Accessing network problems, again- (Kind-of)SOLVED!

1st Official Post

    Up until yesterday morning the LE box was working just fine and able to access the media files that are on this Windows10 PC. For unrelated reasons I had to reboot this PC and after that the LE box cannot find this PC. It finds the other PC (Windows7) on the network, but not the one with the media files. (this one)
    I just checked and the LE box is on version 8.2.5

    A bit of help would be greatly appreciated. I've had a read of this page - LibreELEC (Krypton) v8.1.2 BETA – LibreELEC - but I don't know what a lot of the thing mean sorry.

    Edit 1 - I am trying to access the LE box via a browser & IP address but it's asking for a user & password. I have no idea what they'd be as I have never set any.

    • Official Post

    Win10 has probably applied updates during the reboot that change it's SMB configuration. It now requires an authenticated connection to shares so you need to edit sources (in Kodi and on Win10) and set credentials. Win10 will also expect an authenticated connection when it connects to the LE samba server; if you have enabled the user/pass function the default is libreelec/libreelec.

    Billzilla Can I suggest you read the section "SAMBA / SMB CHANGES" in the release notes:
    LibreELEC (Krypton) v8.2.1 MR – LibreELEC

    In particular the bullet point relating to "anonymous and guest shares" as you must now create a user with password in Windows 10 and add this user to your Windows 10 share ("the share account") then configure Kodi on LibreELEC with the username and password of your Windows 10 share account.

    If you've managed to setup a Windows share then you should now be able to add the required user, allocate it to the share you've already created, and then configure Kodi accordingly.

    Please be aware that the problem you are experiencing is not a LibreELEC issue - it's a problem caused by your Windows PC that you have updated and which you are responsible for.

    Quote from milhouse

    Billzilla Can I suggest you read the section "SAMBA / SMB CHANGES" in the release notes:
    LibreELEC (Krypton) v8.2.1 MR – LibreELEC

    In particular the bullet point relating to "anonymous and guest shares" as you must now create a user with password in Windows 10 and add this user to your Windows 10 share ("the share account") then configure Kodi on LibreELEC with the username and password of your Windows 10 share account.

    If you've managed to setup a Windows share then you should now be able to add the required user, allocate it to the share you've already created, and then configure Kodi accordingly.

    Please be aware that the problem you are experiencing is not a LibreELEC issue - it's a problem caused by your Windows PC that you have updated and which you are responsible for.

    Ta. I have read that section and as I've mentioned I don't fully understand what it all means. A bunch of people must have done it many times so it can't be all that difficult to explain. I'm guessing it's all tucked down somewhere in the Windows share options. The LE box must access the network stuff the same way for every LE box, and Windows doesn't create new obscure options for each and every LE box so it just can't be that difficult to do if you have a bit of knowledge. I know virtually nothing about networking unfortunately.

    • Official Post

    As I wrote in post #2 .. changes in Win10 mean Kodi needs to use an authenticated SMB connection to the Win10 shares. This means you need to set a user/pass (credential) on the Win10 share (as guest access no longer works after the update) and you need to (re)configure Kodi to access the 'source' (the Win10 share) using the same credential.

    I'm still no closer to finding a solution. I've looked at numerous pages and none of them seem to really have an answer that works. Can someone please point me to an appropriate page that shows me where to start working this out?
    The LE box is currently useless until I get it to access this W10 computer.

    The latest Windows 10 Spring Creators Update shut down my sharing again. I had to do this:

    Control Panel (view by category)

    Network and Internet

    Network and Sharing Center

    Change Advanced Sharing Settings

    Click on All Networks (arrow down)

    Turn on public folder sharing

    Media Streaming (turn on)

    Password Protected Sharing (I turn mine off) - you may have to turn this on (try both)

    Click "Save Changes" (bottom of page) for any changes made

    This got my sharing going again

    Edited 2 times, last by blueribb (May 17, 2018 at 2:31 PM).

    If you don't understand the instructions given to you in this thread, you should seek a friend or relative that can help you. I had the same issue that you're having and the good folks here stepped me through setting up a working SMB network. It took me a while to fully understand what is going on.

    Good Luck

    I'd also wonder a little if the IP address of the Win10 PC has been changed/reassigned by the router when it rebooted.

    If so the links within KODI may now point to the wrong address and so failing? You can see the IP address in the web dashboard page of the router (usually) and the address that the LE source is using by editing it.

    Quote from blueribb

    If you don't understand the instructions given to you in this thread, you should seek a friend or relative that can help you. I had the same issue that you're having and the good folks here stepped me through setting up a working SMB network. It took me a while to fully understand what is going on.

    Good Luck

    Yes I've asked a friend who's much better at this than I am. I was also hoping that someone here could also step me through the process but that hasn't happened.


    Quote from DarrenHill

    I'd also wonder a little if the IP address of the Win10 PC has been changed/reassigned by the router when it rebooted.

    If so the links within KODI may now point to the wrong address and so failing? You can see the IP address in the web dashboard page of the router (usually) and the address that the LE source is using by editing it.

    It probably has, but the LE box can't find this computer on the network so we haven't got that far yet.

    Okay I've found the thread that blueribb started and it's quite helpful. On it is a post from CypherZ ->

    Quote

    smb://<IP of your pc>

    • Add a extra user on your pc
    • Give that user a password
    • for example : user : Kodi password: kodi

    Go to the shares on your pc that need to be shared for kodi.

    Rightclick the shares, select share and select the user you just made to have access.

    Do that for all folders you want to share with Libreelec.

    Go to Libreelec, and add the shares and give in the username and password of the created user on your pc.

    I've done all of that. When I try to connect with the LE box, an 'invalid argument' error window pops up. Maybe I'm not getting the syntax or something not quite correct, I'm not sure. Anyway, some screen-captures from this W10 box, to make sure what I've done so far is correct.

    • Official Post

    The "Kodi" user needs to have a password. Then you need to edit the existing 'sources' in Kodi to use that username/password (credential) when accessing the shares on the Win10 box. That can be done in the GUI (edit source). It can also be done manually by accessing the LE box over SSH and editing /storage/.kodi/userdata/sources.xml in a text editor (nano). As scary as that might sound it's often the quicker and easier way to edit things. The URL's in sources.xml need to be in smb://user:pass@server/path format.