Networking a DP-P2 with Windows 7 Home Premium

[raymondjpg]

I have read and re-read the posts on this forum about networking with Windows Vista and Windows 7, but haven't been able to resolve this issue.

The DP P2 refuses to connect with or scan my Windows 7 Home Premium PC for file shares. However at the same time, it can find and scan an XP box on the same network without any problems. All three devices (P2, Windows 7 and Windows XP PCs) are members of the same workgroup on the same subnet, hard-wire connected through a router, each with static IP addresses.

Advanced sharing settings for the network profile in Windows 7:

Network Discovery ON
File and Printer Sharing ON
Public Folder Sharing ON (Some have recommended this, but it makes no differemce whether this is set to ON or OFF)
Media Streaming ON
File Sharing Connections 128 bit encryption (I have tried 40 or 56 bit encryption)
Password Protected Sharing OFF (I have tried both ON and OFF)
Homegroup connections Allow Windows to Manage (I guess irrelevant if the PC is not a member of a homegroup)

I have set up the P2 with a dedicated Windows sharing account for the network workgroup. The XP box can interpret this and network with the Windows 7 box without any problems, regardless of which account is used to logon to the XP PC. Changing the P2 windows sharing account to one with admin privileges in the Windows 7 PC makes no difference.

Re-configuring folder sharing privileges to give the dedicated sharing account Read/Write privileges on the Windows 7 PC makes no difference to the ability of the P2 to find/scan the machine.

I have also tried the SMB2/SMB3 regfix in Windows 7 proposed by some.

The DP2 was shipped with firmware 1.07.040 (relatively unknown to beta testers on this site). I have also tried the latest official firmware 1.07.014 ? no difference. Similarly no difference or improvement with corporate site firmware 1.07.031.

All Ice TV functions are working without any problem.

The Wiz is just incapable of identifying/locating the Windows 7 host computer when scanning the LAN for file shares.

Is anyone having similar problems with Windows 7, or has managed to resolve this?

[IanSav]

Hi Raymondjpg,

Welcome!

I am not a Windows 7 user so I can't help with your problem but I would like to assure you that the problem is with your Windows 7 configuration and not the Beyonwiz.

Have you tried using WizFX on the Window 7 PC? Have you checked that your Windows 7 firewall is not blocking access from the Beyonwiz?

Regards,
Ian.

[baobab68]

I have sharing working to Windows 7 Ultimate, works a treat. If you're in the central Sydney area I'm willing to have a look if you like.

I do think you need to go for the lower encryption standards for a start - I think only Vista and 7 understand the 128 bit.

[prl]

I have sharing working to Windows 7 Ultimate, works a treat. If you're in the central Sydney area I'm willing to have a look if you like.

I do think you need to go for the lower encryption standards for a start - I think only Vista and 7 understand the 128 bit.

Can the Beyonwiz do encrypted file sharing at all?

[netmask]

I have Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit and have set up 3 systems with Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit and all work OK - what I have had to do is make sure all share folder permissions are set to "Everyone".

[raymondjpg]

Thanks for the responses.

Hi Raymondjpg,

Welcome!

I am not a Windows 7 user so I can't help with your problem but I would like to assure you that the problem is with your Windows 7 configuration and not the Beyonwiz.

Have you tried using WizFX on the Window 7 PC? Have you checked that your Windows 7 firewall is not blocking access from the Beyonwiz?

Regards,
Ian.

I think that there is a problem both with Windows 7 and with the Beyonwiz. While it is unlikely that Microsoft is going to respond to an issue with one piece of consumer electronics, there may be a generic issue that they will come to resolve in time with some fix. In the meantime Beyonwiz has to live with what MS is currently offering. Without access to the beta versions of the Wiz firmware out for testing right now, my guess is that what is readily available to consumers is not altogether user-friendly as far as Windows 7 is concerned.

Maybe some of my problems with Win 7 have arisen because I tend to install new operating systems for testing on multi-boot systems. I avoided Vista altogether, preferring to stay with XP which still works. I only moved to Windows 7 a week or so ago because the system disk with XP was sending SMART messages that it was about to fail. Removing the XP disk from the PC, and recovering the Windows 7 boot sector via a fresh install of Win 7 on another volume left me with some file access. ownership and permission problems inherited from XP. However, these do not seem to have materially affected the root cause of the problem which is that the Beyonwiz persistently refuses to Find the Windows PC (using the green button and IP address of the host PC in the file player setup).

