Network Tips - Vista

Kezza · Post by **Kezza** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 20:12

Ok here's a start on an FAQ, anything you want added or think is needed please do I will add them to this post, most of this is else where in the fourm I just copyed it in to one post to make it easyer.

First things to check in vista

Check that you have Vista's SP1 (Service Pack 1) installed or wireless networking will be unreliable:
http://www.beyonwiz.com.au/phpbb2/viewt ... 3127#23127

Is your Guest account on
Ensure permissions are set correctly for 'everyone' and 'guest'
Is Network discovery on
Is Public file sharing on
Is Password protection off
Ping the BW's IP address (Don't be surprised if the BW responds but still fails to see the Vista machine)
Check your incoming firewall settings in Vista to allow traffic from the Wiz.
Switching to DHCP may allow the BW to see your machine, or it may not.
Check the ARP table to see if its MAC address is visible.

Here are some screen shots of how Vista is set up to allow the BW to see it on the network.

Vista Home edition does not have the required network functionality to do the full networking setup. The Vista media centre is based on streaming technologies and not network file access.
I'm doing some Google research on enabling anonymous/guest file access to a Vista Home file system.
In the current firmware you are able to specify a login username and password on the Beyonwiz so that your PC does not need to have guest access enabled. That may help.

On Vista Ultimate enable Guest account (default is no password)
Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Local Security policy -> Local Policies -> User Rights Assignment
-> Deny access to this computer - remove Guest
-> Allow Log on locally - Add Guest account
On the folder to share, enable sharing and add Guest as a user
Then on the share menu, click advanced and enable sharing here as well.

so you have done all that you can see you PC on the Wiz but no files.
Have you tried all three media menus?
If you are in the wrong menu e.g. movies menu when your folder contains all mp3s, it will appear to be empty until you choose the music menu.

please post any suggestions/changes you think are needed

Kezza

DaveR · Post by **DaveR** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 20:18

Firmware versions later than 01.04.144 no longer need the PC to have the guest account enabled.

Note: Older Firmware versions before 01.04.144 do not have the Windows Sharing option. If you do not see the Windows Sharing option on your beyonwiz's Networking menu you need to update the firmware.

Kezza · Post by **Kezza** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 05:49

do you want this added to the first post?

Kezza

Scobie · Post by **Scobie** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 11:58

I mentioned this in a thread I posted below, but installing Vista SP1 RC has enabled me to stream wirelessly to the BW. Before that is was unusable.

DaveR · Post by **DaveR** » Mon Jan 28, 2008 21:51

Kezza wrote:do you want this added to the first post?

If you could, that'd be great. Also mention skobie's comment re Vista RC1.

Can you insert your existing pictures into Vortical's instructions? (in the appropriate places)

NPR · Post by **NPR** » Sat Mar 15, 2008 09:42

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/935222

The above link is a knowledge base article on the Microsoft web site that relates to the following:

SYMPTOMS
In this scenario, you can see that a wireless network is available in the Connect to a network dialog box in the Network and Sharing Center. However, you cannot connect to the wireless network.

On a Windows Vista-based computer, consider the following scenario:

? You use Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) together with Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) encryption to access wireless networks.
? A computer certificate is configured correctly on the computer.
? The computer has the correct permissions to access wireless networks.

There is a hot fix available.

NPR · Post by **NPR** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 07:34

Networking changes with Vista Service Pack 1

1. Windows Vista SP1 will add a new version of the Network Diagnostics tool that will also help administrators and end users diagnose common file sharing problems. (Available from the Diagnose and Repair link in Network and Sharing.)

2. Improves wireless ad-hoc connection (computer-to-computer wireless connections) success rate

3. Improves performance over Windows Vista?s current performance across the following scenarios:
? 25% faster when copying files locally on the same disk on the same machine
? 45% faster when copying files from a remote non-Windows Vista system to a SP1 system
? 50% faster when copying files from a remote SP1 system to a local SP1 system

4. Improves network connection scenarios by updating the logic that auto selects which network interface to use (e.g., should a laptop use wireless or wired networking when both are available).

