Dumb question of the day: UNC paths

[Jesse]

Hello,

I am a little embarassed to ask, but I know didley about networking/sharing so here goes.

I am trying to get my client pc to work with comskip. Searching the forums indicates that I should have my recordings in a file named using UNC.

Currently all my sage recordings are in the folder "G:\Sage Recordings" on my server which is named "jukebox"

I am guessing it will need to be something like \\jukebox\Sage Recordings

I know how to get windows to share the file, but how do I actually rename this file location? What are the steps I need to take here?

TIA

Jesse

[GKusnick]

You assign a share name when you enable sharing on that folder. In Explorer, right-click on the folder you want to share and choose Sharing and Security. Click the radio button that says Share this folder and fill in your desired share name. Your full UNC path is then \\computername\sharename.

[GKusnick]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding your question. If you're asking how you tell Sage to use the UNC folder path, you can do that from Setup > Detailed Setup > General > Video Recording Directories. Click Modify, click the name of your current directory, click Change the directory path, Specify..., and then type in the UNC path you defined when sharing out the folder in Windows.

[Jesse]

Hello Greg,

Actually part one is what I was looking for. Part two does help complete the picture though.

I never noticed that you could assign the share name in windows sharing and security.

So would the name then be "\\jukebox\sage recordings" ?

Thanks very much for your help.

Jesse

[Menehune]

In the window's sharing and security box you can specify what the name of the shared folder is to be.

For example:
My server menehune has the E: drive, captures folder shared as "capturee".
In "my network places" on my workstation that folder shows up as: //menehune/capturee.
I guess on the server I could share the "captures" folder as "1" if I wanted to, but I prefer descriptive filenames.

[stevech]

of course, all participating PCs have to be setup to be in a Windows "Workgroup" and all have the same Workgroup Name, assuming you aren't using an NT domain controller as would be the case in an enterprise LAN.

[olyar15]

Originally Posted by Jesse

Hello,

Currently all my sage recordings are in the folder "G:\Sage Recordings" on my server which is named "jukebox"

I am guessing it will need to be something like \\jukebox\Sage Recordings

Not quite. It would go \\[server name]\[share name]\[folder name]\[subfolder name]...

So in your case, assuming you name your G: drive as, say, "disk G", it would be :
\\jukebox\disk G\Sage Recordings

[GKusnick]

Or if he shares out the Sage Recordings folder directly, it would be \\jukebox\Sage Recordings, just like he said.

The shared folder doesn't have to be the root folder of a drive. You can directly share any folder or subfolder at any depth, and the UNC path is still \\computername\sharename. No need to include the drive root if you don't want to.

[gateslinger]

I'm using SageTV 4.1.3. I cannot get the UNC path to mount from the detailed settings -> media center import directory menu.

In my windows explorer, it's \\cerebellum\rewindlib, mapped to letter drive G. I can browse it, no problems.

In SageTV I select add new directory, then specify the name. I use the mapping above, but all I get is:

"The directory \\cerebellum\rewindlib does not exist. Would you like to create it?"

Any ideas on what the heck am I doing wrong?

[stevech]

would you want the network drive mapped to a drive letter (G) if you are going to refer to it via UNC? I would guess not - i.e., remove the drive letter map. Not sure this is the problem.
I suppose you could tell SageTV to use the drive letter instead of UNC. Depending on your goals.

[nathanwray]

I've had better luck in terms of stability when I run sage as a service. I've not been able to mount UNC paths when I run as a service though. I tried creating a "sage" user that has "run as service" enabled and running the service as this user, no dice. Has anyone been able to use "run as service" together with UNC mounted media folders? The UNC path is wide open in terms of security, guest allowed, no password. It works fine when I turn off run as service, since Sage is then running as the logged-in account.

I've read a few things about needing "interact with desktop" to access UNC paths from a service (which is only available to the LocalService acount), I've also read that you have to run the service as a user (and not LocalService) in order to connect to UNC paths. I've been messing with this for some time, thinking there must be an easy answer that I'm not finding. Any windows devs know this one?

thanks in advance
Nathan

[GKusnick]

My WinXP SP2 Sage server runs as a service under a "SageUser" user account, and uses UNC paths for my media folders. It's been a while since I set this up, but as I recall it didn't work right until I added SageUser to the local Administrators group.

[src666]

There are two things you need to remember when setting up UNC paths. First off, Share settings. Setting up the share, and giving the users permissions is critical. Make sure that you give the Sage service user full rights.

Second, and this is the step that many people overlook, you have to give them file system permissions as well. Once you have set up the share permission, click on the Security tab in the dialog, and explicitly add the Sage user to the list. Again, give it full rights.

Once this is done, using the UNC paths is simple.

[nathanwray]

I almost brushed this off but it turned out you were right on the money. Samba reads files as the "nobody" user when you turn on anonymous access and don't authenticate. That user could read the top level folder but none of the music files. I added an "smbnobody" user that has read permissions, reconfigured samba, and the problem went away.

Thanks for the help - always go back and recheck the basics

Originally Posted by src666

There are two things you need to remember when setting up UNC paths. First off, Share settings. Setting up the share, and giving the users permissions is critical. Make sure that you give the Sage service user full rights.

Second, and this is the step that many people overlook, you have to give them file system permissions as well. Once you have set up the share permission, click on the Security tab in the dialog, and explicitly add the Sage user to the list. Again, give it full rights.

Once this is done, using the UNC paths is simple.

[src666]

Originally Posted by nathanwray

I almost brushed this off but it turned out you were right on the money. Samba reads files as the "nobody" user when you turn on anonymous access and don't authenticate. That user could read the top level folder but none of the music files. I added an "smbnobody" user that has read permissions, reconfigured samba, and the problem went away.

Thanks for the help - always go back and recheck the basics

Well, it was easy because I had recently made the same mistake myself, so it was fresh in my mind.