Ignoring the inability of the Wiz to find the Windows 7 PC using the green button, and moving to a scan (red button) did not seem to work. It has been pointed out by prl that the scan should be able to pick up any available PCs and shares on the network. The fact that the scan progress always stays at 0% does not inspire confidence. However, I inadvertently left a scan running for about half an hour and it did find the shares eventually. This scan was performed with the user account and password for Windows sharing in the Wiz setup BLANK. I don't know if this was necessary, or if the shares would have been discovered had a user name and password been specified.

No files could be seen in some of these these shares on the Wiz.

Entering a dedicated user name and password in the Wiz made no difference to file discovery, even though that username was added (readonly) to the file shares in Win7. The only files available were in a directory with a Win 7 admin account listed as a user.

Adding the Guest account (readonly) to the share permissions in Win 7 resolved the issue, even though the Wiz is configured with a dedicated user account

So I have a network configuration in Win 7 with access to public folder sharing, and share permissions granted to the Guest account. Both of which run counter to what some have suggested or recommended. On the other hand, some have advocated turning public folder sharing on to gain access to the shares, and some to ensure that the guest account is added to share privileges.

It could depend on how Win 7 is installed, and whether there are inherited rights from a multi-boot system.

One reason why share and file discovery appeared to be slow on scanning could be due to the Windows 7 file indexing system. Once shares have been discovered, and the share directories are added to the indexing system, opening the shares on the Wiz seems to speed up considerably. However, the more shares that are added the longer the Wiz file player seems to take to open (in my case 15-20 seconds) apparently while Windows 7 organises the files.
______________________________________________________________

WizFX works fine on the Windows 7 PC for transferring files from the Wiz to the PC. I haven't tried it the other way round. Firewalls (minimal in the router, plus Windows 7 and Comodo) all enabled do not affect this. I tried disabling all firewalls to fix the network share discovery but that had no effect.

I have sharing working to Windows 7 Ultimate, works a treat. If you're in the central Sydney area I'm willing to have a look if you like.

I do think you need to go for the lower encryption standards for a start - I think only Vista and 7 understand the 128 bit.

Windows 7 Ultimate may be a different beast to Home Premium as far as connectivity with the Wiz is concerned! I have been used to all the functionality of XP Professional over the years, and find myself limited with 7 Home Premium for example with no group policy editor.

128 bit encryption appears to work fine. Video files are streaming without hiccups over CAT5. As prl points out, the level of encryption may be irrelevant as far as the Wiz is concerned

As an aside, SMB2 and SMB3 are not disabled in the 7 PC. That may have been necessary for some Vista implementations.

I have Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit and have set up 3 systems with Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit and all work OK - what I have had to do is make sure all share folder permissions are set to "Everyone".

Ultimate editions I would like to have! I only installed Home Premium because it was a gift, and will probably upgrade to Professional when the price is right.

I have noted that the 64 bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium comes with some more up to date drivers than the 32 bit edition, for example with a PCI wireless network card that worked faultlessly on installing the 64 bit edition while the 32 bit edition needed application of more recent drivers from the chip manufacturer to implement WPA2 security. It is possible that the 64 bit edition of Windows 7 may be more friendly for Wiz user setup than the 32 bit.

Adding Everyone may be a way around adding Guest to the share permissions, but that is another LAN security issue that some are uncomfortable with, although for most home users it won't be a critical issue.
____________________________________________________________

Regards

[prl]

...

Ignoring the inability of the Wiz to find the Windows 7 PC using the green button, and moving to a scan (red button) did not seem to work. It has been pointed out by prl that the scan should be able to pick up any available PCs and shares on the network. The fact that the scan progress always stays at 0% does not inspire confidence. However, I inadvertently left a scan running for about half an hour and it did find the shares eventually. This scan was performed with the user account and password for Windows sharing in the Wiz setup BLANK. I don't know if this was necessary, or if the shares would have been discovered had a user name and password been specified.
...