5. Adds full support for the latest IEEE draft of 802.11n wireless networking. (just a pity Dlink don't make reliable drivers that take advantage of this. Still in beta, how lazy is that...)

6. Enhances Windows Firewall and IPsec to use the new cryptographic algorithms that are Suite B compliant. (That is, makes Windows Firewall a little less useless

)

7. Allows users and administrators using Network Diagnostics to solve the most common file sharing problems, not just network connection problems.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... Pack_1.doc

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_sp1.asp

alect · Post by **alect** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 09:57

I have done all of the steps as required and all of the Network Sharing configs are as specified above. When I go to share a folder and add the PVR usname (or any username for that matter) and click OK I get "Your folder could not be shared". That's it - not other info.

I have no other firewall installed that I know of. I am running AVG anti virus but don't think that's a problem.

Any ideas?

grunta · Post by **grunta** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 21:28

are you using wired, or wireless ?
make sure you sort out the wired first
when you add the beyonwiz name was this from a dropdown list ?

are you sure that sharing is enabled ?
goto control panel and click on network sharing centre
and check the "sharing and discovery" settings

there are about 3 ways/places to access the sharing info/settings in windows, check them all to make sure the settings allow read & write or full access

you may recall a similar process if you have ever tried changing some printers default of letter to A4

alect wrote:I have done all of the steps as required and all of the Network Sharing configs are as specified above. When I go to share a folder and add the PVR usname (or any username for that matter) and click OK I get "Your folder could not be shared". That's it - not other info.

I have no other firewall installed that I know of. I am running AVG anti virus but don't think that's a problem.

Any ideas?

alect · Post by **alect** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 21:54

grunta wrote:are you using wired, or wireless ?
make sure you sort out the wired first
when you add the beyonwiz name was this from a dropdown list ?

are you sure that sharing is enabled ?
goto control panel and click on network sharing centre
and check the "sharing and discovery" settings

there are about 3 ways/places to access the sharing info/settings in windows, check them all to make sure the settings allow read & write or full access

you may recall a similar process if you have ever tried changing some printers default of letter to A4

alect wrote:I have done all of the steps as required and all of the Network Sharing configs are as specified above. When I go to share a folder and add the PVR usname (or any username for that matter) and click OK I get "Your folder could not be shared". That's it - not other info.

I have no other firewall installed that I know of. I am running AVG anti virus but don't think that's a problem.

Any ideas?

I am on wireless. If i could connect wired i wouldn't be doing wireless.

Positive sharing is enabled. I have googled this and it seems to be a vista problem related to OEM vista having bugs or not being properly installed.

grunta · Post by **grunta** » Thu Aug 21, 2008 22:16

I'm using vista business..... I assume OEM ... ASUS

my setting in the network share is no password protect on sharing
5 other's in there are checked yes

DaveR · Post by **DaveR** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 20:12

alect wrote:I have done all of the steps as required and all of the Network Sharing configs are as specified above. When I go to share a folder and add the PVR usname (or any username for that matter) and click OK I get "Your folder could not be shared". That's it - not other info.

I have no other firewall installed that I know of. I am running AVG anti virus but don't think that's a problem.

Any ideas?

AVG is fine.

Try sharing the folder first. And then after it's shared ok add the PVR user to the access list. If it won't let you share a folder you may have to run the network setup wizard. Do you already have a lan or w-lan setup? Do you alreayd have file sharing, or file and printer sharing, enabled?

Are you sure you are trying to share the folder with network users? And not sharing it other users of the same PC? There is a difference.

alect · Post by **alect** » Sat Aug 23, 2008 20:35

Dave? wrote:
alect wrote:I have done all of the steps as required and all of the Network Sharing configs are as specified above. When I go to share a folder and add the PVR usname (or any username for that matter) and click OK I get "Your folder could not be shared". That's it - not other info.

