Tips for network shares with Boxee

[Flashbax]

Hey Guys, hoping for some help. I am running the most current version of boxee box firmware (which I was hoping would solve this issue). With out fail the boxee box will drop my wireless connection to my WHS every 15 mins or so during video playback. I continue to get this error intermittently " Loading error - Could not access file, directory or device. " This is extremely frustrating, is anyone else having this issue and if so were you able to fix it? At first I thought this might be a MAC issue as I had SMB network shares on my macbook and had this problem, I have switched to a HP MediaSmart server running windows home server OS with SMB and continue to get this error.

- Running Current boxee Software
- WHS V3 - HP MediaSmart ex490
- Belkin wireless N+ Router
- I can see my shares and Boxee Box has no issue scraping the data.
- I have two WDTV Live's in the house which do not have connection issues to the same shares.
- Not a HD Spindown issue.
- Tried Fatory reset just in case, same thing.

Out of ideas and would love some input. Thanks in advance.

[omniw0lf]

hi -

please remove all of the sources you have already added. go to the files section, then go to network, and let me know if 1) your PCs show up there, and 2) if your shares show up from the PCs

1) PCs didn't show up
2) no PCs -> no shares

also, you may have to enable netbios on the desktop/laptop, or try using the IP address instead of the hostname (though that has other issues).

netbios was set to default, and as i could ping both computers from each other using hostnames i assume this is working. i didn't try adding the share via IP, but keep reading..

just because a share can be added in the manual section doesn't mean we see it. it just means that the format of what you added was ok, and that when we do the scan we'll try to make sense of it. this is the double edged sword of the manual entry for shares - sometimes it lets you bypass all of the discovery and get something to work, but many times it's ignoring the actual problem.

ah ok, makes sense. so i guess if i want that warm feelng inside i need the boxee to find my shares on it's own.
so, i kept playing with my network, i turned NetBIOS on explicitely, i turned public folder sharing on and off, rebooted the laptop a couple of times, nothing seemed to work. then i got fed up with playing on the PC, so i turned to the BB. i went in the network settings and ran the network connection wizard again, but as i'm connected via cable it just sat there for a few secs then completed successfully. i then noticed under the heading "windows file sharing" was turned off, so i turned it back on. as these things have a habit of needing a reboot, i rebooted the BB, and low and behold when i went into file sources, my shares were there! i chose one, and it scanned and seemed perfect! i thought i would try and replicate it to see if i could break it and fix it again, so i:
1) disabled the windows file sharing
2) restarted BB
3) confirmed my shares weren't listed
4) enabled windows file sharing
5) restarted BB
6) my shares still weren't listed!
7) ran the network connection wizard again
8) my shares were there!

i then rebooted the BB, checked the network sources, they were all disconnected. i ran the network connection wizard, and a minute or 2 later the network shares were connected again!

for me, to fix the Disconnected problem all i have to do is run the Network Connection Wizard in the Network settings screen

this still isn't perfect, as i seem to have to run it everytime i start the BB [edit] it seems to revert to "Disconnected" even without restarting the BB sometimes. running the wizard fixes it tho [/edit], but it's a big step forward.

having had all this great news, the BB crashed on me twice while doing this investigation. once while it was just sitting there in the file sources screen in the scanning state, and then once again when i was browsing my local Shows (not thru the files interface)

[daver77]

Known issues

* After a while, shares that have been added and working will eventually show as disconnected
-- Fixed with 1.0.1.16319

I just got this issue using 1.0.1.16319, I had to reboot my Win7 PC before BB could see my shares.

[soulsailor]

So, I wonder if anyone can help me...

I'v just picked up a Boxee Box a couple of days ago with the primary usage being to stream my local media from my Freecom NetDrivePro NAS.

I seem to have to attached a source via either IP address, but when it scans, although it says its scanned the source, from the stats its only scanned a small percentage, and it only seems to be retrieving a handful of podcasts, not 100's of albums etc. I also have the same issue that other people have reported re: "Disconnection" before it starts to scan, when you add a share by Name.

This is so frustrating, I was hoping the new update would fix things but its not helped at all.

Has anyone got the Boxee Box working effectively from a NAS rather than a PC/Mac ?

It really shouldn't be this difficult, should it? Ideas?

[amert20]

So, I wonder if anyone can help me...

I'v just picked up a Boxee Box a couple of days ago with the primary usage being to stream my local media from my Freecom NetDrivePro NAS.

I seem to have to attached a source via either IP address, but when it scans, although it says its scanned the source, from the stats its only scanned a small percentage, and it only seems to be retrieving a handful of podcasts, not 100's of albums etc. I also have the same issue that other people have reported re: "Disconnection" before it starts to scan, when you add a share by Name.

This is so frustrating, I was hoping the new update would fix things but its not helped at all.

Has anyone got the Boxee Box working effectively from a NAS rather than a PC/Mac ?

It really shouldn't be this difficult, should it? Ideas?

I can stream videos, movies and pictures from NAS and the external USB drives attached to the NAS without any problem. My issue I can not get Windows 7 share working. BB sees the shared windows folder but can not go into the folders.

[Sadres]

...*Sigh* And suddenly Boxee can't see my shares again. I turned on Boxee one day when my computer was off, and it didn't like that one bit. Now it refuses to see my computer on the network, and I need to manually resolve with IP address --- except even when I do that, instant disconnect.

This is beyond irritating.

[gmd024]

I've seen others mention that simply rebooting their PC got the shares back -- maybe even a power cycling of the devices on the network - BBox, PC, Router - then back on in reverse order

[Sadres]

I've seen others mention that simply rebooting their PC got the shares back -- maybe even a power cycling of the devices on the network - BBox, PC, Router - then back on in reverse order

Sure enough. It didn't work the first time, but the second time it did.

[gmd024]

Sure enough. It didn't work the first time, but the second time it did.

Glad to hear your shares are back

Exactly what did work -- the PC reboot -- or the power cycle, in the correct order

[Entity]

Glad to hear your shares are back

Exactly what did work -- the PC reboot -- or the power cycle, in the correct order

Turn off the BB, restart PC, turn BB back on, always works for me.