WDTV Live - NETWORK ISSUES - Page 6

Joined the site to post a couple of answers.
Have had the device for about a week.
Tried wireless trendnet n usb as it is a recommended wireless usb stick. Network drops after a few minutes. Streaming from a Windows Home Server.
Changed to the Linksys 610. Had the same problems as the guy above. Solution to that one, by the way, is to look in the settings for place that lists "workgroup" and change it to your workgroup name. Mine had been changed. In that section there is also a place to add a user. One of those two things allows you to see past the router. Took the router back when I realized it wasn't the problem and went back to my dlink 655.
The story gets better.
Picked up a wireless dlink 1522 bridge/AP. Bridged the 1522 to my dl655 and then hardwired the WDTV to the bridge.
Disconnect after a few minutes playing a file off network share.
Gets better.
Bought and returned dlink powerline adapters.
Same problem.
Figured that I needed a true hardwire to my switch two floors away so I get out my drill and properly wire a cat 5e cable between the WDTV and my switch.
Guess what?
Same f'ing problem.
So tonight, I went and found my receipt to return the device and I thought to try what someone stated above....turn off the setting for sharing the WDTV on the network.
Problem gone so far.
Played 3 shows so far and no problem.
Think that when the WDTV is shared it broadcasts a default "workgroup" that conflicts with your network if you are running a non standard name, as I was.
Maybe my solution would have been to change my workgroup name to "workgroup"? Won't know as it is working great now and I won't be messing with anything.
Thank god the bridge could be switched to an AP as I beefed up my wireless in the basement with it.

The problem I have is my WD Live (wired) seeing the network shares on desktop (wired; Vista) and laptop (wireless; XP.) It has no problem seeing the same machines under media servers. I don't know if it's my network b/c it seems to coincide with not being able to see the other devices under "view workgroup computers" so I usually just click away until I can see all the devices. Strangely though it seems to see my wireless laptop more reliably than my wired desktop. Frustrating as hell though, I bought this device primarily to stream videos over the network. Along with lackluster interface I'm tempted to sell this thing when the Popbox is released.

I bought my WD HD Live simply to be a purely digital MP3 player, direct into my Denon AVR via HDMI, without any dependency upon a PC. I host my MP3s on a WD Elements 1.5Tb USB drive which is plugged directly into my LinkSys WRT610N router, which acts as a crude media server. The WD HD Live is also cabled direct into the router via Ethernet.

The cabling is about a direct as it could be and yet the WD HD Live will still drop its network connection when playing MP3s. Sometimes it takes hours, sometime it takes minutes.

From previous posts I figure it could be one, or more, of the following:

1) LAN setting are automatic rather than fixed
2) Network sharing is on
3) Media server enabled (on WD TV Live)
4) The workgroup name is YembleNET

I have just tried turning network sharing off and the MP3 playback lasted about 15 minutes before the connection dropped.

My next step is to disable the WD TV Live media server...

The problem seems to happen to those with non standard workgroup names.
Once I stopped the wd live from being shared, my problems went away.

Just wishing to add my 'displeasure' at the WDTV Live (note - long time user of the original WDTV !!)

I didn't realise, until purchasing this unit the other day, THAT network connectivity was such a pain in the butt.

My system is as simple as probably everyone elses :

1 - 2 PCs, both using Windows XP HOME editions
2 - 1 Modem / Router and a Switch hooking up the PCs and the WDTV Live. (All WIRED)

As with most people, the WDTV Live is set up AND the connections are checked as working, has updated its firmware, and can access YouTube (not that I will be using it that at all).


I tried 'sharing' some files, 'changed' the group to WORKGROUP, can see the WDTV Live in the Workgroup under Networks.... BUT NOTHING in the NETWORK SHARES. I am using TVersity - BUT - its the the solution that I specifically believed that the WDTV was meant to provide. I have a Vista Notebook - and of course... the WDTV can 'see it' on its Media Drives.


That Western Digital have not provided (as far as I can find) any suitable response to 'fixing' up these Network issues makes me believe that this product is not fit for sale. I am dissappointed that I have bought this model. Having spent the last few days going thru various sites / wikis / forums - there is NO answer to how to get XP HOME to connect to the WDTV.

(** note - those service changes haven't fixed anything either)

any solutions ????

i used to have problems seeing network shares every other day. haven't got a problem for months now. my setup: 2 dual band wrt320n routers, 1 of them runs wireless bridge dd-wrt & hook to wd tv live.
what i did was, on the main router, assign an IP for the MAC address of my vista 64 PC & assign the PC that IP as static. i had no more problems after this. see if it works for you.

I decided to try using the new Linksys E3000 Router with the WDTV HD Live. I am using the latest firmware for both devices. The result is that the WDTV HD Live is able to see the Linksys Router under Network Shares, but when I click on accessing it (so I am able to see the drive / shared directories under it), I get the following error This network share cannot be accessed.

I have cleared the login cache and reset all I could think of, but it just won't go.

When I re-connect my old WRT300N router (without changing a thing either on the PC or the WDTV HD Live), it works like a charm.

Any ideas? Has anyone gotten this combo to work?