You've probably got your netmask set way too wide on the Beyonwiz, then. The Beyonwiz performs a linear scan of the entire local subnet. Netmasks much wider than 255.255.255.0 will result in scans that take way too long. You definitely don't want to be using 255.255.0.0 or 255.0.0.0 as the netmask on your Beyonwiz. From the time span, I'd guess you have a 255.255.0.0 netmask. A search over a 255.255.255.0 netmask takes only a few seconds.

I don't know why a scan for servers succeeded and using the explicit address failed.

If the Beyonwiz username and password for Windows Sharing are left blank, it connects as Guest. This often gives only read access, no matter what your permission settings are on the share (not sure about how that is in Win 7). If you give appropriate username password and workgroup settings on the Beyonwiz and cut the size of your local subnet, everything should work nicely. If you really need a bigger address space for other machines, you may need to carve off a smaller subnet to put the Beyonwizes and their Share servers on. But do you really need more than 254 IP addresses on your home net?

[IanSav]

Hi Peter,

Having to search huge subnets is an issue that is not unique to the Beyonwiz. Subnets should be created and sized appropriate to the actual size of the network. This is all network theory and not really appropriate for this forum. The fact that some routers default to the old style Class A or Class B type networks (255.0.0.0 or 255.255.0.0 subnets respectively) is more a reflection of poor design choices on those routers.

For most, if not all, domestic and many business networks a classical Class C or 255.255.255.0 subnet network (with space for over 250 network devices) is more than enough.

Regards,
Ian.

[IanSav]

Hi Raymondjpg,

Your initial problem report is a good example of why we often ask people for more detailed bug reports (How Best to Post about Problems with your Wiz). I suspect that most of the responses were focused on your apparent inability to access the shares under Windows 7, particularly when you indicated that there was no issue under Windows XP. It wasn't until you mentioned the issue with the time taken to search the network that the probable issue, your subnet size, has become apparent. Can you please confirm if this was an issue?

The Windows share security issues are still important to get correct, particularly if you intend to copy recordings from the Beyonwiz to the Windows share via the Beyonwiz UI. In this case it appears the the more significant issue for you was the speed of the scan and the inability to find your PC. This is something that wasn't really obvious in your original post.

Do you now have a better handle on the networking setup issues?

Regards,
Ian.

[raymondjpg]

...
You've probably got your netmask set way too wide on the Beyonwiz, then. The Beyonwiz performs a linear scan of the entire local subnet. Netmasks much wider than 255.255.255.0 will result in scans that take way too long. You definitely don't want to be using 255.255.0.0 or 255.0.0.0 as the netmask on your Beyonwiz. From the time span, I'd guess you have a 255.255.0.0 netmask. A search over a 255.255.255.0 netmask takes only a few seconds.

I don't know why a scan for servers succeeded and using the explicit address failed.

If the Beyonwiz username and password for Windows Sharing are left blank, it connects as Guest. This often gives only read access, no matter what your permission settings are on the share (not sure about how that is in Win 7). If you give appropriate username password and workgroup settings on the Beyonwiz and cut the size of your local subnet, everything should work nicely. If you really need a bigger address space for other machines, you may need to carve off a smaller subnet to put the Beyonwizes and their Share servers on. But do you really need more than 254 IP addresses on your home net?

Useful points, thanks.

Current netmask is 255.0.0.0, inherited from a D-Link modem/router of about 5 years' vintage, still giving reliable service. I should try 255.255.255.0 throughout the network at some time.

I have looked into a separate subnet for the Beyonwiz, but that would appear to require another router. As the setup floats the boat for the time being I'll probably stick with it and try the narrower netmask.

Hi Raymondjpg,

Your initial problem report is a good example of why we often ask people for more detailed bug reports (How Best to Post about Problems with your Wiz). I suspect that most of the responses were focused on your apparent inability to access the shares under Windows 7, particularly when you indicated that there was no issue under Windows XP. It wasn't until you mentioned the issue with the time taken to search the network that the probable issue, your subnet size, has become apparent.

The Windows share security issues are still important to get correct, particularly if you intend to copy recordings from the Beyonwiz to the Windows share via the Beyonwiz UI. In this case it appears the the more significant issue for you was the speed of the scan and the inability to find your PC. This is something that wasn't really obvious in your original post.

Do you now have a better handle on the networking setup?

