I can't get Boxee to find network sources

[seepage87]

When I go to add network sources it keeps searching and searching but never finds anything, even though I can see the shares fine in explorer. Does this happen to any of you? Any solutions?

[Irons]

Double check that your mapped drive letters are not used internally by Boxee.

[kemac]

I have not been able to figure out how to access any of my NAS shares without boxee locking up.

[Notorious J.E.W]

Instead of mapping a drive, try browsing through boxee's add network source and find the smb:// of your share. This is a safer way to get to your drive because it will never change unless you change the name of the share - but if you map a drive in windows and don't set windows to remap automatically with the same drive letter it will become a pain in the ass.

[kemac]

Thats all I am trying to do...boxee becomes non responsive up as soon as I try to browse my network or add a share just as the OP describes. I have tried this on two seperate PCs with the same result.

[Notorious J.E.W]

Ok then have you tried doing it the mapping drive route? Can you browse the network resource in regular windows?

[kemac]

I just tried the mapped drive route. I can add a source from my mapped drive however when I try to view the contents such as photos or video I get a "Failed to retrieve data" error. Local files show up fine by the way.

I have no problem accessing data on my 4 NAS devices from any of my PC or devices on my network, its only within Boxee I have an issue.

I am running Vista32 and have had this issue with all versions of Boxee I have tried, 0.9.6, 0.9.7 and 0.9.9.

I appreciate your help, thank you!

Kelly

[marcel]

can you view the files and play them via video>browse..

[kemac]

Thats when I get the I get a "Failed to retrieve data" error. When browsing for media files that are located on my network via SMB.

Also while trying to browse files on the network (Via Mapped drive) I can crash boxee pretty easily by navigating backwords. IE a traverse down a tree and when going back up a coulple levels boxee crashes.

Let me know if I can provide any additional information.

[darcilicious]

For what it's worth, I'm having the exact same issue on a newly installed Vista32 box with SP1 and latest Windows Boxee Alpha. I did not have this problem with the first Boxee Alpha version... :confused:

Without a mapped drive, Boxee just stalls when I use "Add Source / Network Sources" from Settings/Media Sources.

With a mapped drive, Boxee returns "Loading Error Failed to retrieve data".

After adding the mapped drive via Boxee, the Source Location comes up as: C:\Users\dch\AppData\Roaming\BOXEE\cache\complete (where "complete" is the name of the destination folder of the mapped drive).

Checking via Video/Browse / Add Source / Local Sources, the Source Name of the mapped drive shows up but says "Not Connected".

I can browse my network just fine via Windows Explorer.

Edit: okay, I can do this:

Video / Browse / Network and see all the computers on our network. I can browse to public folders fine and actually view videos over the network.

I can NOT go to Video / Browse / Add source / Network Sources without Boxee locking up as it searches the network.

When I go to Video / Browse / Manually Add Source/ and enter a Source Name and something like "\\computername\folder" for a publicly available folder on our network, select Video as Source Type, adn click on Add, nothing really happens. The cursor disappears, if I move the mouse again, it reappears, and I can click around the Manually Add Source page but nothing ever happens.

[seepage87]

My symptoms are exactly as darcilicious described, every single one. I use XP though, with SP3. Are there any windows users who have gotten their network shares to work properly? Did you have to do anything special? Has anyone on this tread solved the problem yet (I haven't)?

[Notorious J.E.W]

I have my network shares working great in Boxee...well ok great is the wrong word...but they show up.

I am running XP pro SP3 - I do not have these mapped as local drives, I added them by going to add network source and browsed my net for them.

Sometimes I get that error that says failure to load or whatever, but if I do it again it loads right up...

Also, this is another known issue, but when I exit boxee all shares disappear when re-entering Boxee, but in a few moments they all come back on their own.

Maybe this goes deeper than an OS issue? What are each of your computer specs? Maybe there is a specific hardware that is causing this to happen?

I am in no way a programmer, but I am a problem solver, so maybe if we can find alike hardware we can look more into that being a possible culprit.

[darcilicious]

It's possible it's hardware related... but I rather doubt it. The fact that the Windows Explorer can browse the network but Boxee cannot via two out of three Boxee methods points to a Boxee software issue...

