Whilst I holiday I managed to get my N95 to access shared drives on my laptop but more by fluke than anything else.
Now I'm back home and having reinstalled the application, I'm trying to get access the content of my MediaCenter PC from my N95.
I've created the Account using the computer name of MEDIAPC as the domain - this is the name of the PC on my WiFi network. I've also used the username as in Control Panel User Accounts.
If I recall correctly, and reading the somewhat unhelpful but not helpful user guide, the only other setting needed is Network Drive and it is this area which is causing the problem. Name, Drive, Access Point and Account are all straightforward.
But what do I put in Host? Do I look up the local IP address of my MediaCenter PC (192.168.2.3) and put that in there? Or do I reference the workgroup name of the network (OFFICE) or a combination or what?
Finally, what goes in Share? I want to access drive L on my MediaCenter PC and I had thought L:\ would suffice. But clearly not!
Any help much appreciated.
F
\hi did you get this working,. i was at it for 3hours other night and at 12pm i thought oh ar*e to it and gave up...
in the host u are suppose to put the ip of the pc you are hosting the files you wish to share...for example u have music on your pc and you share out a folder called music
the host would be pc ip address -192.168.0.1
the share would be music
but i tried and tried and jsut kept getting a time out message
Yes I did get it working and no I didn't! :argh:
The key is what to put in Host and Share settings. Here's what I did.
In Host, put the name of the PC not the IP address. This will also be the first part of what is displayed for the Account setting in the box above.
In my instance, my PC is called MEDIAPC so in Host I put MEDIAPC
On my MEDIAPC, using File Explorer and the Sharing option, I have various folders shared on our home network, one of which is My Documents.
So in Share I put My Documents
Hey presto, I could now access the My Documents (and all sub folders) of my Media Center PC from my N95.
However, I also have a couple of external hard drives connected to this same PC labelled L: and M:. I share the entire drive across the network. But putting L: or L:\ in the Share setting didn't work.
So I can access individually named directories on my C:\ drive but at the moment I can't replicate that for other drives.
Hope that works.
F
P.S. Make sure any firewall (Windows, Norton, etc) allows access to your N95.
I turned the firewall off while testing, but what settings did u add to your firewall...ie ports. forwarded if any???
Cheers might have a nother go tonight and waste a few more hours!!!
I didn't make any changes or forward any ports in my case. But previously I seem to recall moving the MAC address of my N95 into the "trusted" section of Norton 360 as it had automatically placed it in an "unauthorised" section pending my approval.
However, try the above (if not already). That is in Host put the name of your PC and in Share but a directory name you share watching for the correct upper and lowercase characters.
Just tried it on my work PC and again I can successfully access My Music.
Let me know how it goes.
F
P.S. Only Windows Firewall on this PC and did nothing to it to make it work.
ffcphone wrote:Yes I did get it working and no I didn't! :argh: However, I also have a couple of external hard drives connected to this same PC labelled L: and M:. I share the entire drive across the network. But putting L: or L:\ in the Share setting didn't work.
So I can access individually named directories on my C:\ drive but at the moment I can't replicate that for other drives.
If you right click on the L or M drive in windows explorer and select properties and then click on the sharing tab, you should see a checkbox selected that says 'share this folder' and underneath that a box called share name - by default this is probably L$ and M$. You need to put the share name into share box in SymSMB2
Top dog! Thanks mate. Works a treat.
So for all others out there who find the official documentation not overly friendly, the contentious settings are Host and Share. In Host type the name of your PC as indicated by Control Panel -> System -> Computer Name and under Share type the official share name as indicated by Windows Explorer -> right click shared drive/folder -> Sharing -> Share name:
Sorted.
:icon14:
F
yeah this works for me now too, ace....and only took 5 mins..
??? though, do you get a launch option I was hoping to stream off my local pc but I can only copy and paste, the help on the phone says a launch option should be shown or clicking selct should start the relevant app..