Regards,
Ian.

Point taken, but I think my problem was more that I didn't know what the problem was.

Yes, thank you, I have a better handle on networking issues, but my guess is that the time taken to scan the network and shares is related at least as much to Windows 7 as networking setup. XP didn't give me any problems at all! I have spent a little time modifying the indexing setup in Windows 7 to see if that improves the time it takes to open the Wiz file player.

Without wanting to complicate things any further, I have to add that my network setup includes a wireless access point/router configured as a client of the D-Link and on the same subnet as the Wiz. The PC Local Area Connection and Wireless Network Connection are bridged, as all components of the network periodically need access to the internet through the D-Link. After considering prl's response It struck me that possibly the existence of the wireless router on the subnet could be compromising the speed of the Beyonwiz scan of the network. I have about two weeks' experience of wireless networking so any insightful or expert comment on that would be welcome.

Regards

[IanSav]

Hi Raymondjpg,

Don't worry about knowing the right question to ask. The point is, if you can describe the problem and any details or circumstances around the problem then we can get a handle on what the problem is all about. We can then either provide you with a solution to that problem or help you focus in on the most appropriate area upon which to discuss possible options.

If you can move your network to a single 255.255.255.0 subnet then I would expect that any process, on the Beyonwiz, PC or anything, that scans the network will work *much* faster and probably be more reliable. You should not need another router to do this. Your D-Link should have a configuration option for the LAN (Local Area Network) that will have the subnet mask as one of its options.

Having wireless bridges is nothing unusual and should not add to the complexity of your network.

Regards,
Ian.

[raymondjpg]

Ensuring that all shares discovered by the Wiz were in the indexed folder list in Windows 7 appears to have considerably speeded up the time with opening the Wiz file player - now about 1-2 seconds.

I have implemented the subnet mask 255.255.255.0 throughout the home network. This was done after the Windows folder indexing test, so it is difficult to know if this has in any way affected the time to open the file player. Hopefully it will improve the time to scan the network and shares if and when that needs to be done again. While it is working I am leaving it alone for now.

I can report that the more limited subnet mask has made no difference to the ability to find the Windows 7 PC using the host PC's IP address and green Find PC button. It still does not work.

[prl]

...
I can report that the more limited subnet mask has made no difference to the ability to find the Windows 7 PC using the host PC's IP address and green Find PC button. It still does not work.

That's strange. What is the IP address of one of the PCs that are found by Scan, but not by Find PC, and what is the exact IP address you're using for Find PC, as it appears in the popup on the Beyonwiz?

[IanSav]

Hi Raymondjpg,

What are the current network settings for the Beyonwiz and the PC? What are the current network connections and data path? What exactly are you doing and what do you see at each step?

Regards,
Ian.

[raymondjpg]

That's strange. What is the IP address of one of the PCs that are found by Scan, but not by Find PC, and what is the exact IP address you're using for Find PC, as it appears in the popup on the Beyonwiz?

The Windows 7 host PC: IP address 010.001.001.005 on subnet 255.255.255.000. Exact address used for Find PC is 010.001.001.005 (see below).

Hi Raymondjpg,

What are the current network settings for the Beyonwiz and the PC? What are the current network connections and data path? What exactly are you doing and what do you see at each step?

Regards,
Ian.

Beyonwiz:

IP 010.001.001.007 (static, DHCP disabled)
subnet 255.255.255.000
gateway 010.001.001.001 (D-Link router)
first DNS 202.136.043.239 (from WAN status on the D-Link)

PC

IP 010.001.001.005 (static)
subnet 255.255.255.000
gateway 010.001.001.001 (D-Link router)
first DNS 202.136.043.239 (from WAN status on the D-Link)

(Network bridge IPv4 config and IPconfig at command prompt returns

IPv4 address 10.1.1.5
subnet 255.255.255.0
gateway 10.1.1.1

i.e. no leading zeros. Trying to put leading zeros into the network bridge config doesn't change the reported addresses. I haven't tried reconfiguring the router LAN address with leading zeros yet. Perhaps I need to. Router is currently configured as

IP Address 10.1.1.1
subnet mask 255.255.255.0)

Green button in Wiz file player comes up with Find PC IP 010.001.001.000. Entering 5 thus 010.001.001.005 comes up with message

