No SMB sources found on PC

[kneudorf]

With BB, I can see the shared folders on my Win 7 PC using UPnP, BB scans the folders, finds 120 files but, then doesn't identify them... Manually identifying TV shows proves unsuccessful.

I understand that SMB sources are prefered however, I don't see any on my PC through BB.

I was under the impression that this problem of SMB sources not found on PC was due to Windows Live Essentials however, I thought SP3 was supposed to address this issue (http://jira.boxee.tv/browse/BOXEE-7074) but, now I'm starting to think I have a different issue as I can't even see SMB shares on my PC. I can see SMB shares on the USB drive that I have connected to BB and I can see an SMB source on my printer but, nothing on my PC.

I have SP3 (the one posted before it was pulled) installed.

Any suggestions?

[kneudorf]

With BB, I can see the shared folders on my Win 7 PC using UPnP, BB scans the folders, finds 120 files but, then doesn't identify them... Manually identifying TV shows proves unsuccessful.

I understand that SMB sources are prefered however, I don't see any on my PC through BB.

I was under the impression that this problem of SMB sources not found on PC was due to Windows Live Essentials however, I thought SP3 was supposed to address this issue (http://jira.boxee.tv/browse/BOXEE-7074) but, now I'm starting to think I have a different issue as I can't even see SMB shares on my PC. I can see SMB shares on the USB drive that I have connected to BB and I can see an SMB source on my printer but, nothing on my PC.

I have SP3 (the one posted before it was pulled) installed.

Any suggestions?

no responses in 2 days? I feel like an island. I guess I must be the only one with this issue?

I've also been following this thread http://forums.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=21952 as it seems somewhat related.

This whole business of SMB shares shows me how little I know about networking. BB is supposed to be a consumer device but, I feel like one has to be a network guru to make the device work as expected.

I like the BB and because I have such a small library of local content, it's not a big deal to navigate through the files function and pick the show I want to watch from the shared drive but, it would be nice if my wife and kids could use the BB as designed.

[Prospero424]

Have you gone through the "Tips for networks shares" sticky at the top of this forum?

Yeah, local file sharing is still a bit of a bear for most non-technical users. Microsoft has tried to address some of the issues with their new "Homegroup" strategy, but so far few third parties seem interested in actually using it, probably for technical reasons.

So for now, we're stuck with SMB, which is still a bit buggy under Windows 7, even though it's better than it was in the past. The problems come in when permissions and software firewalls and network segmentation (multiple access points/routers) enter the picture.

I'd say the first thing you should try after reading that thread I linked to above is to remove all of your shares on your Windows machine and recreate them from scratch, making sure that you add "Everyone" as a user and give it read access.

[Luterin]

SMB is an old and pretty bad way of filesharing, and it has lots of flaws. Especially the masterbrowser can often mess visibility of the shares up in a network when you have more than one computer/device browsing the shares and that are turned on/off often.

This is not really a Boxee issue, it's a Samba issue, and sadly a very common one.

[kneudorf]

So I thought I'd leave this whole thing alone until the official release of SP3 and cross my fingers that it would magically fix all of my problems. Yesterday my box was updated to the current firmware (1.0.3.17064) and it seems that crossing my fingers didn't work. So, I still can't see SMB shares on my PC. Based on what I've learned from the forums where others have experienced similar problems, here's what I've done since then:

1) Read all of the sticky's (including Dan Conti's Tips for Network Shares)
2) Read every post with any reference at all to SMB or Samba
3) Uninstalled Windows Live Essentials 2011 and rebooted PC
4) Installed Windows Live Essentials 2009 and rebooted PC (I need Windows Live Mail)
5) Uninstalled Windows Live Sign-In Assistant and rebooted PC
6) Turned off Windows Firewall and disabled it in Services and rebooted PC
7) Removed Sources from the BB, turned off BB
8) Renamed all of my files according to the recommended format
9) On my PC, I removed all shares and then re-shared the directory where my TV shows are located (shared with Everyone)
10) Turned on BB expecting to see Samba shares.

