Win 7 Media serving RPi clients "Cant Connect to server" and "Connection timed out"

General Discussion
1

Title says it all, I have seen the same issues with no resolutions. So I just want to get some clarification before I start redoing things.

Current setup, Windows 7 Ultimate with multiple connected USB 3.0/2.0 connected ext HDDs, all shared and accessible on the LAN. 2 Client RPis, one running RaspBMC final(Kodi) on RPi B0 and one running OSMC RC4 on RPi B+. Static IP addresses at the router assigned via MAC addresses.

Currently, overnight library updates on the OSMC RPi leaves me in the morning with “cannot connect to server” with sources added as smb://192.x.x.x/folder/. Only cure to reconnect is reboot Win 7 machine with ext USB HDDs., then rebootOSMC RPi and rescan library, tedious obviously.

My question is, I have enabled in Kodi on the Win 7 “server” to share libraries via uPnP etc. Will this allow a more stable “source” for the RPi to not lose their connection daily by switching the RPi to use the sources as upnp://192.x.x.x/folder/ ? I know samba isn’t the greatest but I needed something that Windows could connect to to write to RPis ext HDDs. I guess if I need to put something on there I could just use the file manager in Kodi and copy it over.

Also will using uPnP as a source pull down the uPnP “servers” data for particular piece of media instead of scraping? Will this also include start/stop/pause resume points for “syncing” from client to client? Basically if I share it via uPnP, and I pasue or stop a movie in the livingroom where the Win 7 “server” has the primary media sources will I be able to resume at same point of movie on RPi clients in other rooms?

I attempted MySQL and it failed horribly, not building complete database, only a partial from initial setup, no new media was updated to the RPi clients. All media was current and updated on Win 7 and the same said media was available via Vidoes > Files > Source and played, could be renamed/deleted(so it wasn’t a share permissions issue)

Anyway enough ramblings, thanks for any input.

2

Alpha4 or RC2? These kinds of details are important. I would also never recommend upnp, at least samba (when limited to windows servers) but nfs if possible. Also, providing debug logs includes a huge amount of info for us and relieves you from having to dig around to find/provide it. We’ve included the log uploader in MyOSMC settings to benefit us all.

3

If you’re having to reboot your Windows 7 machine to get it working again, surely the problem lies there ?

Keep in mind that desktop/workstation versions of Windows have a maximum client limit of 10 simultaneous connections for SMB shares, if you have a number of devices on your network or some devices open multiple parallel connections this limit can easily be exceeded.

Rebooting “fixes” it because all the currently active connections are terminated.

4

Sorry, that should have been RC2 idw I typed 4. With just the 2 RPis accessing regularly.

I will check the log deal and see if I see anything out of the norm, just getting annoyed lol.

5

ok, got the log deal setup and i dont have to see the stuff on screen thats not relevant other then telling me the logs running.

now to just wait and see if it shows anything in the log for the windows system