Scanning Failure
[010.001.001.005] Not Found
Dismiss

I don't know what you mean by data path, but shares and files discovered by network scan using the red button belong to the Windows 7 PC IP 010.001.001.005

[tonymy01]

You do not need leading zeros, the only reason for them on the wiz is the GUI expecting 3digits.3digits.3digits.3digits. In fact, using leading zeros on some devices makes them think you are trying to write octal rather than decimal numbers and can create issues.
Just a tip, your router is probably capable of relaying internal dns info to in your home network to your ISP (router) set DNS, so you can use your gateway (router) IP in your devices as DNS, rather than an ISP one that could change one day and leave you wondering why things in your network can no longer connect to the net. With that mask, you should be able to do a scan rather than find.

[IanSav]

Hi Raymondjpg,

Can you temporarily remove the D-Link bridge from the equation? That is, can you replace the bridge with a temporary cable connection and then re-test? Make this the only change for this test.

Edit: This is in addition to Tony's advice, not a replacement.

Regards,
Ian.

[raymondjpg]

Hi Raymondjpg,

Can you temporarily remove the D-Link bridge from the equation? That is, can you replace the bridge with a temporary cable connection and then re-test? Make this the only change for this test.

Edit: This is in addition to Tony's advice, not a replacement.

Regards,
Ian.

I have tried disabling the network bridge and doing the test with the PC Local Area Connection only. However, that was through the router. As I understand it you are asking me to disconnect the CAT5 cable coming from the Wiz at the router end and re-connect that end directly to the ethernet port on the PC. That is simple enough to do but I should probably do that tomorrow when there is not so much going on with the network.

Thanks for the help, and Tony as well. At least leading zeros are not required, and I have observed that pinging with 10.1.1.5 at the command prompt returns no errors, whereas pinging with 010.001.001.005 returns an error as it is interpreted as 8.1.1.5. Pinging with 10.001.001.005 is interpreted correctly with no errors as 10.1.1.5.

[IanSav]

Hi Raymondjpg,

What I am looking for is a simple network with your router (to the Internet) both PCs and the Beyonwiz. The router should be the plug board that connects everything together via CAT5 cables.

Regards,
Ian.

[raymondjpg]

Hi Raymondjpg,

What I am looking for is a simple network with your router (to the Internet) both PCs and the Beyonwiz. The router should be the plug board that connects everything together via CAT5 cables.

Regards,
Ian.

1. Atheros PCI Ethernet Controller removed from bridge with Wireless Network Connection.
2. Local Area Connection (Atheros) configured to connect to the Internet IP 10.1.1.5 on subnet 255.255.255.0. gateway 10.1.1.1 (D-Link router)
3. Both PCs and Beyonwiz connected by CAT5 cable to the D-Link modem/router (not wireless):

Router IP 10.1.1.1 (fixed)
Windows 7 PC IP 10.1.1.5 (static)
Windows XP PC IP 10.1.1.3 (assigned DHCP by router)
Beyonwiz IP 10.1.1.7 (static)

All on subnet 255.255.255.0, Windows 7 PC and Beyonwiz gateway set to 10.1.1.1

4. Both PCs can ping each other and the Beyonwiz.
5. Beyonwiz Ice TV Check User Info (in setup) successful.
6. Find PC test (green button) in Beyonwiz file player:

Windows 7 PC

Scanning Failure
[010.001.001.005] Not Found
Dismiss

Windows XP PC

Scanning Success
[010.001.001.003] Found
Dismiss

[IanSav]

Hi Raymondjpg,

Can you temporarily disable *all* firewall software on the Windows 7 PC and try the scan again.

Regards,
Ian.

[adprom]

I have a range of W7 boxes (64 bit and 32 bit) which 2 diff BW connect to.

An issue we faced was that the BW did not like the router we had being inbetween them, and as such ended up buying an inexpensive TP-Link switch which made things work a lot better and quite seamlessly.

As for W7 settings, from what you have posted, there is nothing wrong. You don't need to play with disabling SMB2 or anything like that.

As said, it is now possibly a firewall or a router issue.

As for directly finding PCs by entering an IP to search for, that doesn't work with W7 (doesn't work for us anyway) and scanning works instead.

