Desperate, please help - cannot see the Media Server Folder on TV!

[Deepak Agarwal]

Hi Guys


Successfully installed FreeNAS on an USB drive connected to one of my old PC's booting it off the USB. No issue here! This PC is running Windows XP SP3.
I notice something very unusual with my setup. Installing the MiniDLNA plugin - obviously after adding a new volume, assigning the "all open" permissions recursively (for testing) to this volume, adding a Windows Share and activating the CIFS and MiniDLNA, I was able to see this MediaServer on my Panasonic TV. However, this volume becomes inaccessible (invisible to the TV) once anything updated on this share. After this point, no matter what I do including rebooting, I cannot get is to shown up on my TV. The only way is start from scratch by deleting the volumes, adding permissions, adding Windows share, installing MiniDLNA plugins and loading media files to this share!

Not sure if this is how FreeNAS is intendedto work!

Just for your information guys, not that it is required, I also have my WDTV Live USB connected to this PC which has the FreeNAS software installed on and which has the MediaServer drive and my media files - just to test if it could access this NAS drive as it is on my network but it couldn't either!

Any assistance would be highly valued. Its just driving me crazy!



Best regards


Deepak

 

[marian78]

hi,

can you ping outside from jail to LAN ?

 

[Deepak Agarwal]

Hi marian78


From which PC - the one that FreeNAS is installed on or another one!

Further, how do I ping outside from jail to LAN? I only know to ping to a particular ip address!



Deepak

 

[pirateghost]

Ping the IP address of the jail from any machine on the network

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

[Deepak Agarwal]

I will try that when I get home tonight! Does the jail have a different IP address than the FreeNAS drive which hold the media files?

Sorry about these stupid questions but I really am very very new to this media streaming!


Deepak

 

[Deepak Agarwal]

I will try that when I get home tonight! Does the jail have a different IP address than the FreeNAS drive which hold the media files?

Sorry about these stupid questions but I really am very very new to this media streaming!


Deepak

 

[pirateghost]

Of course it has a different IP address. It's a jail.

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

[Deepak Agarwal]

Out of interest - what is the idea of a "Jail" in this context? Is it like another drive which is assigned its own IP address?


Deepak

 

[pirateghost]

It's kind of like a virtual machine. I am a little worried that you haven't bothered reading the documentation

Sent from my Nexus 5

 

[9C1 Newbee]

Yeah Deepak, you have some reading to do. http://doc.freenas.org/index.php/Main_Page

To ping from the Jail, I am pretty sure you need to go to the "Shell" in the little menu on the left, in the GUI.

 

[Deepak Agarwal]

Guys

Let me assure you all, I am not expecting to be spoon fed on this! And also that I did not some reading of the FreeNAS documentation - as much as I thought I needed to know at the time - I didn't know then that I would need to install MiniDLNA, I had presumed that what Ineeded was a volume to be added with the appropriate permissions, a share to be added and appropriate services turned on - this should enable the TV MediaServer to see this drive - which it did. The only problem was that once it was updated with additional data, it became inaccessible for some reason. That was when I started looking in this plugins business!

But point taken. I am going back to school and do some more reading on it.


Best regards


Deepak

 

[cyberjock]

I don't think anyone here is trying to dismiss you. DLNA is a unique creature because your TV(or any other device) behaves in weird(and sometimes bad) ways with DLNA. To boot, DLNA isn't trivial for most people to install. It's also not trivial for people get get the proper settings for permissions, jail settings, and even FreeNAS.

So with that list of "potential" causes for problems there's no good way to tell you where to go except to keep trucking along until you figure out what is wrong. Some TVs do not do DLNA properly so there's a slim chance that it is actually impossible to use with your device. This is where Plex and XBMC blossom because you don't use the TV(and its potentially ill-conceived DLNA design) to view your movies.

 

[Deepak Agarwal]

Mate


I fully understand that I am genuinely appreciative of all the help I am getting!

Hopefully, in the near future, I will get my TV to be able to see this FreeNAS drive and I might be ready to go with a MediaServer visible to all devices!!!!!


Thanks


Deepak

 

[Deepak Agarwal]

Hi marian78

I have just tried to ping the Jail from another PC and it can ping it! The screendump shows the IP4 address of the Jail - FYI

I also tried to ping another PC from Jail - the screendump of the results are also attached in the zip file!

If it can be pinged, now what else do I need to do?



Deepak

 

[Deepak Agarwal]

Hi Everyone

Further update :-

My WD TV Live also connected to the same switch can see the FreeNAS drive and play the contents - no problems!

The only problem is that my Panasonic TV's (TH-P50VT20A and TH-P42V20A - both these TV's are supposed to DLNA certified products - located in different rooms) are not able to see the MediaServer, although they can see the 'Friendly Name' of my Media Directory (DLNAMedia) - the screen that shows the details of the MiniDLNA plugin. However, what is cannot see or show me on the TVv screen are the folders inside this directory!

Does this help anyone to help me further!


Deepak

 

[cyberjock]

Does this help anyone to help me further!

No. AFAIK WDTV Live uses CIFS shares and not DLNA. At least when I helped a friend set one up 2 years ago I don't remember seeing anything about DLNA.

 

[9C1 Newbee]

Yes and no. It is true WDTV does use CIFS. But it can also stream from a DLNA source (I have never done WD says it can be done). It can also use NFS shares.

Might be a good idea to try and stream with the WD box to rule out the TV or Plugin.

 

[Deepak Agarwal]

Hi 9C1 Newbee

I can certainly stream with the WD - no problem but the issue remains that this will only stream to one of the two TV's that I have! Or else I will have to buy another one of those!

Given that I am testing this set up with a small HDD (500 GB), I will have to buy a bigger HDD - I was looking at 2 TB HDD (costs about AUD125) plus a one or a two bay NAS enclosure (min cost AUD 100 - DLink DNS320) total about AUD225 or thereabouts. In that scenario, would you think that I would be better off buying a 2TB NAS itself - may be for a little more? Would the ready to use NAS overcome this issue of visibility/accessibility to both of my TV's?


Deepak

 

[cyberjock]

I never trust the ready to use NASes. Many people here want an appliance that is simple to manage like the Ready to use stuff but they want something reliable. Those have been known to eat data for no reason and without warning.

 

[9C1 Newbee]

Hi Deepak,

My whole point in mentioning streaming with the WD box was not a solution. It was only to test the DLNA plugin on the freenas server. If you can stream using DLNA with the WD box, then I would suspect an issue with the TV. So when you say you can stream with the WD box, you are absolutely sure it is not via CIFS or NFS?

I can tell you are getting pissed and discouraged. LOL Take a breath. FreeNAS is something you will have to research to use. If you like to tinker, FreeNAS is for you. If you just prefer to just simply buy a solution there are some good options out there. Even my WDTV Live Hub can stream DLNA content. Plug in an external hard drive and BAM, done! My router can stream DLNA content as well. But I want MOAR. I also like to tinker with stuff. Pro's and con's to each. Only you know what is right for you.