OSX + Win7 Homegroup shares = unhappy Boxee

[doctorjbeam]

I'm tearing my hair out here with this bug.

Background:

Windows 7 PC (formerly on a domain) has been moved to a homegroup.
Windows 7 PC hosts a number of network shares that worked perfectly before leaving the domain and joining the homegroup.
Boxee running on OS/X has default SMB username and password set, still prompts me for credentials when trying to connect to any SMB share on the Win7 box, but won't connect - it just prompts me again for credentials
OS/X itself can connect perfectly to the SMB share - ie, Boxee is spitting the dummy. My workaround has been to mount the SMB share in OS/X under the ~/Library/Movies folder, however when the Win7 PC goes to sleep the share vanishes and I don't know of a way to automatically reconnect, so it's not the best of solutions.

Any thoughts?

[maximusfacq]

Turn off Homegroup. Any questions? :)

[doctorjbeam]

I don't think that's an acceptable solution. As I said OS/X can connect to any homegroup share without a problem, so why does Boxee crack the sads?

[maximusfacq]

Perhaps your confusing "Workgroup" and "Homegroup." A "Homegroup" is a proprietary M$ concoction that works great on other M$ Win7 systems to share files with other Win7 computers on the given LAN. "Workgroup" is a standard networking container that can be used across multiple platforms on the same network. Once this simple principle is grasped, my first answer will make more sense, I hope. :)

Just drop your hopes of trying to get a Mac OS X machine to connect to a M$ "Homegroup" and you will be golden.

Also, with the search tool on these Forums, you will find other articles that have already covered the topic of getting Boxee to connect to Shares on Win7 machines, from other machines, with other OSes, that Boxee is installed on, on the same network.

[doctorjbeam]

Perhaps your confusing "Workgroup" and "Homegroup." A "Homegroup" is a proprietary M$ concoction that works great on other M$ Win7 systems to share files with other Win7 computers on the given LAN. "Workgroup" is a standard networking container that can be used across multiple platforms on the same network. Once this simple principle is grasped, my first answer will make more sense, I hope. :)

Just drop your hopes of trying to get a Mac OS X machine to connect to a M$ "Homegroup" and you will be golden.

I'm not getting workgroups confused with homegroups :)

I have tested this across Windows XP, 2003, FreeBSD, Ubuntu and OSX and all can connect to a homegroup-based SMB share. Boxee on OSX cannot; it simply keeps prompting for a username and password.


Also, with the search tool on these Forums, you will find other articles that have already covered the topic of getting Boxee to connect to Shares on Win7 machines, from other machines, with other OSes, that Boxee is installed on, on the same network.
I've searched high and low, both on here and off-site, and looked at this from a number of angles.

[maximusfacq]

M$ details regarding Homegroup: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee449408(WS.10).aspx

You "might" be able to see another Homegroup machine, but, it's designed for Win7 systems. The FAQs say other M$ OSes can see shared files. However, in the time I spent with Homegroup, it was a never-ending struggle that, in my opinion is not worth the time, given the diversity of devices and OSes I have here on the LAN in my home.

Again, ditch the "Homegroup," create a "WORKGROUP" and sent an account and folder up on the Win7 Machine that you want to share from so that all OSes can access the shares "securely" and you should be golden. It took me couple tries with Win7 to get things shared so that all my machines can see it. It was a good learning experience for me. It taught me what I am trying to say here. If you would rather choose to ignore/dismiss what I have said and hope someone else will answer, that's fine. That's your decision. You asked for help. I offered it.

I hope you get your issue resolved.

[doctorjbeam]

Your help is appreciated, but I don't think it's worth changing my network environment for.

Look at this from another point of view: it's too much to ask people to ditch homegroups just to make Boxee play nice; on large the type of people who are using homegroups aren't technically minded, it's sort of the point behind them -making sharing easier. They won't know how to move their network setup from homegroups to workgroups, and more to the point they won't want to.

As more and more people use Windows 7, homegroups become more commonplace, and people either get sick of WMC or buy the Boxee Box this bug will come up. Wouldn't it be nice to have it fixed well before then? :)

As I have said this is a problem with Boxee; the underlying operating systems can connect just fine. I would appreciate it if somebody from the Boxee team could at least take a look! :)

[darcilicious]

File a bug here: http://jira.boxee.tv/ and someone will look at it. Include your debug logs (http://boxee.zendesk.com/entries/136404-i-ve-been-asked-by-boxee-support-to-send-debug-logs-how-do-i-do-that) too.