Can the XP machine see the BW? You also might be facing another issue which can occur, but I don't want to bring that up just yet (are you running W7 64 bit?).

My money is on a firewall, or the DLink router being in the middle an issue at the moment.

[raymondjpg]

Hi Raymondjpg,

Can you temporarily disable *all* firewall software on the Windows 7 PC and try the scan again.

Regards,
Ian.

Windows 7 Firewall OFF for both Home or work (private) networks and Public networks.

Comodo Firewall OFF.

D-Link DoS protection and Port Scan Protection OFF. (D-Link does have Ping from External Network, FTP from External Network and DNS from External Network ON.)

Windows 7 PC

Scanning Failure
[010.001.001.005] Not Found
Dismiss

Windows XP PC

Scanning Success
[010.001.001.003] Found
Dismiss

[raymondjpg]

I have a range of W7 boxes (64 bit and 32 bit) which 2 diff BW connect to.

An issue we faced was that the BW did not like the router we had being inbetween them, and as such ended up buying an inexpensive TP-Link switch which made things work a lot better and quite seamlessly.

As for W7 settings, from what you have posted, there is nothing wrong. You don't need to play with disabling SMB2 or anything like that.

As said, it is now possibly a firewall or a router issue.

As for directly finding PCs by entering an IP to search for, that doesn't work with W7 (doesn't work for us anyway) and scanning works instead.

Can the XP machine see the BW? You also might be facing another issue which can occur, but I don't want to bring that up just yet (are you running W7 64 bit?).

My money is on a firewall, or the DLink router being in the middle an issue at the moment.

No issue that you do not have methinks.

My Win 7 Home Premium 32 bit edition shares and files are discoverable by a scan (which can take some time) but like you, the Wiz does not directly finding my Windows 7 PC by entering an IP to search for using the green button.

For an XP box on the network it works fine.

I would not have been quite so discouraged had the scan (red button) not stayed on 0% for the entire period of the scan. If there were some indication that the scan had been trawling the network I would have persisted.

I would like to know if ANYONE has been able to get the green button to work with Win 7. Possibly with Professional or Ultimate editions and/or 64 bit editions.

Regards

[netmask]

I've never been able to use the green button - Windows XP or Windows 7 but it has no trouble and is very quick in finding my PC Windows 7 32 bit, Dell PC SP3, MAC G4, eMachine e250 and Popcorn C200 using the Red scan button. I have a D-Link DI 704P router and a D-Link DAP-1150 access point unit.

[raymondjpg]

I've never been able to use the green button - Windows XP or Windows 7 but it has no trouble and is very quick in finding my PC Windows 7 32 bit, Dell PC SP3, MAC G4, eMachine e250 and Popcorn C200 using the Red scan button. I have a D-Link DI 704P router and a D-Link DAP-1150 access point unit.

Thanks netmask.

I don't know why you haven't had success with the green button and an XP box, but you are confirming that it doesn't work with Win 7.

I suspect that my scan using the red button was slow because of the size and numbers of disks in my Win 7 32 bit PC. Once shares and files have been discovered, making sure that the shared folders are indexed in Win 7 has speeded up navigating the Wiz file player considerably.

Regards

[netmask]

he he! my Windows 7 box has one internal 500GB completely shared, and 3 x 1 TB USB WD drives also completely shared. If I select a movie from one of the USB drives there is a moment of "reflection" whilst they are accessed and then off they start.... Although I can see the Popcorn C200 1TB drive I can't play any files as I get a password request = 1234 on all Poppies - still most of the files on the Popcorn won't play on the BW anyway MKV's 1080p etc...

[raymondjpg]

he he! my Windows 7 box has one internal 500GB completely shared, and 3 x 1 TB USB WD drives also completely shared. If I select a movie from one of the USB drives there is a moment of "reflection" whilst they are accessed and then off they start.... Although I can see the Popcorn C200 1TB drive I can't play any files as I get a password request = 1234 on all Poppies - still most of the files on the Popcorn won't play on the BW anyway MKV's 1080p etc...

Maybe a little OT, but worth pursuing I think because it may relate to scan time using the red button.

