shared folders - vista

[garfieldbd]

I'm hoping someone can walk me through this setup.

I'm running Vista. The boxee is connected to a linksys E1000 router with an ethernet cable. No problem connecting to the internet. I can stream vevo and youtube (haven't spent much time on anything else). What I really want to do is stream media from my computer to the boxee, but for the life of me can't pick up the shared folders through the boxee.

I believe I have everything set up correctly on the PC end.

So what is the correct way to proceed? I think I go to Settings/File Sources/ . The only folder I see if "UPnP Media Servers (Auto-...)" and is shows disconnected in red beside it. If I select "Add Sources", I see a list of a bunch of folders

GARFIELD (Samba)
BOXEEBOX / Media (Samba)
BOXEEBOX (Samba)
BRYLAP013 (Samba)
UPnP
Manually Enter IP / Name....


"GARFIELD" is the name I've assigned to my router. When I click on it, it runs for about 5 seconds and I get "Error Connection Timed Out". I get the same for BOXEEBOX / Media.
BRYLAP013 is my work laptop. I tried scanning it, but nothing turns up (which is to be expected because I don't have folder sharing enabled).
If I select UPnP, I get "Error No Files found at source".
Of course, if I select Manually Enter IP, I'm prompted to enter Host Name/IP, Username and Password.

So the million dollar question: If I want to access shared folders on my PC, how do I go about doing it? Do I go through "Manually Enter IP", what is the Host Name / IP, username and password (in other words, where to I look on my PC to find this info)? I thought selecting GARFIELD would have resulted in something.... but all I get is the error.

Also, I'm not sure what Samba means. Could this be the problem?

Any assistance would be appreciated.

[Alphabase]

Hi ya,

I had the same problem more or less. Now I'm happy. What you should do is on the pc where your media is, for each folder you want to share, right click and go into properties, then go into the share settings. Add the 'everyone' user and save the changes. If you have a lot of media it may take a minute to sort out. When next you look at boxee you should see the name of the folder you shared with samba beside it. Click on that and your files should be there. Favorite it and it will show up on the files menu which makes it a bit easier to access in the future.

[darcilicious]

There are some Boxee Box issues with connecting to other computers on various users' networks (not everyone has problems but ceratainly too many do).

You're going about it basically the right way: Settings>>Local Sources>>Add Sources

But you're not seeing the Vista computer in the list, correct? What is the name of the Vista computer and have you set it up to share any folders?

If not, you need to go on the Vista PC, navigate to the folder(s) you want Boxee to be able to use and "Share" them from Windows Explorer.

I'm not sure of all the gory details but this page might help:
http://www.vista4beginners.com/share-files-and-folders

Or search for other tutorials via Google by searching on:
how to share files on vista

Once you've told Vista what files are to be shared on your network, you can go back to the Boxee Box and try adding them as Local Sources.

[ingoldsby]

Hi ya,

I had the same problem more or less. Now I'm happy. What you should do is on the pc where your media is, for each folder you want to share, right click and go into properties, then go into the share settings. Add the 'everyone' user and save the changes. If you have a lot of media it may take a minute to sort out. When next you look at boxee you should see the name of the folder you shared with samba beside it. Click on that and your files should be there. Favorite it and it will show up on the files menu which makes it a bit easier to access in the future.

Also I want to add if you have windows live essentials 2011 installed it will not be able to connect - this kept me from accessing my files for 2 days :)

[garfieldbd]

There are some Boxee Box issues with connecting to other computers on various users' networks (not everyone has problems but ceratainly too many do).

You're going about it basically the right way: Settings>>Local Sources>>Add Sources

But you're not seeing the Vista computer in the list, correct? What is the name of the Vista computer and have you set it up to share any folders?

If not, you need to go on the Vista PC, navigate to the folder(s) you want Boxee to be able to use and "Share" them from Windows Explorer.

I'm not sure of all the gory details but this page might help:
http://www.vista4beginners.com/share-files-and-folders

Or search for other tutorials via Google by searching on:
how to share files on vista

Once you've told Vista what files are to be shared on your network, you can go back to the Boxee Box and try adding them as Local Sources.

That's actually the exact page I went through yesterday.

So when I go to add source, I can see GARFIELD and my laptop. GARFIELD is the name assigned to my router. When I scan it, it times out (after about 5 seconds). I've shut down the firewall (windows firewall and the firewall on my router) and no difference.

Dumb question..... do I need to install Samba on my PC?

[darcilicious]

You don't want to add GARFIELD as it is a router and doesn't have any shared folders on it.

Please answer these questions:
What is the name of your Vista PC?
Is this the same as your "laptop"?
On your Vista computer, what folders did you share exactly?

No, you don't need to install Samba, it's built-in.

Try power cycling your Boxee Box and see if Vist PC name shows up after that.

[jmk_428]

Boxee is in for a mess of trouble dealing with people with limited computer knowledge trying to share files (such as the case here). Boxee might want to think about a runtime for Vista/7 which sets up shares properly on the computers as I expect most of the share issues are Vista/7 issues and not Boxee ones...


To the OP, go to Windows 7. Vista is just terrible at doing many things. MS spent a lot of time cleaning up the sharing in Windows 7.

[garfieldbd]

To the OP, go to Windows 7. Vista is just terrible at doing many things. MS spent a lot of time cleaning up the sharing in Windows 7.

I had considered that. I think I'll go ahead and upgrade. I really should have upgraded a while ago, but never seemed to get around to it. I'm starting to feel like the odd man out here running Vista.