Thanks for yr Help
W
ffcphone wrote: In Host, put the name of the PC not the IP address. This will also be the first part of what is displayed for the Account setting in the box above.In my instance, my PC is called MEDIAPC so in Host I put MEDIAPC
On my system (Windows XP Media Center Edition), I can only access network drives from the N95 to the PC if I define the host within SymSMB using the IP address of the PC and not the PC Name.
Any ideas?
ffcphone wrote:
However, I also have a couple of external hard drives connected to this same PC labelled L: and M:. I share the entire drive across the network. But putting L: or L:\ in the Share setting didn't work.
On Windows XP, the root drive of a letter is not shared by default. You need to manually create a share on the drive letters in question, within XP. I recommend making root drives hidden shares. e.g. sharename$
ffcphone wrote:
P.S. Make sure any firewall (Windows, Norton, etc) allows access to your N95.
I also had to set the F-Secure Firewall on the N95 to
Allow Alldez_borders wrote:On my system (Windows XP Media Center Edition), I can only access network drives from the N95 to the PC if I define the host within SymSMB using the IP address of the PC and not the PC Name.
Any ideas?
Peculiar seeing as MEDIAPC in my case is also running XP Media Center Edition and works fine using the computer name rather than the actual IP address which, of course, if the router is rebooted, may result in a change to the IP address if multiple PCs connected to same router, for example. Hence computer name is the preferred setting for ease of use.
Not wishing to be rude but I assume you're entering the computer name PRECISELY as advised by Control Panel -> System -> Computer Name -> Full computer name. In most home network setups it's not the Workgroup name that gets entered into SymSMB either. (Letter case may well be crucial here also.)
dez_borders wrote:On Windows XP, the root drive of a letter is not shared by default. You need to manually create a share on the drive letters in question, within XP. I recommend making root drives hidden shares. e.g. sharename$
I just started the share at the root and everything else followed although I am talking about non-system booting hard drives here ie the root of drive C is not shared. Perhaps XP handles non-booting drives differently by default?
dez_borders wrote:I also had to set the F-Secure Firewall on the N95 to Allow All
Makes sense I guess. When I first tried to share files and printers between laptop and Media Center PC Norton 360 had to be coerced into allowing the MAC addresses to be "trusted" before sharing would successfully occur.
F
winker wrote:yeah this works for me now too, ace....and only took 5 mins..??? though, do you get a launch option I was hoping to stream off my local pc but I can only copy and paste, the help on the phone says a launch option should be shown or clicking selct should start the relevant app..
Thanks for yr Help
W
the launch option isnt available for remote shares on the N95. They did write the code to do this, but to get it certified by Nokia required more time and money. If the current version sells well, and they can get it certified by Nokia, then a new release might have this functionality.
Other people have used ORB to stream stuff from their pc to their phone, which is apparently very easy to set up. I use slimserver and nokia internet radio to do this as it works on machines other than windows ones (but it is quite fiddly to set up)
ffcphone wrote: Peculiar seeing as MEDIAPC in my case is also running XP Media Center Edition and works fine using the computer name rather than the actual IP address which, of course, if the router is rebooted, may result in a change to the IP address if multiple PCs connected to same router, for example. Hence computer name is the preferred setting for ease of use.
I thought of that, and checked what IP my PC was using on DCHP (192.168.0.3) using IPCONFIG, then reconfigured it to permanrntly use this address. That way the N95 will always be able to find the PC and vice versa. (I forgot to mention the PC can only see the N95 shares if I also use IP address on that - the connection in N95 App says 192.168.0.4, not the Device name?).
ffcphone wrote:
Not wishing to be rude but I assume you're entering the computer name PRECISELY as advised by Control Panel -> System -> Computer Name -> Full computer name. In most home network setups it's not the Workgroup name that gets entered into SymSMB either. (Letter case may well be crucial here also.)