Like you I have a large amount of storage, 4x 1TB disks (2x Seagate and 2x WD) but these are all fixed internally. In theory should be faster to access. BUT my installation of Win 7 was about a week old and when I finally managed to find the shares with the Wiz and then looked at the shared directories in Win 7, some were not in the indexed file list.

(BTW relatively simple to re-encode 1080 MKVs with Virtualdub and XviD, preserving 5.1 ch sound if you want that, to make files playable in the Wiz. I haven't started to try playing MKVs, VOBs or ISOs with the Wiz yet. My next try might be Bluray m2ts files, but I don't fancy my chances!)

[adprom]

I have a range of W7 boxes (64 bit and 32 bit) which 2 diff BW connect to.

I would like to know if ANYONE has been able to get the green button to work with Win 7. Possibly with Professional or Ultimate editions and/or 64 bit editions.

Regards

I use Ultimate 64 bit on all the machines and it can't find them.

No biggy, just run a scan and it finds them in 20s.

As said, reducing subnet to 255.255.255.0 would assist with that as there is no reason to use any bigger (in fact, probably a fair argument that you could use 255.255.255.192 which would split the range into blocks of 64 addresses, 62 usable).

[raymondjpg]

I have a range of W7 boxes (64 bit and 32 bit) which 2 diff BW connect to.

I would like to know if ANYONE has been able to get the green button to work with Win 7. Possibly with Professional or Ultimate editions and/or 64 bit editions.

Regards

I use Ultimate 64 bit on all the machines and it can't find them.

No biggy, just run a scan and it finds them in 20s.

As said, reducing subnet to 255.255.255.0 would assist with that as there is no reason to use any bigger (in fact, probably a fair argument that you could use 255.255.255.192 which would split the range into blocks of 64 addresses, 62 usable).

Maybe not a biggy for some, perhaps for others.

I suggest a short sticky on configuring the file player with Win 7, addressing both the issue of the green button and the apparent lack of progress on the scanning bar when using the red button.

Regards

[IanSav]

Hi Raymondjpg,

I suggest a short sticky on configuring the file player with Win 7, addressing both the issue of the green button and the apparent lack of progress on the scanning bar when using the red button.

I don't have Windows 7 so I can't comment on what may or may not work against that Operating System.

I do have a number of Windows XP machines here. The RED button to scan the network *does* work. For some users, typically those with only one PC on the network, the scan appears to stop at 49%. This is simply a UI issue where the UI does not have enough time to display the progress from 50% to 100% as the scan completes before the UI can update. In my case with about half a dozen PCs and NAS units to find I always see the scan progress from 0% to 100% with a short pause at 49%. The anomaly where the scan appears to stop at 49% has already been documented in this forum.

On my Windows XP network the GREEN button does find my PCs and NAS devices. If Windows 7 does not respond then this is likely to either be a firewall issue or a change in this Operating System that fails to respond to some of the older networking protocols.

Regards,
Ian.

[tonymy01]

I don't know how many advanced network setup properties are exposed to Windows7 home users, but Windows7 Ultimate exposes many setup options when you choose the advanced option under your network setup menu. One or two of those options is quite important to set, such as the encryption level, and the support for older share methods etc.
My settings:
control panels, network and sharing center(sic), change advanced sharing settings
Important options:
turn ON network discovery
turn ON file and printer sharing
Enable file sharing for devices that use 40 or 56bit encryption (not sure if this is needed).
Turn OFF password protected sharing (can probably stay ON, but you need to understand you MUST setup users/passwords and user level security for shares and shares setup for users properly).
Turn ON sharing so anyone with network access can read/write files in public folders (ok, a bit of a security risk, but if you are hitting brick walls, you can put stuff in these folders instead of creating new ones).

This is all I have done for my wiz to find my windows7 64bit ultimate machine (oh, I have enabled guest in the users accounts control panel... all things I added/changed in order to get max flexibility with various sharing I do in my home network).

[raymondjpg]

I don't know how many advanced network setup properties are exposed to Windows7 home users, but Windows7 Ultimate exposes many setup options when you choose the advanced option under your network setup menu. One or two of those options is quite important to set, such as the encryption level, and the support for older share methods etc.
My settings:
control panels, network and sharing center(sic), change advanced sharing settings
Important options:
turn ON network discovery
turn ON file and printer sharing
Enable file sharing for devices that use 40 or 56bit encryption (not sure if this is needed).
Turn OFF password protected sharing (can probably stay ON, but you need to understand you MUST setup users/passwords and user level security for shares and shares setup for users properly).
Turn ON sharing so anyone with network access can read/write files in public folders (ok, a bit of a security risk, but if you are hitting brick walls, you can put stuff in these folders instead of creating new ones).

