Networking help

hey ,

i just got build my new htpc the other day and i am still trying to get it working properly.. its come to the point now where im getting headaches trying to figure out the problem with my network...

my htpc and my server are in the same room and hooked up to my router
i have disabled ALL firewalls and antivirus programs and windows firewalls too
i am using windows 7 and i can see my htpc and open the shares on my server pc but whenever i try to access the server shares from my htpc it says it cannot access it check spelling and all that crap!

i have disabled password protection and everything in advanced settings on both my server and htpc ... why is it that i am able to access the htpc from my server and not the other way around?

ps. when i ping the server from htpc i get a response!

also i can copy files and everything to my htpc but it just wont access the server directly from my new build

i am going insane! Please help

anyone ?

Try an IP address instead of the computer name. Also I've found with Win7 it works a lot better when you connect with a user account and password.

You could try to set permissions for "everyone" to read/write to a folder and see if you can access it then, and if you can them its a user/file sharing setting

its up to you, if you want to use the everyone file access if you feel your network is secure and what not

While I appreciate the fact that Microsoft tried to make networking "easy" in Windows 7, it sure hosed my network, as did Vista before it. I guess if I were setting up a home network from scratch, it would be fine, but the HomeGroup thing, for me, was a PITA. Here's how I fixed my networking problem in XBMC:

First, a bit about my setup. I am running Windows 7 Home Premium, with a Drobo connected via USB housing my movies, music, photos, etc. In my media room, I have another Windows 7 Home Premium computer. AppleTV2 on the patio and Vista in the living room. All are connected via gigabit LAN. I require a password on all computers, and am running AVGFree on all Windows machines. I should also mention that, on my Drobo NAS, I have a folder structure like this:
-- Apps
-- Files
-- Media
------ extras
------ movies_480
------ movies_720
------ movies_1080
------ music
------ photos
------ videos

On the computer that contains the files you want to share, set up the shared folders. For example, I share out the media folder on my Drobo NAS as "media" (no quotes). To do this, browse to the folder you want to share, right click and select Properties. Click the Sharing tab. Click the Share button. Select a group for the share and click Add - I selected Everyone. Next, select the Permission Level as either Read or Read/Write. Finalize your selection by clicking the Share button, wait for the permissions to be set, then click done. Before clicking Done, you will see the share UNC path as \\[computername]\[sharename], such as \\Gr8rTekPC\media

On the ATV2, I went in to System > File Manager > Add Source. Arrow over to Browse, click once and then select Add network location. Leave protocol set to Windows network (SMB), for server name, enter the computer name or IP address of the computer housing your files (I entered it manually instead of browsing). Under shared folder, enter the name of the share on your windows pc. You should not need to set a username and password (since the files are shared with Everyone from the previous step), but if you encounter a problem, try adding the username/password of the primary user/owner of the Win7 pc. Click OK to return to the previous window.

You should now see a new share, smb://Gr8rTekPC/media (using the data from our example above). Now, highlight the share, click to select, then select OK. You will return to the "Add Source" window, where you will finalize the name of the share for XBMC (media, in our example), and select OK to return to the File Manager screen. Your new share should be listed.

Now, if you go, for example, to Video > Files and select Add Videos, you can select your new share. In the Add Video Source window, select Browse. You should see your SMB share in the list. Click to select the SMB share, then select the sub-folder to list its contents. Click OK to get back to the Add Video Source window. Click OK again to be able to set the folder content. And then after making those settings, click OK one more time to be prompted to scan the folder and add the items to your library.

That is how I got my network running fluidly again. I hope it can work for you, too. Best of luck.

Your problems could have been because you used the Windows Homegroup crap. I didn't set up a Homegroup for my network as I read elsewhere that things like this work better without using the Homegroup.
You didn't really need to use the Homegroup thingy to set up your network and get XBMC running.

Mark

thanks for the replys but nothing is working.. i did have issues with this last time i set up my network due to the new server build.. it turned out to be drivers and i found ones that worked last time but cannot find sucessful ones now.. the ones i have installed now i cant even see the server from my htpc but my server can still see it and acess it

anyone have any proper drivers for me ? i am using this :

http://www.dabs.ie/products/asus-amd-ult...-70ZM.html

as my server build but those damn realtek drivers that came with the mobo cd are Ishhy!!

i should also add this minor problem.. on my server it reads the network name as just "network" wheras on all my other pc's it reads the proper network name "Dovado"

Here is a site where you can get drivers for your motherboard:

http://usa.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3.../#download

cheers for all your help guys

i just did a clean reinstall on the server and all seems well.. i just had to NOT update to the recomended drivers for my computer.. go figure eh! damn micr0soft