HI everyone,

I am facing some network issue for streaming Bluray ISO. My WDTV live (latest official firmware) is hard wired into a gigabit switch which connect to my Linksys 320N Gigabit router.

Everything is working fine. I don't have a network dropping issue. my share is on my WHS machine and I can stream a 35GB MKV file without any shutter at all during the 2.5 hr movie time. and I have also stream a 25GB .ts file without any problem. Since thenI thought I was the lucky one without any network issues which other people are facing (it just simply works from the 1st try)

not until I got some Bluray ISO files. the ISO is a direct rip without any compression or re-encoding or restructure was done. it is about 40GB. However the shutter is coming after 1 mins to 2 mins into the movie. and especially during a high bitrate explosion scene, I would lose sound (my AVR shows no audio signal) and the whole screen will be blocking.........

If I connect the ISO file from External USB, then the problem is greatly improved (sometime still have a bit shutter for .5 sec but acceptable)

my question is if the Network speed of WDTV live enough for streaming huge ISO? I am thinking it is the network issue but why my 35GB MKV file is working fine? is it because it is a ISO file, the WDTV needs to work harder? or 35GB is at the limit and anything bigger will cause problem? (before Blu-ray iso, 35GB is my biggest media file)

Do I need to use the WDXLTV firmward with NFS file share to make it work? I can do that but I just want to know if I am facing the WDTV live network/CPU limitation on regular windows share and NFS is going to solve the problem.

Thanks.

Every now and then my player will no longer see my WHS under network shares. To fix this, I go into network settings and choose the clear login info for network share, and it reappears no problem. It took me awhile to try that since I have it logging in as a guest with no login info at all.

I had that error a couple of times. To get around it, I unplugged the power to my WDLIVE (powering off doesn't work) and rebooted my WHS, then plugged the power back in. I don't remember if I cleared the network login info after that for that particular error, but the power recycling worked for me.

I just saw that a NEW FIRMWARE was just released for the E3000 router:

05/04/2010 - Ver.1.0.01 (build 6)

I installed it and unfortunately it does NOT fix the problem that I am having with the WDTV HD Live.

C'mon WD + Linksys - wake up and smell the coffee!
.

Let me clarify as to what I have:

One desktop PC, running Windows 7 x64, with the E3000 connected to it via Ethernet connection. Within my PC, I have created a Shared Folder (C:\\TRANSFER), in which I have photos, avi, mp3 files. About 50 feet away, I have my Sony HD TV, to which there is WDTV HD Live connected, via the HDMI. I have attached a Linksys WUSB600N Adapter into the WDTV HD Live's USB port, so that I can wirelessly connect back to my PC, access the Shared Folder and play anything from there directly onto my PC. There is nothing connected to the E3000 via the USB port.

When I try this with the E3000 router connected, I have no problems accessing the internet from within the WDTV HD Live because I can go to Video / Youtube and play (stream) any videos on my TV -- as this is coming from the internet connection. However, when I go to Video / Network Shares - I see an icon for the E3000 router (called Cisco07519), and when I try clicking on it (with the idea that it would then show me the Shared Folder) , I get the following error “This network share cannot be accessed”. And that's as far as I can get.

Now, using the exactt same setup, without changing anything except "swapping" the routers, from E3000 back to WRT300N, when I click on Video / Network Shares - Without even seeing any router names, I am automatically shown the C: drive volume name (MYSTYKIY and when I click on it, I am immediately taken to the \\TRANSFER directory and can see all files there and of course they all play.

So somehow, WDTV HD Live is not getting access past the E3000 so it can then allow access to my desktop PC. And it seems that WDTV HD Live tech support folks are correct. Since this baby plays fine with WRT300N, but not with the E3000, it must be a Linksys issue.

I have tried disabling any and all built-in firewalls in the E3000, thinking that somehow that is the issue, but the result is the same. The new updated firmware, about which I wrote a couple of days ago, does not change my situation in any way.

I hope I have explained this as clear as I can.

My WDTV Live has just decided that none of the shares it was able to access before have any content. I've had nothing but issues with the WDTV Live including networking crapouts to poor playback. The exact same file will play differently depending on if it has a .m4v or .mp4 extension. Wrap that file into an mkv and it might play the video without stuttering but it's hit or miss if it'll play the audio in sync or lock up completely.

After two months of waiting for "fixes" and getting a run-around from WD and Cisco/Linksys folks about my previosly talked about problem of not seeing any network shares with the E3000 model, I found a perfect fix:

I returned my E3000 (Target has a 90 day return period) and got myself a Netgear WNDR3700 Dual-Band Router.

Within 10 minutes of installation, EVERYTHING was working. All I had to do was to update the router firmware, setup the SSID / passwords, choose 2.4mhz band for PC/Data and 5mhz for TV Stream, reboot windows 7, unplug WDTV Live and everything works like a charm.

I streamed a BlueRay "rip" in 1080 without one hickup or flicker for 2+hours.

Bye bye Linksys, and hello Netgear!

