Map As Network Drive W10

K

KTO2

Member
What am I missing please?

I have no problem setting the T2 as a 'mapped network drive' to my laptop (Windows 10 pro) and all works fine however if I put the T2 in standby using the button on the remote and turn the laptop off when I then turn both of them back on I get 'local device name is already in use' when I click on the drive in Windows File Explorer or 'Windows cannot access \\192.168.1.50\My Video' if I try to access the T2 by keying its IP instead.

I do not get the problem if I map the drive, reboot the T2 without rebooting the laptop or reboot the laptop without rebooting the T2. It is only when I do both at the same time.

I have a static IP set for the T2 both on the router and on the T2 and also have a separate (nothing to do with the T2) SSD plugged in to the router and mapped to my laptop the same way as I am trying to do the T2 and get no grief whatsoever.
 
What exactly have you done to make the content of the HDR-FOX* accessible on your network? You might have:
  1. Enabled the DNLA server;

  2. Installed the samba package for file serving by SMB protocol;

  3. Installed the nfs-utils package for file serving by NFS protocol.
This information will help readers understand and comment on any technical issues, although I have to say I think this is just Windows being awkward.

There is no need to map the network drive; network file sharing is (should be) accessible from any file selection dialogue or Explorer under "Network".

* HDR-FOX I presume, but there are several machines with "T2" in their title because that merely designates it has the ability to receive DVB-T2 transmissions.
 
Yes, HDR Fox T2 and it is Samba I use. The packages I have installed are shown below. Samba (for me) works fine and I can move stuff around the network no problem. The only problem I have is getting the T2 when mapped as a network drive to survive a reboot of both itself and the laptop.
 
are you remembering to ask windows to persist the connection?

net use z: "\\hummy\My Video" /persistent:yes
 
WHEHEY!!!! It worked, or at least in my case: net use y: "\\192.168.1.50\My Video" /persistent:yes did.

Any idea why I would have to do this for the T2 but not the SSD plugged in to the router?
 
At least either the laptop or router will be on. I am never in the situation where both are powered off at the same time as is the case with the T2 and laptop. I do however reboot the router (whilst the laptop is on) from time to time and power of the laptop daily whilst the router is still chugging away.
 
Quite possibly the "router"'s SMB file server stack implements some service advertisement that the samba package doesn't.
 
Quick update on this.

All was working fine yesterday and the mapped drive survived numerous test reboots/full power-offs of the T2, laptop and router but as of this morning the problem is back. Now that I understand a bit more about mapping drives and the terminology used I can do some Googling my end as from what Googling I have done so far it appears it is not a problem specific to the T2 or even SMB1.

The T2 has been in standby over night and the laptop powered off and it may well be that something is 'timing out' somewhere which didn't happen yesterday due to the amount of lapsed time between reboots/power-offs. Don't have much time available today but should be ok over the weekend to Google Play.
 
KTO2 said:
it appears it is not a problem specific to the T2 or even SMB1.
Click to expand...
Like I said, Windows can be quite truculent at times.

Try installing zeroconf *. IIRC, this helps make the HDR-FOX file share discoverable on the network (and not require drive mapping).

* Update: see below for the improved rev 2 of zeroconf, but I think you would have to enable beta participation to install it. See https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/beta-participation.7785/
 
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KTO2 said:
something is 'timing out' somewhere
Click to expand...
Hmm, this is just a shot in the dark, and might be totally wrong but it sounds a bit like a problem I was asked to fix with a neighbour's IP security camera and IP security recorder (both on Static IPs and running 24/7).

His new BT Hub kept timing out the link license to the recorder, I guess because the recorder was not pinging the Hub. The recorder does not support a user setting up a regular ping. BT Hub equally unfriendly. Bad words said.

However, if I connected both Ethernet feeds via the same local Ethernet switch (configured by the Hub as normal) instead of routing the stream through the Hub, then the problem went away. I assume this now works because the camera is streaming all the time and keeping the Hub happy and the link alive. My cheap solution was a 5-way gigaswitch rescued from my junk-box.
 
RichFX said:
My cheap solution was a 5-way gigaswitch rescued from my junk-box.
Click to expand...
A "switch" creates (effectively) a self-contained network, with traffic only being passed further up the hierarchy (ie to the router) if the target IP address is not connected directly to the switch. The switch itself learns what devices are local by evesdropping the initial traffic to the router. My homeplugs (powerline networking) work similarly, perfectly happy to keep the devices they serve communicating on their own sub-section of the network, even after upstream communication with the router has been lost for some reason (usually: that particular homeplug has crashed, or at least needs rebooting).

If true, it is an unfortunate feature of commodity routers that they try to be too clever. I ditched my (overly restrictive) BT Home Hub in favour of a Netgear I have control over (and doesn't broadcast a public hotspot which could sap my meagre 3Mbps bandwidth!).
 
Most switches operate at layer 2 although there are some multi-layered switches which operate at layer 3. The layer 2 switches know nothing about IP addresses or which is the connected router, instead they maintain a table of connected mac addresses which they use to route Ethernet packets between ports. It is the connected device's routing table that determines which networks/hosts are local and which should be sent to the gateway (router).
 
Black Hole said:
I ditched my (overly restrictive) BT Home Hub in favour of a Netgear
Click to expand...
Although on BT, I've only ever used one (actually three) of their unreliable, slow and too-hot-to-touch ADSL modems for about six months maybe twenty years ago.

Then it was a cool and excellent (but alas very insecure) Netgear DG834, later followed by a significantly faster and more secure TP-Link TD-W8970.
At work a couple of enthusiasts replaced firmware on several DG834 with their own brew to make it secure (beyond me however.)

Since VDSL appeared here, a Draytek Vigor 130 handles the line and the TP-Link remains as my gigabit router.

The BT-Smart-Hub-2 sits in its unopened box in the loft should they want it back if/when I change providers.
 
RichFX said:
The BT-Smart-Hub-2 sits in its unopened box in the loft should they want it back if/when I change providers.
Click to expand...
Has anyone ever been asked for their provider's router back? The up-front "installation charge" covers that.
 
RichFX said:
At work a couple of enthusiasts replaced firmware on several DG834 with their own brew to make it secure
Click to expand...
There's custom firmware for the DGND3700 V1 HERE, and open-source alternative firmware which will run on a variety of routers HERE (the most notable of which is OpenWrt). I don't have a suitable router, but I gather it is no more complicated than running CF on our HDR-FOXes.
 
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Black Hole said:
up-front "installation charge" covers that
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Agreed, usually. Just covering my back.
They forced VDSL on me, all at no charge since I ignored the preceding "special offers". The ADSL2 had been adequate and I had haggled a good deal, no point in messing it up by agreeing to anything new.
Sorry, this is drifting off topic.
 
I have done my Googling and the problem I have does not appear to be particularly uncommon. I have tried numerous suggestions but all to no avail and I am still none the wiser as to where the issue actually lies. There is no problem setting the mapped drive up and the icon stays in Windows File Explorer it just won't reconnect next day when I turn the laptop on followed by the T2.

I will be trying the suggestion by /df in post 12 probably next weekend on the basis of 'heigh-ho nothing to lose' and see what happens. Failing that I will probably just end up sticking with the long winded and arduous way of entering the IP address in File Explorer 🥺

Also, I have been using router CFW for years and can't recommend it enough. DD-WRT is my favourite but each to their own I suppose and yes, it is no more complicated than running CF on an HDR-FOX T2.
 
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