This is all I have done for my wiz to find my windows7 64bit ultimate machine (oh, I have enabled guest in the users accounts control panel... all things I added/changed in order to get max flexibility with various sharing I do in my home network).

My settings are as per the original post. I don't see anything materially different from yours, other than that 128 bit encryption works fine for the scan with the red button.

The question is, does the green Find PC button work for you?

Regards

Edit: Enabling Guest account (i.e. on in user accounts) was not necessary, but adding the Guest as a user in shared folders helped with file discovery.

[raymondjpg]

Hi Raymondjpg,

I suggest a short sticky on configuring the file player with Win 7, addressing both the issue of the green button and the apparent lack of progress on the scanning bar when using the red button.

I don't have Windows 7 so I can't comment on what may or may not work against that Operating System.

I do have a number of Windows XP machines here. The RED button to scan the network *does* work. For some users, typically those with only one PC on the network, the scan appears to stop at 49%. This is simply a UI issue where the UI does not have enough time to display the progress from 50% to 100% as the scan completes before the UI can update. In my case with about half a dozen PCs and NAS units to find I always see the scan progress from 0% to 100% with a short pause at 49%. The anomaly where the scan appears to stop at 49% has already been documented in this forum.

On my Windows XP network the GREEN button does find my PCs and NAS devices. If Windows 7 does not respond then this is likely to either be a firewall issue or a change in this Operating System that fails to respond to some of the older networking protocols.

Regards,
Ian.

I would regard 49% as a significant advance over 0% which is what you get with Windows 7.

I have confirmed that the GREEN button works fine on an XP box on my network. I have also disabled all firewalls and confirmed that the GREEN button still does not work with Windows 7, so it is more likely to my mind to be a change in this Operating System.

Which is why I have suggested a sticky for Win 7 users, pending further feedback from beta firmware testers.

Regards

[prl]

...
I suggest a short sticky on configuring the file player with Win 7, addressing ... the apparent lack of progress on the scanning bar when using the red button.

This isn't a Win 7 problem, it's a network configuration problem.

[Luuuc]

I don't know how many advanced network setup properties are exposed to Windows7 home users, but Windows7 Ultimate exposes many setup options when you choose the advanced option under your network setup menu. One or two of those options is quite important to set, such as the encryption level, and the support for older share methods etc.
My settings:
control panels, network and sharing center(sic), change advanced sharing settings
Important options:
turn ON network discovery
turn ON file and printer sharing
Enable file sharing for devices that use 40 or 56bit encryption (not sure if this is needed).
Turn OFF password protected sharing (can probably stay ON, but you need to understand you MUST setup users/passwords and user level security for shares and shares setup for users properly).
Turn ON sharing so anyone with network access can read/write files in public folders (ok, a bit of a security risk, but if you are hitting brick walls, you can put stuff in these folders instead of creating new ones).

This is all I have done for my wiz to find my windows7 64bit ultimate machine (oh, I have enabled guest in the users accounts control panel... all things I added/changed in order to get max flexibility with various sharing I do in my home network).

FWIW, I have just spent the last half an hour trying to get my new Windows 7 PC to be detected by my P2, sure that I had everything ok.
It was the setting highlighted in red above that finally did it for me. That was still at its default setting, which is on.

After that I re-enabled Homegroup and re-enabled 128-bit encryption without any problems.

One thing I did notice was that while I could easily share the entire external HDD connected to my WIn 7 PC by setting the share properties of the drive, I could not properly share my PC's internal HDD. It came up on the list on the Beyonwiz, but with nothing in it. Once I shared the folders all was cool. Not sure why it behaves differently than the external HDD, but it's not a bad thing anyway as there were only 2 folders I wanted to share.

Extra Note - even now that everything is fine I still can't successfully use the "Find PC" (Green button) feature to see my Win 7 PC, so don't get hung up on that issue.