I have no other firewall installed that I know of. I am running AVG anti virus but don't think that's a problem.

Any ideas?
AVG is fine.

Try sharing the folder first. And then after it's shared ok add the PVR user to the access list. If it won't let you share a folder you may have to run the network setup wizard. Do you already have a lan or w-lan setup? Do you alreayd have file sharing, or file and printer sharing, enabled?

Are you sure you are trying to share the folder with network users? And not sharing it other users of the same PC? There is a difference.

The issue is definitely with my particular laptop and instance of Vista. My wife's laptop also vista and I followed the same steps and sharing set up fine and BW can browse and display music and pics (she has no vids).

I read online elsewhere that sometimes the OEM version of Vista has a faulty networking/sharing service and you have to reinstall/repair Vista. ON my laptop I can't even see itself. From my wife's laptop I can see it but can't access any shared folders (although accounts all set up).

Pity is all the downloaded torrents are on my laptop - and I wanted to just stream/copy them from there - main reason for the S1.

pauliking · Post by **pauliking** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 12:28

Hi guys, new to this forum and first post. I'm a convert from a Toppy TF7100PVRHD.

I am using as Belkin wireless VOIP router and have used all LAN cable, no wireless.
Running DHCP with no issues to date.

After a couple of hours just trying to get my BW to see my PC I finally worked it out and thought I would share my findings as it may help someone if they are using NORTON.

Prior to me doing this the BW could not even find the PC.

I basically went in Norton front page of the program. On the right hand side of the windo there is a button called network map.

Click on View and then OK.

You will then see a full map of your network. I saw my PC the BW and the Wii. I could not see these in Vista network settings. But I'm no expert on networking.

All I did was click on the network that had the same IP as my BW and gave it FULL TRUST. All of a suddent my PC could be seen in the BW and I'm off and running.

The other thing I did was disable Public Folder Sharing as I don't place files in there. I use My Videos, My Pictures, My Music etc.

So I right click on the folders I wanted to share and then Properties, then the Sharing TAB, then advance sharing, then tick Share this folder and apply. I also clicked on permissions at that stage and gave FULL permission.

Now all I see is the folders I want in the root directory on the BW, instead of a miriad of folders in the PUBLIC that are just making it more confusing for my wife.

Having said all that you need to make sure you have a user account and password. i created one as per BW guide and just called itr WIZ with a password of WIZ and reflected the same in the windows sharing option in the BW.

You can then right click on your folders and select share if they aren't visible in the BW and add WIZ as a user that can see that folder.

Hope this helps someone. BTW I love this unit over the Toppy any day. I'm just glad the problems I have experienced are not related to the BW, just the microsoft/norton security crap.

The only problem I seem to have with the sharing side is if I want to move a file using the BW it comes back with a write error. However if I copy the file to the new location that will work and then it lets me go and delete the old one. So must be something minor there. Any help on that matter would be appreciated.

IanSav · Post by **IanSav** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 13:24

Hi Pauliking,

Welcome!

pauliking wrote:The only problem I seem to have with the sharing side is if I want to move a file using the BW it comes back with a write error. However if I copy the file to the new location that will work and then it lets me go and delete the old one. So must be something minor there. Any help on that matter would be appreciated.

This sounds like a permissions problem on the Windows file system. Make sure that the Wiz account you created has enough access to the files and the folder hierarchy above the file.

Regards,
Ian.

pauliking · Post by **pauliking** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 21:19

Yes it seems the write error only happens when I was testing and tried to move to PUBLIC folders. It is fine to move to my other normal shared folders. Not to worry as I don't care about the PUBLIC folders anyhow.

