Connecting to SMB Servers with Extender HD200: invalid directory

[gplasky]

Hmmm. My workgroup is Plaskyville which I had no problem entering in the HD-200 and which continues to show up. I'm running WHS on the server.

Gerry

[jcaesar625]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Yes. Configure the Workgroup name in the settings.

Gerry

That is what I did, and was trying to explain that it still reads "Network Workgroup;" when you go to the browse page.

[jcaesar625]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Hmmm. My workgroup is Plaskyville which I had no problem entering in the HD-200 and which continues to show up. I'm running WHS on the server.

Gerry

Does it show up as Plaskyville on the page you are browsing the network? Or just does it show up in the settings as Plaskyville? Mine it just shows up in the settings as what I named it, and not when I actually go to browse it. I have unplugged it to fully reboot it, and I have also reflashed it. Still no luck.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by jcaesar625

Does it show up as Plaskyville on the page you are browsing the network? Or just does it show up in the settings as Plaskyville? Mine it just shows up in the settings as what I named it, and not when I actually go to browse it. I have unplugged it to fully reboot it, and I have also reflashed it. Still no luck.

Yep. When I browse it, Plaskyville shows on the network.

Gerry

[ojosch]

Well, I unplugged the HD200 for a day, and now after plugging it in, if I'm in Extender mode only, I can browse network shares (the shares that the SageTV server sees), so I CAN see and use SMB shares on my Linux webserver and on another XP box (the only 2 I tested) but only from there. Whereas before, I couldn't even do that.

The only problem is that STILL, while in standalone mode I STILL can't browse any shares. It just says " INVALID DIRECTORY " like it always had. I can see the share names of each other machine on my LAN, but cannot access anything inside those shares.

Does this extra info offer any more clues as to why I can't connect?

[smoothtlk]

I am having same issues of "Invalid directory"
Specs:

Media (Video / Music / Photos) store on Windows Home Server on unmanaged drives (so far) on discrete drive names.

Security on all drive roots set to Guest and Everyone access to do anything.

Latest beta firmware on HD200

Latest beta software on SageTV server (that is running WHS version on WHS OS)

HD200 setup with my LAN's network name and static IP addressing that seems to be working fine. From my Windows PCs, I see the HD200 on the LAN in Explorer within the Microsoft Windows Netork under the chosen network name.

I have rebooted (including a hard reboot hitting the Delete key on the remote during boot) and then reset all network settings.

No Windows PCs have trouble seeing these directories.

Within the HD200 UI, I can see the media under UPnP, but get Invalid directory when trying to manually map network directories (auto turned off).

Probably unrelated, but I am also having the trouble that the IR remote can't turn the HD200 on...I have to pull the power to the HD200 for it to boot.

I have an HD100 and didn't have these types of issues. I have the HD200 plugged into the HD100 location and network drop. Maybe I should replug the HD100 in to see if that still has no problems with all the permissions I have reset on file shares to try to fix the HD200 issues.

Not sure what else to try....I assume it is a security issue, but I think I have opened all up....I have the TCP and UDP ports open on the WHS firewall.

Ideas? When is the user id / password firmware going to be released (something else to try)?

[jcaesar625]

I ahve not determined it just isn't a problem with windows shares. I intalled a Buffalo NAS that is Linux based. I can see the share, but gives me "Invalid Directory" when I click on the share. I am extremely frustrated with this device. Besides all the Directory problems I having with it, it constantly locks up on me. I am ready to send it back.

[smoothtlk]

Ah geesss.
In going thru setups again to try to get access to my media, I finally hit my server name in the connection menu and walllaaa the device rebooted, began a setup wizard...I now have a MediaCenter choice and all my movies were there.

I had previously selected auto connect.

So, this issue must be tied to the non ability to start the HD200 using the IR remote (I have had to pull the HD200 power to start it). Evidently, when doing a hard start with the power cord, the HD200 doesn't auto connect to my WHS SageTV server.

I also now see LiveTV option that was missing before....

I must have been in the "stand alone" mode all this time.

So, a bug in the firmware and some missing steps in the documentation.