But for what it's worth, this is the laptop where I have Boxee installed that can't get to the network for the most part:

Product Name HP dv6605us (Pavilion Laptop)
Microprocessor 1.8 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core Mobile Technology TK-55
Microprocessor Cache 512 KB L2 cache
Memory 1024 MB DDR2 (2 Dimm)
Memory Max 4096 MB
Video Graphics NVIDIA GeForce Go 7150M (UMA)
Video Memory Up to 287MB
Hard Drive 160 GB (5400 RPM) (SATA)
Multimedia Drive LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD±RW with Double Layer Support
Display 15.4" WXGA High-Definition BrightView Widescreen (1280 x 800)
Fax/Modem High speed 56k modem
Network Card Integrated 10/100BASE-T Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector)
Wireless Connectivity 802.11b/g WLAN
Sound Altec Lansing
Keyboard 101-key compatible & 2 Quick Launch Buttons- HP Quick Play Menu and DVD
Pointing Device Touch Pad with On/Off button and dedicated vertical scroll Up/Down pad
PC Card Slots

* 1 ExpressCard/54 Slot (also supports ExpressCard/34)

External Ports

* 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader for Secure Digital cards, MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, or xD Picture cards
* 3 Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0
* 2 Headphone out
* 1 microphone-in
* 1 VGA (15-pin)
* 1 TV-Out (S-video)
* 1 RJ-11 (modem)
* 1 RJ -45 (LAN)
* 1 notebook expansion port 3
* 1 IEEE 1394 Firewire (4-pin)
* 1 Consumer IR

[darcilicious]

I think I may have found the answer but others can check/try the following and post their results.

Go to Settings / Network / SMB Client
and fill out a default username and password for your primary media server (I really have two but this at least got one of them working) and update the Workgroup as needed.

(You'll need to restart boxee if you change the Workgroup Setting)

I'm not sure yet what to do about the second media server we have as it's not even on as I type this but I'll report back if I'm successful.

(also, I'm not fond of the fact that boxee will display the one's password in the clear for the smb clients it discovers on the network after doing this...)

[Ankhwatcher]

For what it's worth, I'm having the exact same issue on a newly installed Vista32 box with SP1 and latest Windows Boxee Alpha. I did not have this problem with the first Boxee Alpha version... :confused:

Without a mapped drive, Boxee just stalls when I use "Add Source / Network Sources" from Settings/Media Sources.

With a mapped drive, Boxee returns "Loading Error Failed to retrieve data".

After adding the mapped drive via Boxee, the Source Location comes up as: C:\Users\dch\AppData\Roaming\BOXEE\cache\complete (where "complete" is the name of the destination folder of the mapped drive).

Checking via Video/Browse / Add Source / Local Sources, the Source Name of the mapped drive shows up but says "Not Connected".

I can browse my network just fine via Windows Explorer.

Edit: okay, I can do this:

Video / Browse / Network and see all the computers on our network. I can browse to public folders fine and actually view videos over the network.

I can NOT go to Video / Browse / Add source / Network Sources without Boxee locking up as it searches the network.

When I go to Video / Browse / Manually Add Source/ and enter a Source Name and something like "\\computername\folder" for a publicly available folder on our network, select Video as Source Type, adn click on Add, nothing really happens. The cursor disappears, if I move the mouse again, it reappears, and I can click around the Manually Add Source page but nothing ever happens.
Exactly, to the letter what is happening on my system.
I think this might be something to do with a windows update... it used to work!

[kenw]

Hi,

Here's how I got Boxee to see my files on a network share.

My shared media is on a Windows 2003 Server.
The shared folder permissions allow EVERYONE to view the files.
I have Boxee running on Windows Vista Home Premium PC

For this example, let's say my network shared media files can be accessed from any Windows PC by using with this path

\\mymediaserver\library\mediafolder

In Boxee, I manually added the media source with these values

SOURCE NAME: My Media
SOURCE LOCATION: smb://mymediaserver/library/mediafolder

I can now access my shared media files by browsing the media source in Boxee.

I can't say that this will work for everyone, but it worked for me.
Hope this helps.

[Ankhwatcher]

Hey, I fixed this on my system:
It turns out what was upsetting boxee was the 'Nvidia First Packet' system which was running on my XFX 780i.
Once I disabled First Packet everything was hunky dory.
-ANkh