I am loving this unit so far. All my kids divx movies with no scratched DVD's

netmask · Post by **netmask** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 10:46

I have installed Windows 7 on my new i7 based computer. I am having some problems re-setting up my network. As a guide I have used some of the settings in this post by Kezza re Vista being closer to Windows 7 than XP Pro

http://www.beyonwiz.com.au/phpbb2/viewt ... =4910#4910

In the BW I have left file sharing blank as before
Under network the BW finds

Netmask-PC and then //User

But that's it I can't see any of my files and basically i have set up shares for my J drive "Movies" nothing else but video files on this drive.

Any hints? much appreciated as networking has always been my archiles heal so to speak

netmask · Post by **netmask** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 09:40

The cause of my problem was rushing in without reading the fine print and tried to use Windows 7 Homegroup system and got tangled in shares etc, once it was changed to a conventional Workgroup scenario as in XP all is well. Still can't see my MAC G4 but that's no big deal as it's only used as an email backup these days . WizFx works so all is peaceful and calm has returned to the house..

jaskelly3578 · Post by **jaskelly3578** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 15:48

I have a small issue with the shares on Vista. I can successfully watch a show from the PC OK. I then stop go back to live TV and if I go back to watch another movie from the PC I can see the share fine but no files. I have to clear all PC's then search again to see them. Any help

regards

Jas

netmask · Post by **netmask** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 15:52

I would recheck your permissions.

jaskelly3578 · Post by **jaskelly3578** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 15:55

But it does work and then after a while it doesn't show the files but can still see the share.

netmask · Post by **netmask** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 18:54

In Windows 7 what I had to do was give complete read/write permission not only to me Netmask the user but to "everybody" then I could see the files within the folders. probably flies in the face of good security but I'm the only person with access to the computer.

IanSav · Post by **IanSav** » Thu Apr 02, 2009 23:13

Hi Jas,

jaskelly3578 wrote:But it does work and then after a while it doesn't show the files but can still see the share.

Do your machines use fixed IP addresses? This sounds like the Beyonwiz is caching the address of the PC but the PC has changed IP address. All machines on the network should have their IP addresses reserved and re-allocated by the DHCP server.

Regards,
Ian.

jaskelly3578 · Post by **jaskelly3578** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 18:48

Hi Ian

My PC is using a static ip address and the Wiz is using a DHCP assigned from the router.
It's just wierd, I can live with though.

Jas

tonymy01 · Post by **tonymy01** » Fri Apr 03, 2009 19:56

It sounds like your PC disks are spinning down then. I found that if the share times out (i.e. the disk takes too long to spin up compared to the pissy timeout period the Wiz seems to have coded) the Wiz will disable that particular share. I found the only way of enabling again is to clear all and rescan if this happens.
Another trick is to setup a share with no permissions for the Wiz to get into. And when the wiz tries to access it, this still spins up your server HDD but is quicker to reject the Wiz and so the Wiz maintains the share list and then you can go into your main shared folder.
Regards

collingwood · Post by **collingwood** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 16:00

I've gone over all this and I just can't understand it, I'm doing my head in

Why can't someone just give us plain simple instructions.

How the settings on the BW should be set up, which ones they are.

I have a DP-P2 and have a Ethernet data point that goes to my modem/router
Now I have Windows 7 Ultimate and just can't work out how to get them connected.

On the BW do I set up via the network settings? If so how should it be set?
Do have to set Windows sharing? and if so how?
Do I have to configure my modem/router?
What do I have to set up on my PC to be able to access the BW

prl · Post by **prl** » Tue Jul 27, 2010 19:38

Hi, collingwood, welcome to the forum.

Your post implies that having Windows 7 Ultimate is recent. Did you have Windows sharing working with another version of Windows before you started using Windows 7 Ultimate?

We have no way of knowing what you've tried to do or what resources you've looked at to help. It's hard to help when someone just posts "I don't know what to do".

Please describe briefly what you've done, and what resources you've looked at. Have you looked at your Beyonwiz manual or the Beyonwiz Windows sharing guide to see if either of them help?

The brief answers to your questions are:

collingwood wrote:On the BW do I set up via the network settings? If so how should it be set?