No such luck

All I see for sources are my Epson Printer (that apparently has a SAMBA share), the USB thumb drive I have plugged in to the BB, UPnP, and Manually Enter IP/Name...

I don't even know what I'm suppose to see... Should I be able to see something that says Samba?

On a related? note, from my PC I can't see the USB stick that is connected to my BB. All of the files on my BB are successfully showing in the "Shows"

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[darcilicious]

I don't even know what I'm suppose to see... Should I be able to see something that says Samba?

Ugh, I don't see anything that you've overlooked. And yeah, when you're in Local Sources and use the Add button, you should basically be able to brows your network and computers that have shares should show in the list... Kind of like this but only in a Boxee Box UI/screen (this is from Windows):



Those are all computers with their shared folders showing...

[hook3m]

With BB, I can see the shared folders on my Win 7 PC using UPnP, BB scans the folders, finds 120 files but, then doesn't identify them... Manually identifying TV shows proves unsuccessful.

I understand that SMB sources are prefered however, I don't see any on my PC through BB.

I was under the impression that this problem of SMB sources not found on PC was due to Windows Live Essentials however, I thought SP3 was supposed to address this issue (http://jira.boxee.tv/browse/BOXEE-7074) but, now I'm starting to think I have a different issue as I can't even see SMB shares on my PC. I can see SMB shares on the USB drive that I have connected to BB and I can see an SMB source on my printer but, nothing on my PC.

I have SP3 (the one posted before it was pulled) installed.

Any suggestions?

Do you have Windows Live installed on your Windows 7 PC? If so uninstall it. There is an issue with Windows Live and SMB shares.

[Prospero424]

There's almost surely still something wrong with the way your Windows 7 machine is configured on your network. It's just a matter of finding out what it is.

At this point, you should try a few things:

1. Make sure NetBIOS is enabled on your network adapter

2. Check that the Workgroup name you've assigned in Windows matches the Workgroup name given the Boxee Box. If both just use the name "WORKGROUP", try changing it to something else on both.

3. Try entering the IP address of your Win 7 machine in Boxee and try to connect to it manually that way. Here's how to find out what the address is.

In that order...

[kneudorf]

There's almost surely still something wrong with the way your Windows 7 machine is configured on your network. It's just a matter of finding out what it is.

At this point, you should try a few things:

1. Make sure NetBIOS is enabled on your network adapter

2. Check that the Workgroup name you've assigned in Windows matches the Workgroup name given the Boxee Box. If both just use the name "WORKGROUP", try changing it to something else on both.

3. Try entering the IP address of your Win 7 machine in Boxee and try to connect to it manually that way. Here's how to find out what the address is.

In that order...

Enabled NetBios as advised

Renamed the workgroup name from WORKGROUP to HOME on both my PC and BB

I could not establish a connection to the PC at all after that. So, I changed the workgroup name back to WORKGROUP, rebooted both PC and BB and the connection between the two was restored. However, I still don't see any SAMBA shares.

BTW, Darcilicious, the screen shots were very helpful! Thank you.

I then tried to connect manually to my PC by keying in my IP address (192.168.0.100) and I receive an Error - Connection Timed out. Tried this both with and without Username and Password of Administrative User

I am able to view video's through the Files option but, they don't show up under shows and aren't identified.

I'm really stumped. Are there any connection diagnostics I can run?

[Prospero424]

I am able to view video's through the Files option but, they don't show up under shows and aren't identified.

Wait. If you can browse your media over the network through the "Files" menu, then you ARE seeing seeing Samba shares unless you're going through UPnP. When you go to the "Files" menu to browse your files, what are you clicking on to get to your media?

If you can browse to it through "Files", you should be able to browse to it in the "Add Sources" dialog.

As for the "Error - Connection Timed out" message: you're either typing in the wrong address, there's still a network segmentation issue, or the connection is being blocked by some security software on your PC.