Tips for network shares with Boxee

[Ronald]

I'm hooked up to these 2 network sources Via SMB and it's all working well.

That says it all really.
If it's already working well, and you have no strong reason to change it, then why risk messing it up ?

I am a complete networking noob and only know the basic differences between these.

All the more reason to not mess with something that works well for you as-is.

But as a lay-man I look at this and think to myself "Since my network hardware and computers are all Mac shouldn't I use AFP?"

Not necessarily.

The only thing of importance here is that it works well for you.
And since your current setup does that, I wouldn't change it.

NB: 'Brand loyalty' is mostly something that only benefits the manufacturer.

Best regards: Ronald

[tuffryder]

About two weeks ago I bought a NAS driver to store and share media content. In the beginning everything worked fine. The BB found the NAS driver without any problems and also successfully scanned and identified my files so that I could access them through the ´shows´ and ´movies´menu.

About a week ago the BB lost all of my indexed files. I did a rescan and the BB says that it´s scanning the selected folders on the NAS driver but nothing happens. Not a single movie or show have been scanned or identified.

I´ve tried to leave the BB on for about 36 hours and not use it. I´ve tried to remove the media source and add it again (left it alone for a full 24 hours after that) but still the BB won´t find any files.

I can access all of my files through the ´files´ menu and everything plays just fine but I really enjoyed all of the functions that came with the scanning and identifying.

Any suggestions?

//Tuff

[reload69]

Hello I had started my own thread for this but no one replied so i have moved it here in hopes someone can help. I am using windows Vista and struggling getting my network working again. I was able to send files from my pc's to my boxee box which has and external hard drive connected it. Both my Pc's and boxee were accessible on the network. Now The boxee is not showing up any longer. I am able to play files from my external hard drive using boxee. I am able to access both pc's with SMB using the boxee to view shared folders on my Pc's but i am for some reason no longer able to see the boxee in the network on either Pc's so i can drop files into the boxee external hard drive. I have done reboots on everything still no luck. Also in boxee setting i select the network wizard and it tell me i am connected but still can't find the boxee. Any ideas

[Ronald]

Hello I had started my own thread for this but no one replied so i have moved it here in hopes someone can help. I am using windows Vista and struggling getting my network working again. I was able to send files from my pc's to my boxee box which has and external hard drive connected it. Both my Pc's and boxee were accessible on the network. Now The boxee is not showing up any longer. I am able to play files from my external hard drive using boxee. I am able to access both pc's with SMB using the boxee to view shared folders on my Pc's but i am for some reason no longer able to see the boxee in the network on either Pc's so i can drop files into the boxee external hard drive. I have done reboots on everything still no luck. Also in boxee setting i select the network wizard and it tell me i am connected but still can't find the boxee. Any ideas

It's possible that you have somehow lost the Boxee settings that control the SMB sharing of its local HDD.

For this you should check the submenu:
Settings > Network > Servers

That submenu also controls some other stuff but three of its settings are specific to your current needs. And they occur in the following order:

1: Enable Windows file sharing
This option must be enabled (tick in the circle for it) to make it work right.

2: - Share Password
This should be left blank, as the username is fixed as "Guest", as is proper for anonymous access (so no password is needed).

3: - Share Workgroup
This must be set to the same workgroup name as is used by the PCs in your LAN. It should thus be the same as the workgroup name also defined in your Boxee SMB client settings (In submenu: Settings > Network > SMB Client). The default name used by Windows if you never changed it is "WORKGROUP".

Best regards: Ronald

[reload69]

Thank you for the reply. I Checked all the setting you suggested they were all still there and are the same as you recommended. still no luck.

Update.

Okay once again i don't understand but it worked. I Had removed the hard drive from my boxee and connected it to the cisco router which supports hard drives as NAS. I can now see the hard drive on the network in my pc. Shortly after my Boxee showed up on the Network and i am able to access the SD card i recently placed in the boxee. This is all i did and i don't know why it worked but it does. However i still would like to connect a hard drive to my boxee.