Yes, you have to set up the network in SETUP>Network>Setting. The manual instructions are fairly clear. You'll most likely want to follow the instructions under the Automatic Configuration in The network section of Quick Setup.

If that doesn't work, it's not easy to help morewithout more information about your home network setup, especially the router configuration.

collingwood wrote:Do have to set Windows sharing? and if so how?

Hard to say without knowing what you want to do. Do you want to play media files over the network from your PC? Then yes. Do you want to copy recordings over the network from the Beyonwiz to your PC? Then this is one way of doing it. There are other possibilities. The link earlier in the post shows how to enable Windows sharing on the Beyonwiz, and the setup for an unspecified version of Windows.

collingwood wrote:Do I have to configure my modem/router?

Probably not, but see comments above about not having enough information.

collingwood wrote:What do I have to set up on my PC to be able to access the BW

To access the Beyonwiz to be accessed from your PC (copying files to the PC only), you need to enable the WizPnP server in SETUP>Network>WizPnP. This is described in the manual. Then you need to get WizFX from the Beyonwiz downloads page.

It's not possible to set the Beyonwiz up as a Windows sharing server, so you can't access recordings of other files on the Beyonwiz from the PC using Windows shares, only the other way around.

collingwood · Post by **collingwood** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 02:03

prl wrote:Hi, collingwood, welcome to the forum.

Thanks for the reply prl, I must admit I'd come off a night shift and was having trouble thinking clearly, but as often things never seem to go easy, there is always something to test us

I've had Windows 7 Ultimate for a 6 months now, but I also have a popcorn hour that is connected to the network and very easy to set up. I have data points in all the rooms of the house and have bought my wife the BW DP-P2 for her birthday as she's often wanting to record 2 shows at once, I basically want to be able to access the recorded shows via my PC in the study and then edit or convert the files to a more appropriate size for storage on an external hard drive.

I have tried the manual for help, tried looking at posts here in the forum and also other places and I'm hearing 2 different stories with some things, so I'm feeling I don't know what's right and what isn't.

When I get home I'll go through the manual again and also try the BW sharing guide, I haven't seen that before, but looks helpful.

collingwood · Post by **collingwood** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 09:33

Thanks prl, I followed the manual settings and also found the Beyonwiz Windows sharing guide to be extremely helpful, I'm set up now and I'm transferring a recording to the PC now, I'll have to see if I need and program to use to be able to convert the files.

I have a recording which is 15gb, so I hope to be able to convert that to about 5gb as a mvk.

prl · Post by **prl** » Wed Jul 28, 2010 20:38

Great to hear

collingwood · Post by **collingwood** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 10:45

I've lost the network connection

I'm getting a message saying Lan Link Down

I've tried unplugging the network cable and putting it back in, but another thing I notice is it comes up with the right IP address and Subnet mask and gateway.
Not sure if that is a memory thing or it's actually picking it up, but if it is picking it up, why would it say Lan Link Down.

I'd really like to have this connected all the time and not dropping out, not sure if this is common or not, but would dearly love to get it back up.

Also is there a reset function?

IanSav · Post by **IanSav** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 12:32

Hi Collingwood,

Have you checked that all the network connections are properly connected and all the cables are good?

There are no network reset comments. Usually a power down to standby wait a minute and power up and wait another minute and the network should be available. (The network interface is rarely available immediately after start up. A minute sould be long enough for the network to stabilise.)

Regards,
Ian.

tonymy01 · Post by **tonymy01** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 17:29

I think it may get that error if it doesn't get a DHCP IP address also, so try going in and re-applying the LAN DHCP settings (twice for good measure). There is a bug where what it tells you is one step behind reality (not quite like that, but I can't remember the specifics).
Regards

collingwood · Post by **collingwood** » Sat Jul 31, 2010 21:47

Yeah It looks like it was the cable guys.... I replaced it with a new one and it worked first time, so I'm back in business