Need someone to hold my hand and walk me through network browsing - Standalone

[ojosch]

Finally had some time to sit down and spend with this unit on MY DAY OFF. So...

I still can't understand what I'm not doing right here. I have been trying everything in my right mind to see any or even one of my other computers in 'Filesystems' while in standalone mode. Every time I try a new beta I have FAITH that maybe by some shred of HOPE I will finally see at least one of my other 3 Windows shares, or my 1 Samba share. Even just to see one, and not be able to access it would seem to me to be a step in the right direction.

So today, before I loaded the latest beta, I had some hope because something new happened I had never seen. For kicks, I went to 'Filesystems' and IT PROMPTED ME FOR A USERNAME / PASSWORD. Wow I thought maybe they fixed this in the last beta (although I had never before got that message after installing that last beta). So I just shrugged my shoulders and entered in the main username / password combo I use for my shares for one of the user accounts that all my computers have the same and it didn't like that. So then I tried 'guest' for username (all those 4 PCs have guest account enabled), and it didn't work. So then I decided to check for the latest beta today, and YES there was a new beta, so I upgraded it, and NOW, when I try to scan for 'Filesystems' I'm back to nothing at all. I just get the standard message of 'INVALID DIRECTORY'. It does not even display any of the other network shares on that screen. I have 4 PCs in the house that can all see each other and can all access each other's files, but I cannot get this HD200 to even see them, period.

I'm really trying as hard as I can to be patient with this little unit. I DO have hope in it because the idea of it is right. I WANT to see this little box prosper in my home. I test software / hardware all day at work with a quality assurance team 5 days/week, but when I come home at night, I just want to be able to hopefully find some time to relax (never seems to happen much) and watch TV but somehow I've gotten sucked into having to read this forum everyday in hopes that somebody is having my same problems with this box. Now, it is only January still, and I bought this thing in December thinking it would be the end all solution to everything, and granted I see it slowly improving as each beta comes out, and I don't even mind doing some things (mainly providing feedback) to help SageTV improve on it, but it is just getting a little frustrating that I can't seem to get this feature working with every new beta that comes out, and nobody else seems to be having this problem. Perhaps by July or August, it will finally start being a good box, and then they'll change the hardware in December again and it'll be all back to square one?

Sorry for such a long rant, but I want to somehow figure out how to browse and see my network shares in standalone mode because I have media stored all over the house and would just prefer to access it all directly instead of having to proxy all content through the SageTV server, because whenever I have to reboot the SageTV server it tends to break the connection to the extender until I reboot it too. Right now, in standalone mode, I really can't do anything without network browseability except watch Youtube or see the weather.

PLEASE, I'm to the point of desperation, I just want it to work. Hopefully somebody out there has something or some suggestion I can try (?)

Again, sorry for the lame rant. My inner child has come out this morning

[gplasky]

Start from the beginning. What OS-Vista or XP? Go to properties of My Computer and ensure they are ALL in the same Workgroup. (By default it could be Workgroup or it could be Home.) If is is Vista make sure you go to Network and Sharing Center and:

a) Make sure to set it to Private Network thru the "Customise" link
b) Turn on Network Discovery. Double check the Workgroup name.
c) Turn on File Sharing
d) Turn on Public Folder Sharing. (I use this as another way to test.) Let users open, change and create files.
e) Printer sharing-I turn off.
f) Password Protected sharing. I turn this off for ease of use. You can turn it back on after you're done. (If you want or if you are paranoid about your private network.)
g) Media sharing. Optional. I have turned it on from before just to test how it worked from different PCs but it shouldn't matter in your instance if it is on or off.

HD200
Go to Settings-Advanced Settings-Server.
Windows File Server-Enabled
Windows File Server Workgroup-Workgroup name. (You should have seen this serveral times. Spell it out correctly.)
Windows File Server Network Name-This is the name of the HD200 will be known by when you browse the network from your PCs. STP-HD200 is the default. That's all you'll really see. If you double-click it on Vista to drill down you'll see a "Printers" icon with nothing further down.

Now if you want to browse or add media paths choose to "Browse the Local Network" You can also choose to "Browse Device" and should see any Vista PCs you have chosen to share media with. If you go in there you'll see folders for the media you have chosen to share. That was done through a configuration wizard on your Vista PC.

So when you "Browse Local Network" the next level you should see is a folder that is the name of your Workgroup. Mine is Plaskyville. Drill down and you should see a folder for every PC on your network in the same workgroup as your HD200. So for me I see a folder called MAIN which is my WHS server. Go into there and you should see your shares. It will ask you for user name and password. Use the same ID you have created on each PC to login.
You need to type it in EXACTLY. Including caps. Use the PAUSE button to cycle thru Caps and small letters. It's tricky so be very careful. Do it wrong 3 times and you may lock out the account on the PC. Once it is entered correctly you should see any of the shared folders.

And just double check to make sure you do have the latest firmware which I think is 20081230.

The trick is make sure you have all the basics working. Make sure if you have more than 1 PC on the network you can get to each others shares before pursuing the HD200.

Gerry

[ojosch]

Thanks for your post. Your suggestions were helpful.