It's ok you are not being rude, my PC is named Dez and I tried the name as case-sensitive and also in upper-case but no luck. I ignored my workgroup name ('WORKGROUP'😉 and didn't enter it.
ffcphone wrote:
I just started the share at the root and everything else followed although I am talking about non-system booting hard drives here ie the root of drive C is not shared. Perhaps XP handles non-booting drives differently by default?
With XP Media Centre Edition (and probably also with Vista) sharing is very much tied down by default. It is possible to share the C: root folder, but even then, certain folders such as \windows\* are all 'access-denied'.
dez_borders wrote:I thought of that, and checked what IP my PC was using on DCHP (192.168.0.3) using IPCONFIG, then reconfigured it to permanrntly use this address. That way the N95 will always be able to find the PC and vice versa. (I forgot to mention the PC can only see the N95 shares if I also use IP address on that - the connection in N95 App says 192.168.0.4, not the Device name?).
I don't quite see why entering Dez in the Host setting won't allow everything to work. Have you been able to successfully access your PC's shared folders from another PC connected to the same router? Obviously, if you've only got one PC you won't be able to try but I was just wondering whether other PCs had successfully accessed the folders thereby ruling out an issue of Dez refusing to share.
I had a problem once where only a couple of the shared folders would come up on the other PC and a registry "tweak" was needed to fix it so all shared folders appeared in My Network Places. I could map a drive to the non-displayed shared folders fine however.
Incidentally, I've never tried accessing the N95 from a PC although I did once enter settings in Connection on SymSMB and, as you rightly say, when connected an IP address is displayed. However, remember the IP address is the address of your N95, presumably displayed for your convenience rather than anything else. I don't think the N95 has the ability to store a "device short name" such that WiFi will recognise it. Bluetooth and USB connections are a different matter of course.
With XP Media Centre Edition (and probably also with Vista) sharing is very much tied down by default. It is possible to share the C: root folder, but even then, certain folders such as \windows\* are all 'access-denied'.
Interesting to note. Learn something new everyday.
Look forward to hearing whether file sharing is possible with other PCs.
F
P.S. I presume you are also correctly entering the shared folder name as per the share tab in Windows Explorer?
ffcphone wrote:I don't quite see why entering Dez in the Host setting won't allow everything to work. Have you been able to successfully access your PC's shared folders from another PC connected to the same router? P.S. I presume you are also correctly entering the shared folder name as per the share tab in Windows Explorer?
Yes, and Yes. I have a laptop that can access the PC shares using the format \\dez\sharename. On the N95 I have to use IP address indeeat of 'Dez'.
I can live with things this way, as now I know how to get the N95 to see the PC shares OK, was just wondering if anyone had any ideas?
Will be interesting to see if a reason is found for this.
F
It depends on how your network is set up.
I have a Windows 2003 domain controller, with DHCP and DNS servers running.
My N95 can connect to shares no problem by using the server's hostname. Without a DNS server on the network, it won't resolve the name.
help help help please.
I have tried everything mentioned in the above posts, but get no where.
Could someone please give me a step by step guide.
there is a video on Symsmb forum about vieing N95 on PC, which worked like a treat.
does anyone know if there a video to follow for setting up viewing pc files on N95.
Cheers guys, i hope someone can help
dez_borders wrote:Yes, and Yes. I have a laptop that can access the PC shares using the format \\dez\sharename. On the N95 I have to use IP address indeeat of 'Dez'.
When you use a hostname for connection (e.g. dez) the N95 has to lookup its IP address on a DNS server first, which is what's actually used for the communication (well, it's actually the MAC address which is obtained using ARP, but that's irrelevant...). I assume the reason hostnames don't work is because your N95 doesn't have a DNS server for the lookup.
If your N95 is getting its IP address automatically from the wireless router via DHCP, the DNS server IP is handed out using DHCP as well - look into the configuration for your router, there should be a place to set the DHCP settings, one of which would be the DNS server address. Usually the router also acts as a DNS relay so you'd have its own IP in there (192.168.1.1 in my example).