[Ronald]

Thank you for the reply. I Checked all the setting you suggested they were all still there and are the same as you recommended. still no luck.

Update.

Okay once again i don't understand but it worked. I Had removed the hard drive from my boxee and connected it to the cisco router which supports hard drives as NAS. I can now see the hard drive on the network in my pc. Shortly after my Boxee showed up on the Network and i am able to access the SD card i recently placed in the boxee. This is all i did and i don't know why it worked but it does. However i still would like to connect a hard drive to my boxee.

Well, the networking methods for sharing contents of an SD card are identical to those used for sharing contents of an HDD, so the network settings must be not only correct (as you verified by inspection) but are also working correctly with your Boxee Box (which was in doubt).

The big question then is why it was unable to share the contents of the HDD in the same way, and perhaps you'd better test that again to make sure that it still is the case. After all, one crucial thing has changed now, as you are able to see the Boxee Box on the network and access the SD card from its drive list. So I would definitely reconnect the USB HDD to the Boxee again, to see what happens. All alternatives are of interest to clarify the situation, such as:

Will the HDD now appear in the Boxee Box drive list seen over network, next to the SD card ?

Or will the Boxee Box now again disappear from the network ?

Or will it remain but still only with the SD card visible ?

In the first case all is well, obviously.

In the second case, something is fundamentally wrong, as even a faulty drive should not kill the SMB server.

In the third case, something seems to be wrong with the contents of the drive, preventing proper sharing. (Weird file access permissions set in Windows or some other PC OS...?)

So connecting that HDD to the Boxee Box again should be the next step in investigating the problem.

Best regards: Ronald

[reload69]

THanks for the reply. I will try a different External hard drive to connect to the boxee this weekend and post the results As I'm afraid to disconnect the previous one i used since everything is working.

[timmins]

It's possible that you have somehow lost the Boxee settings that control the SMB sharing of its local HDD.

For this you should check the submenu:
Settings > Network > Servers

That submenu also controls some other stuff but three of its settings are specific to your current needs. And they occur in the following order:

1: Enable Windows file sharing
This option must be enabled (tick in the circle for it) to make it work right.

2: - Share Password
This should be left blank, as the username is fixed as "Guest", as is proper for anonymous access (so no password is needed).

3: - Share Workgroup
This must be set to the same workgroup name as is used by the PCs in your LAN. It should thus be the same as the workgroup name also defined in your Boxee SMB client settings (In submenu: Settings > Network > SMB Client). The default name used by Windows if you never changed it is "WORKGROUP".

Best regards: Ronald

I'm using windows 7 and I'm using workgroup for my network. It named MSHOME because I'm sharing with a XP machine. My question: In step 3, you mentioned workgroup twice. In my boxee settings the first mention I have WORKGROUP in it's place and the second I have MSHOME. Should they both be MSHOME.

--
After re-reading this post again, it didn't make sense to be named WORKGROUP, I renamed it to MSHOME and it worked.

[Ronald]

After re-reading this post again, it didn't make sense to be named WORKGROUP, I renamed it to MSHOME and it worked.

As you've already noticed that was the right thing to do.

There are two workgroup entries in the Boxee settings because one of them is for the SMB server of Boxee (for sharing local USB drive contents to your PCs), and the other is for the SMB client of Boxee (for letting Boxee access contents of your PCs). Both those workgroup entries should normally match the workgroup setting of your PCs, which in your case is MSHOME.

The only reason why I mentioned the string value "WORKGROUP" is because that is the default name in all Windows OS, when the user hasn't configured any other workgroup name.

Best regards: Ronald

[madchic143]

The Boxee Box is one of the best devices on the market to stream video to your TV, however there are many different ways to enhance your experience about that. You can use Boxee Box in different tricks are:
1.Use Boxee Box As File Server.
2.Use Your iPhone/iTouch As a Remote.
3.Share Videos on Facebook and Twitter.
4.Add Additional Apps.
5.Boxee Bookmarklet.