Lose Workgroup

[kamotz]

Hello RMerlin,

First thing to thank you, for your effort in bring to us a fine firmware.

But I've a really annoying problem.

For some reason that I don't understand at some point y lose the possibility to see my network, all the machines in my workgroup vanish (Synology NAS, WDTV, etc).

I can access all with previous links, but I can't see them in my network

And in my WDTV I can only see my NAS the PC is gone.

I've done a lot of things:

1º Reformat Windows
2º Reboot Router
3º Restore previous config (that work)

And the only thing that works is restore factory default.

Can you please help?

BR,

 

[kamotz]

By the way,

My router is the network's Master Browser.

 

[kamotz]

OK!

This is strange, I follow your advise in other post

"You can make sure that a computer running Windows has the Computer Browser service running by using the following command in a command prompt:

net start

Make sure that "Computer Browser" appears in the list."

And all my WORKGROUP is OK!, but in the services started I cant find "Computer Browser"

 

[RMerlin]

Do you have a USB disk plugged on the router? If you don't, then the router won't act as a Master Browser, because Samba doesn't get started then. That could explain having those random browsing issues even with the Master Browser option enabled on the router.

Just as an experiment, plug a USB flash drive to your router, then reboot it. See if your network browsing becomes more stable then after a few days like this.

 

[RMerlin]

BTW, one very useful tool to quickly determine who is the Master Browser of a given workgroup is the tool found on this page.

 

[kamotz]

BTW, one very useful tool to quickly determine who is the Master Browser of a given workgroup is the tool found on this page.

Thank you very much RMerlin, it's very useful.

Right now I don't have problems (since my yesterday netstat)

If the problem persist I will follow your advise and plug an USB flash drive.

BR,

PS: I know you from WDLXTV, our WDTV it's very much dead no new firmware. What is the best Media player right know? An android based Player?

 

[RMerlin]

Thank you very much RMerlin, it's very useful.

Right now I don't have problems (since my yesterday netstat)

If the problem persist I will follow your advise and plug an USB flash drive.

BR,

PS: I know you from WDLXTV, our WDTV it's very much dead no new firmware. What is the best Media player right know? An android based Player?

Personally I built my own HTPC with a Zotac mini PC, running Ubuntu + XBMC. Couldn't be happier, aside from the lack of Netflix.

b-rad has been working recently on porting WDLXTV on the WDTV Live Streaming. Check the WDTV forums for the thread about the current state of things, it's still in alpha/beta, with some things not working yet.

If the extra features from WDLXTV aren't that important to you just yet, the WDTV Live Streaming is still a very good player.

 

[2000wolf]

BTW, one very useful tool to quickly determine who is the Master Browser of a given workgroup is the tool found on this page.

THx! Great Tool...

BTW: Though my RT-N66U is runnin as an AP without forced Master Browser feature the tool tells me that the router is the Master Browser. Even if I switch on my NAS with enabled Master Browser the router still is the MB.

Is it possible that all computers connected to my LAN just have elected / negotiated that the RT-N66U becomes the "highest priority MB"?

 

[RMerlin]

THx! Great Tool...

BTW: Though my RT-N66U is runnin as an AP without forced Master Browser feature the tool tells me that the router is the Master Browser. Even if I switch on my NAS with enabled Master Browser the router still is the MB.

Is it possible that all computers connected to my LAN just have elected / negotiated that the RT-N66U becomes the "highest priority MB"?

It's possible. In a typical setup, each device has a "priority". All Windows XP/Vista/7 will have a certain priority. All Windows servers will have a higher priority. Whoever has the highest priority wins the election. Forcing Master Browser on the router will give the router the highest priority possible, meaning it would beat even servers.

In your case, it's possible that the router has the same priority by default than a regular PC, which means it might win or lose the election.

 

[kamotz]

Well... it happens again.

And I don't know why, as you can see the tool that Rmerlin mentioned gives an error. And workgroup lost again. I can access my NAS but I can't see it in my NETWORK.

 

[RMerlin]

Best guess is, something on your network won the election, but has a firewall/security software that prevents other clients from connecting to it to obtain the list of devices in the workgroup.

Beyond that I have no idea, sorry.