subnet than my pc’s

so all i have to do is disconnect all my stuff from the modem and connect it to the router directly and it should solve the problem.  However for logistics reasons i would like to leave my setup the way i have it so i would like to know is there any way to work around this setup and still have this work.  Essentially i would have to find some way to bridge the two networks so that WDTV Live will search the modem Network as well.