I have experienced network share issues with both the Cisco Linksys E1000 and E3000... I know the permissions and settings are correct for my PCs, Laptops, PS3, and two media players because they work perfectly with my 7 Year old Linksys WRT54G and 5 year old DLink wifi G... I tried all kinds of solutions with the Linksys E1000 got tired and switched to the Linksys E3000 and got even more issues... I returned the E3000 and finally got a Netgear WNDR3700 - which works perfectly with all my shared devices... finally I can move into my next phase - upgrading and getting more media players for the house...

Exactly! And those Linksys/Cisco guys are just playing dumb in my opinion. As in my original post, I also stated that my WRT300N worked without problems but since I wanted more bandwidth for my streaming, I just ran out of options.

Netgear is the smart choice nowadays. I wish I saved myself all that time wasted on trying to figure out what was wrong and done this much earlier.

I'm afraid you still get the same problem with Popbox because this is the Sigma chipset problem not the HD players. Dune 3.0, Popcorn Hour C-200, ... which carry sigma chipsets have the same problem with streaming HD videos over network.

This weird workaround is worth the read!...

I've had a bandwidth problem from my HP laptop (Vista Ultimate 64) wired through a d-link 655 router to my WDTV Live Plus. Playback runs for less than a minute, then chokes off. However, playing video from my Dell (XP-home) also wired thru the d-link is healthy. All file transfers initiated by either the HP or the Dell to a USB drive attached to the WDTV run smooth and fast. However, copying a file from the HP to the attached USB drive, initiated from WDTV using its file management section, exhibits the same halted throughput as playing video through the WDTV. Copying initiated by the WDTV of files on the Dell run smooth though.

Here's the weird... because I had exhausted every other possible source of the issue (turn router gig off, duplex, cables, buffer sizes, unique IP addresses, subnet, group name, QOS, WDTV reset, firmware, firewalls, myriad settings of the 655 and laptop NIC), I wanted to take a look at weather opening a healthy cpu-initiated file transfer would affect throughput of a WDTV-initiated HP-sourced video stream. JOY JOY JOY. Whenever a cpu-initiated file transfer to the WDTV's USB drive is taking place, streaming video to the WDTV from files on the HP is HEALTHY! In fact, even a Dell-initiated file transfer to WDTV fixes the bandwidth choke.

It looks to me like the router is stopping the WDTV from opening up wide portal to the HP to stream video for some reason. But when either networked cpu initiates a path to the WDTV, it allows the video stream to sneak through.

Can anybody point me to a permanent fix? Is setting up port forwarding what I need?

I had something similar going on with a gigabit NIC on my Windows2000 machine and a different brand gigabit NIC on my Vista machine. Nothing I did could make playback smooth from the Vista PC...except forcing the NIC to be 100mbit...which I wasn't happy about. After trying all kinds of stuff, I finally bought a new NIC for the Vista PC to match the NIC in the Win2k PC. All of my problems went away completely.

Apparently some gigabit NICs just don't communicate properly with 100mbit NICs and negotiate their flow control. You may want to look at replacing the NIC in your HP.

does anybody know if and how you can connect samsung led tv wirelessly to a wdtv live in another room?

I'd like to see if i can stream the videos to my samsung tv from the videos on my usb drive connected to my wdtv live

Man I might have to get a new router too. I have a Linksys and I have tried every hack, solution, fix in the book and my WDTV will still drop network connection. It can't be anything else but the damn router! Grrr I really hate having to spend another 100+ dollars on a new router just for this though.

My WDTV worked flawlessly since last December until I applied some windows patches to my PC. After I patched, every 15 min. I would get the "cannot connect to network" message. I just turned the "share WDTV" property off and the unit has worked perfectly since.

I know this is a very old thread, but felt it was important to reiterate as a lot of people to this day are having networking problems with the WDTV Live.

It never occurred to me that making a VPN connection was the cause of my problems.

I have a Windows7, 64bit PC with public network shares for music, videos and pictures. I use these shares to play media on my WDTV Live. As mentioned by 'bsktvm', I too was experiencing the WDTV Live loosing connection to network shares whenever I made a VPN connection for work. Simply killing the VPN connection and turning the WDTV off and on again fixed my problem, I could browse the file shares again.

Although not a cure for all the networking problems out there with the WDTV Live, at least this one fixed mine

FIXED - WDTV disconnecting from NAS after about 30 minutes

I finally fixed my setup - I noticed that the times it cut out were pretty closely aligned to the DHCP server's IP renewal time - then I realized the WDTV units didn't have a static IP. Once I changed the DHCP server to provide a static address (or you could do it by setting up a static IP address in the WDTV itself) the drop outs stopped

Hope this helps someone

This problem keeps coming back, where the WD Live box will not connect to the Network share. Once this happens it will only seem to work after changing the fixed IP address on the WD box.

Just made some changes and enabled some more logging. Changed the IP of the WD Live box and connected. Looking at the 'System Connection Logs' 10 SAMBA connections were made within ca. 6 seconds to the NAS (QNAP TS-869 Pro) to establish the connection.

Not sure how to investigate this further.

Normally when this fails, the system is busy downloading stuff.

Once it has connected, don't have any issues. Well other than it does not always like the file format.