HD200 on LAN w/Windows Domain

[Diego Garcia]

I have an HD200, w/the latest firmware as of late July 2009, that is connected to my home LAN, on which I have a Windows domain running. There is also a Linux-based machine attached to the network.

1) When I go to browse folders, I can drill down into the domain (it's the only folder that shows up on the top level view of folders) and see the individual computers registered with the domain. But when I try to drill into any Windows machine I get bounced back with a request for a user ID and password...which is to be expected.

My problem is, I can't seem to get the user ID and password to be recognized. I don't know if that's a problem with the password being case-sensitive under Windows -- and me not knowing how to issue lower-case letters using the HD200 remote -- or whether it's due to me not being able to prefix the user ID with the proper domain name (because I don't see how to issue a '\' or '/' character using the remote).


2) When I drill down into a publicly-shared (via Samba) share on the Linux machine I don't get prompted for a user ID and password, which makes sense in that the share is, by design, wide-open. I can even see the MP3 file I'm trying to play. But when I select it, and tell the HD200 to play it, it fails with an error message about the file no longer being on disk. That even happens if I go in and set the file permissions to 777 (i.e., anyone can do anything they want to the file).

I'd welcome suggestions on how to work around these issues so I can play stuff over the extender. Ideally, I'd like to be able to access Windows shares, since all but one of my machines are Windows-based and part of the Windows domain. But if the only solution is to put the stuff I want to share onto the Linux machine, I'll do that...provided someone can explain to me how to get the files to play from it .

[gplasky]

Windows passwords are case sensitive. Use the "Guide" button on the remote to switch between upper case and lower case. I believe the number 1 is also the key for various symbols including \,/, ?,", etc. Keep pressing the number 1 until you reach the symbol you need. I'm pretty sure the HD200 will work with workgroups but I'm not sure how it works with domains. In the hd200 settings try using the domain for the workgroup name.

Gerry

[Diego Garcia]

Thanks for the info. Silly me didn't notice the button on the remote that cycles the alphanumeric keypad through lowercase, uppercase and [something else I don't recall right now].

It turns out you don't need to prefix the domain name to the Windows user ID when logging in to a domain. Just using the user ID itself, and the password, works. I was able to navigate to, and play, the mp3 file in the shared windows folder.

I'm still left with the problem of why I couldn't play back that linux-hosted mp3 file, though. Anyone have thoughts on that?

[gplasky]

Did you create the same user ID on the linux side that you are using on the Windows side? Did you enable the guest account and give it permissions on the samba share?

Gerry

[Diego Garcia]

Yes, the Samba and NT credentials are the same so that the same user ID and password gets one access to both the Linux and Windows shares.

I don't believe I enabled guest access under Samba (in general, I don't like the risks associated with "guest" access). Is guest access required for the Sage Theater to access the Samba shares?

The smb.conf entry for the public share I'm trying to use is:

# A publicly accessible directory, read/write to all users. Note that all files
# created in the directory by users will be owned by the default user, so
# any user with access can delete any other user's files. Obviously this
# directory must be writable by the default user. Another user could of course
# be specified, in which case all files would be owned by that user instead.
[public]
path = /home/public
comment = Public
public = yes
browseable = yes
; only guest = yes
writable = yes
printable = no
create mask = 0666