[Narflex]

ANY of you that are having problems like this PLEASE file a bug report with us. We've tried this on a lot of networks with lots of different devices and are not able to reproduce the problems you're seeing. We'd very much like to fix them; but need some more data back on these specific problems.

http://sagetv.com/bugs.html

And the 1212 beta firmware already has the password protected share access in it. If there's any authorization errors during network navigation it will prompt you for a username/password. (there is a bug where if you enter the wrong username/password that it won't work correctly if you try again....just click 'No' if you see the dialog a second time and then back out of the menu and go into it again...we will be fixing this of course)

[richgnoe]

I am having the same problem with my readynas server. I will be off tomorrow and will send in details troubleshooting logs as a bug report. I am also having problems with turning the system on and off with the remote.

[hb4]

This is probably obvious to everyone that posted, but when I placed the HD-200's IP address in the firewall trusted zone in Zonealarm, voila!

[scott2020]

I set the Workgroup to my Windows 2000 domain and when I browse it still tells me invalid directory. Not sure what I am doing wrong.

[Madz]

This workgroup that everyone is setting - is that the one related to the SMB server built into the HD200 - ie this option is only visible if you have "enabled" the Windows server? If so I imagine this is relevant only for sharing any drives etc attached to the HD200 and is not relevant for the HD200 accessing other PCs on the network??

[scott2020]

Originally Posted by Madz

This workgroup that everyone is setting - is that the one related to the SMB server built into the HD200 - ie this option is only visible if you have "enabled" the Windows server? If so I imagine this is relevant only for sharing any drives etc attached to the HD200 and is not relevant for the HD200 accessing other PCs on the network??

I have the same question. The way it looks to me, that is the only place to set the "workgroup" setting after turning on the file sharing on the HD200. I have no desire to enable file sharing on the HD200, and I don't know what there would be to share from the HD200 anyway. The way it is worded looks like you want to enable the HD200 to share what it has to other clients. At any rate, turning this on and rebooting it did not show my network. It still says "Workgroups" when I browse for files.

Scott

[Madz]

My HD200 won't show any shares (http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38063) so I can't try this, but can anyone confirm whether this workgroup setting has any effect on what computers/shares show up in the browse network screen - ie whether it shows all shares on the network regardless of whether they are in the same workgroup as this setting. Thanks

[ltljrt]

I was having a miserable time finding my WinXP-Pro shares (with simple file sharing disabled) as well along with the invalid directory problem.

I upgraded to the latest beta and verified other pcs could see the shares. After reading this thread, I then enabled the 'windows file server' option and was then able to see my domain and authenticate into the volumes.

It did take me a minute to realize the pause button toggled case as authentication is case sensitive. But finally am able to see my share volumes/files now.

As I could then not find how to create the import directories, I thought I'd mention that once you can see the shares, press the 'info' button on the remote to be able to create import directories for them.

[bc_can]

Madz, the HD200 server workgroup setting has no effect on computer/shares showing up.

My HD200 initially showed my workgroup and shares but the shares disappeared after a reboot. Power cycling the HD200 would not return the shares. Two XP Pro SP2 and one Win2000 SP4 simple file sharing enabled. I can ping all the PCs from the HD200. My XP shares gave me the "invalid directory" error anyway but I could browse the Win2000 share contents okay.

Here is a trick I used to get my HD200 to show my shares again. I powered off the HD200 for an hour. I changed the workgroup name on my networked PCs. to a new name. Powered on the HD200. Now had two workgroups listed under "network workgroups". Browsing the new workgroup now contained the shares. XP share "invalid" but Win2000 share okay so I quickly mapped the import path to it.

Running "netstat" on the HD200 shows the connection state as "established" to the Win2000 PC only.

For completeness I went through the steps again changing the PC workgroup names back to original. No shares show in workgroup folder but the import from Win2000 PC still works!

I wish there was a way to enter a UNC path to a share on the HD200.

[bc_can]

Update. Running the latest beta and still no joy getting network shares to show up. Started with "invalid", then lost workgroup members after an HD200 reboot. Tried a few firmware versions and now even workgroup itself stayed blank and would not populate.

Yesterday I had to reboot my SageTV Media Center PC after some maintenance and suddenly all my shares appeared on the HD200.

[Narflex]

bc_can,

Can you submit a bug report next time it happens? http://sagetv.com/bugs.html

Thanks

[bc_can]

Any progress on being able to enter an explicit Server\Share entry as mentioned in this thread.
"We also are going to add an explicity Server\Share entry option as well soon."

http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/show...hlight=invalid