A-300 Network problems?

[Vaughan]

Hi,

I'm having difficulties accessing my shared media on my network from my A-300. I have a saved share which if I try to access it the PCH says that the share no longer exists (it is accessible from my desktop at this point). When I open the Network browser on the PCH I only see a NFS entry and not the WORKGROUP entry that I'm expecting.

My setup is as follows:
A-300 connected to DD-WRT via 100Mbit LAN with a static IP.
Media share (SMB) on Win7-64 server (WORKGROUP) connected to DD-WRT via 100Mbit LAN with a static IP, set as MasterBrowser.
Desktop connect to DD-WRT via WirelessN, dynamic IP, MasterBrowser disabled.
LANScan correctly identifies the Server as the Master btw.

I've followed the Networking with Windows7 guide from the wiki, but my problem persists.
The reason that I bought the PCH is because my WDTVLive was having trouble with the network (same, not finding the shares) and I was hoping the fact that you can manually add a network share would improve things. I was clearly mistaken.

I'm really at an end here and I have no idea how to solve this problem. I really don't want to go back to having to constantly transfer things to a USB drive in order to enjoy my content.

Can someone please help me?

[halfelite]

Couple things. This is a master browser issue on your network with one machine not giving out the shares of the other machines. make sure your windows 7 master doesnt have a firewall blocking out the requests as that would be number one suspect. But you mention manually adding shares which is fine if your windows 7 is a static ip if it is. Go under setup network share click add and instead of hitting browse fill out the information with tthe remote hostname use IP, share name is sharename and user name and password that avoids needing to use master browser.

[Vaughan]

halfelite, thank you for your reply.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "one machine not giving out the shares of the other machines"?
The Server is both the master browser and the place where the share resides (and indeed has a static IP).

I've tried to manually add the share without browsing for it, but I get the same message indicating that the share no longer exists.

[halfelite]

are you adding the share using the IP address.

What I mean is the master browser controls every share on the network and sends out the workgroup list. Since you are not even getting the workgroup list it means there is an issue with it either firewall blocking the requests or something else.

[Vaughan]

Yes, I'm using the IP address of the server to add the share.
What changes can I make to the Windows Firewall to ensure that it is not blocking the requests?

Thanks for your help btw

[halfelite]

First thing I would do is reboot everything. One by one with your windows 7 machine being the first. that can bring master browser back. If you are running windows stock firewall it should not block it only things like norton secruity or mcafee and things would.

Also do the shares have a user name and password with them or are you trying to login as a guest to the share

[Vaughan]

Rebooting everything usually does work. But a day later the problem is back again. It is not really an option for reboot my server every time I want to watch some content, which is why I'm looking for a solution.

The shares have no user name and password. They are shared to Everyone with Full Control.

[halfelite]

Lets cheat then reboot everything to get master browser working. then browse to your share and hit the button to add it then go in and edit it and change host name to IP and it should work after that.

[Vaughan]

Ok, I will do that. Although, I'm afraid I'll be reporting back in a day or 2 that I'm back to square one.

Something that I have not mentioned and that just jumped to mind. My router (DD-WRT) reboots daily. Could this be what is causing the problem in the first place?

[halfelite]

yes that might do it. But if you use IP it should not matter what happens to the master then.

[Vaughan]

Ok, everything is rebooted, share is added via browse and modified to IP.
Lets see how long it lasts.

Thanks for the assistance halfelite, much appreciated!

[Vaughan]

And I'm back to square one: Share no longer exists

Any other suggestions?

[chris57]

It has to be something in your network setup rather than the players as both the media players you have tried have had the same problem.

When you say the share no longer exists what do you mean? It's no longer saved in the player?

You will have to get into more detail on what your settings are in your network and how your network is setup. Moving to Network Section where hopefully you'll find some more tailored advice after you post more details i'd also do a double check as i had something as stupid as a wrong subnet address that caused me issues for ages until i found it.

[Vaughan]

Chris, thanks for your reply.

Share no longer exists: The entry (Media) is still in the list but when I try to access it I get a message popping up saying that the share no longer exists. At this point the Workgroup entry is also not present in the Network Browser.

What are the kind of details that I could provide that would help (potentially) solve the problem?

Server: (static)
IP: 192.168.0.150
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.0.1

Router: Linksys E1000 DD-WRT
IP: 192.168.0.1
LAN Subnet: 255.255.255.0
DHCP Range: 192.168.0.101-148

PCH: (static)
IP: 192.168.0.160
Subnet: 255.255.255.0
Gateway: 192.168.0.1

[accident]

do you have 2 dns servers listed in the pch? there are some bugs that appear when there is only one. you can use the same dns server twice to get around them if your house setup only uses 1.