I went through all those things and checked everything, and I had it all right, but what it took before I could see my workgroup on the HD200 was on the 'Windows File Server Network Name' setting, which I had entered as 'Extender' from the last firmware when I was mucking with things, I changed it to 'HD200' just now and it must have reset all the network settings (including something that it was screwing it up), because now I can see my workgroup and browse around. I had tried this very thing all of the last firmwares w/o any luck so they must have fixed something this time, who knows...

2 vital bugs though...and some other stuff...

When you select a media file like a song or video or whatever, it DISPLAYS in plain text your username and password where it says "Preparing to watch" like this: smb://username : password@server/path so if your friends come over there went your security.

The other bug is that there is no option there for it to remember your credentials so you don't have to type it in every time (not WAF friendly), especially since it is PITA to type in a long password on this clunky remote control numeric keypad (should be an option to make it remember creds).

Also large folders seem to take a long time to authenticate (painfully slow) the first time. Seems that after the first time you authenticate, then other items on that machine can be accessed at a faster rate.

And a feature request that makes this release a deal breaker is there should be an option in the file browser options to make it play files sequentially. I normally just listen to my music from folders but when you play a song in this way, once the song ends, everything stops. I wish you could tell it to just continue to the next file below it and play it next. Or sometimes when I am play home video folders, I just want it to play every file in that folder from beginning to end w/o stopping every time a file completes playback.

This whole thing seems more like ALFA to me and not even BETA.

They really need to work overtime and hone out the bugs in this quick. I work for a hardware / software company and we release builds with their own share of bugs (don't we all), but they have to be obscure bugs that most people wont notice. These kinds of issues are totally obvious.

[ojosch]

Also, am I overlooking something obvious here, but when I select 'Configure Media Center Import Directories' it then forwards you to the 'File Browser', which you can then browse your local network, find your folder to import, but how to you tell a folder to then become an imported directory? I think I have been all over the settings too, and I can't figure out how to import directories. I figured it out in extender mode, but can't see how to do it here in standalone

EDIT: Ok, I figured out how to import by hitting the 'Info' button, and it then gives the option to import a given folder

[ojosch]

Update:

When I click on a music file on the music server it literally took 3 minutes to think and authenticate, then the file played. After that, any other file on that server will play immediately. Super slow the first time.

Does anyone else have that problem?

[ojosch]

Good luck trying to enter the password while it is trying to refresh import directories...

This sucks. I wish I could plug in a keyboard, or I wish it had a backspace key on password screen for remote entry, because I've been trying to get the password correct for about 1/2 hour now and it's frustrating. I thought they said this new 200 model had a faster processor and more RAM? Well it needs more than that whatever it is

[planetc]

I know nothing about these units, but I do know that I get similar slugishness when I have any issues with network settings. Particularly if I add a machine to the network and don't update my lmhosts. It will all work, but the machine that is not listed in the lmhosts file does everything that involves inter machine communication at a super slow rate.

Try adding your HD200 ip address/name to the lmhosts file on your other boxes?

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by ojosch

Good luck trying to enter the password while it is trying to refresh import directories...

This sucks. I wish I could plug in a keyboard, or I wish it had a backspace key on password screen for remote entry, because I've been trying to get the password correct for about 1/2 hour now and it's frustrating. I thought they said this new 200 model had a faster processor and more RAM? Well it needs more than that whatever it is

The "stop" button is your backspace key. It should show you that on the onscreen display. "Pause" is the Caps shift.

Gerry

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by planetc

I know nothing about these units, but I do know that I get similar slugishness when I have any issues with network settings. Particularly if I add a machine to the network and don't update my lmhosts. It will all work, but the machine that is not listed in the lmhosts file does everything that involves inter machine communication at a super slow rate.

Try adding your HD200 ip address/name to the lmhosts file on your other boxes?

Then I would check out your network configuration. Once I add a new machine with all the proper configuration like workgroup name, users ID, gateways and whatever else the machine is available immediately. I never touch my lmhosts file. First time access for music files may be slow because it is probably reading the ID3 tags and if any album art is embeeded in them then it will be slow-first time. Afetr that it won't be an issue.

Gerry

[ojosch]

Thanks for your suggestions.

It definitely acts a lot slower in standalone mode than extender mode (to me). I may go back to my original idea I had of just running the HD200's Ethernet cable straight to my SageTV server in on the second NIC so it doesn't congest the home network (I only watch HD stuff), and let that server just be its full time proxy to all the other computers in the house with it connected to the home network through the main NIC. Because that server is really beefy with quad core 2.5gHz Xeon and 1333mHz FSB and all the goodies, so when in extender mode the HD200 seems to work pretty fast and getting data from it. I just wish they would fix it so that when in extender mode, and you reboot the server that the HD200 client can reconnect on its own without having to restart it. Make it smart enough to recover on its own when the SageTV server comes back up.

[planetc]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Then I would check out your network configuration. Once I add a new machine with all the proper configuration like workgroup name, users ID, gateways and whatever else the machine is available immediately. I never touch my lmhosts file.

Gerry

No, in my case it is meant to be that way, I have all machines on the network set to standby when idle, having computer browser active makes a couple of them keep waking so I disable it and use lmhosts.
I just figured it might help the OP