XBMC4Xbox

Ok guys, I just spent hours pulling my hair out with my new Win7 install trying to remember how it's done... There was just one little annoying part I kept forgetting so for those of you that are still struggling to get a Samba share working with the xbox here goes...

1) Share Your Directories:
Find a directory you want to share, please note you can't share the whole drive it has to be folders (or at least I haven't found a way of sharing a whole drive/partition). Right click on the folder and go to Properties and click on the "Sharing" tab. Now click "Share..." and from the dropdown menu select "Everyone" - this bit is important, make sure you click on "ADD". Once that's all done just click on the "Share" button at the bottom and your folder should now be shared.

2) Enable Sharing For Sub Folders
You might think that's all you have to do but for reasons unknown, M$ in their ultimate wisdom decided to make it as non user-friendly as possible! So whilst still in the properties window of the folder you want shared click on the "Security" tab at the top. Now click on "Advanced" and "Change Permissions". To be able to access the content in your shared folder from the xbox you'll need to tick "Replace all child object permissions with inheritable permissions from this object" (that command just rolls of the tongue nicely doesn't it!). Once done you can ok this and then just ok out of the properties window.

3) Not Quite Finished Yet...
This is the bit that I was struggling with on my new install and I still don't fully understand why I had to do this but anyway here goes... Right click on "Computer" (if it's not on the desktop you can right click on Computer in the start menu) and select "Properties". Now click on "Advanced System Properties" which is located on the left. Click the "Computer Name" tab and then "Network ID", you need to select the "This is a home computer; it's not part of a business network" radio button. Ok this then click on the "Change" button and make sure your a member of "workgroup". If workgroup is ticked but the text is called something else just rename it to "WORKGROUP", now once you ok out of this it will ask you for a reboot. Allow the reboot and your Win7 should be setup for SMB Shares.

4) Over To The Xbox...
If all went to plan you should be able to access your SMB shares. Do a test and add a source either in Videos or Music (go to the relevant section and then select "Add Source". If you browse you should find the third from bottom entry is "WORKGROUP (SMB Share)" or something like that so click on that one. Hopefully you should see "WORKGROUP" and once you click on that you should be able to navigate to your folders. If it asks for a username and password and you don't have them set up follow the next step...

5) Disable Passwords (Optional)
The xbox may ask you for a username and password, if this is the case and you don't have them setup simply disable this feature by going to Control Panel>Network & Internel>Choose Homegroup & Sharing Options>Change Advanced Sharing Settings. The second from bottom option should be about Password Protected Sharing, just turn this off.

I hope those settings help someone out, that's what worked for me I'm not saying that's the best way to do it but I can at least confirm it works.

Thanks, I'll give it a try later

When I tick "This is a home computer; it's not part of a business network" and restart, when I check it again it's always the other option which is ticked in XBMC I always get the message "Invalic computer name", I did all like the tutorial instructions ...
Is there another easy way to share media from the PC?? I start to give up on SMB Sharing it drives me nuts...

At what point does it give you "invalid computer name"? Does it show the WORKGROUP when you click on SMB Share on xbox? My Win7 also defaults back to the business network thing when I check it but so long as I don't check back in that section it seems to work, if I do go back in that section I just tick home network again and restart.

I also find if you joined a homegroup that can also cause problems so I always leave that, I don't have any use for it anyway - SMB shares are just fine for me.

It doesn't show the WORKGROUP when I look for SMB, WORKGROUP is only in the settings menu

For me it Was easy on Windows 7
But when i installed Samba On my Linux

OMG ...Major pain in the Backside
still havent got it all str8 and i love to use my Linux More than Win7 any day of the week but somethings are Just easer to use in Win7 but they Come with a Price too...# justsayin

My problem is with external usb HDD. OS is Win7. Using xbmc4xbox 3.2 stable. Can share all 4 external usb HDD via upnp. However, under smb, I can only access one of the HDD. The accessed HDD is Fat32 as is two of the non accessed. The third unaccessed is NTFS. Help! (Also tried 3.01 with same results)

thank you! i was looking for this since win7 came out, somehow xbmc4xbox is incompatible with my win7's DLNA (will not work as DMR) so im happy that i can watch movies now
i also translated the howto in my blog to german.

by the way if you have only anonymous-shares you dont need to change the encryption.

I've found SMB Sharing in Windows 7 is straight forward with a stock install, but other factors such as setting per folder permissions and 3rd party software like anti-virus/anti-malware/firewall can interfere with the broadcasting and/or using the port associated with the SMB protocol. AKA it comes down to the users environment. Plus router settings can mess with SMB.

Under Linux it can also be very easy or a pain depending on your distro, but isn't upgrading Java a pain too?

I've spent just as much time trying to find what's blocking SMB on some Win7 machines as I've had configuring it on distro's of Linux that had been either customized or were lacking the support to begin with.

It's a good basic guide though.

my roommate also has a problem: activating shares is not being saved and reverts to the old setting as soon as you leave the advances-sharing-Dialog.
Did not find the reason either - most likely any seure-programm but not sure...

For some reason, I need to enter a Name/PW everytime I go into workgroup/kenny/downloads. I've followed the original post to no avail. Anyone else experiencing this?

Anyone?

Sorry it could be any number or things but it sounds like the problems I was having before I ticked the "Replace all child object permissions with inheritable permissions from this object" box.

I set mine to work off a network Hdd and all work great, but can games be played this way as well?

No afraid not. Some roms for emulators will work but Xbox games won't.

Never hurts to ask, thanks for the quick response.

OMFG I hate you.

But this is one reason I use linux, setting up a samba share is a piece of cake.

Yeah I'm very impressed with fibre broadband, it worked out about the same as I was paying Sky for standard 16mbps broadband. I really only upgraded as my upload speeds were shocking with Sky but now I have a nice little home server that I can access from anywhere with good speeds.

If I didn't use my PC for gaming I'd also be on Linux

I finally got to setup a samba share with the computer, but when I turn off the console and turn it on, it's impossible to access the movies and music I already added... What am I doing wrong?

If there is a username and password, save it in XBMC, but set up a new user with only limited access as this password will be stored in plain text. IE not your Administrator user/password on your PC.

I have a "Remember for this path" option when presented with a login prompt when adding the password protected share.

Add source > Browse > Windows network (SMB) > [select protected share] > [enter credentials] & Remember for this path > OK

Personally, I *share* only a couple folders with my media all in subdirectories, rather than many shares. I then add the shared folder to my sources in the File Manager (white button). Finally, I add the subdirectories from my network share to the media sections sources (video, music, pictures).


|-Media (shared) [File manager source] *Remember user/pass!*
|--Music [Music source]
|--Movies [Video source]
|--Series [Video source]


... By the way, it is never recommended to share a whole drive/root drive folder. So if any of you guys did it that way I would recommend fixing this. It's just best practice.