Connecting to SMB shares over a Domain network

[morelenmir]

Hey Forum!!!

I have been a user of VLC for nearly ten years and was extremely pleased to see it available as an 'App' for the XBoxOne. Unfortunately I am having problems connecting the player through the 'Browse' functionality to my SMB shares. My home network runs as a Domain under Windows Server 2003. I have several folders available on a file server specifically to hold media content--the collection of my ripped CD's in FLAC format for instance. These folders are shared normally and fully visible from every device on the network. However the VLC player on the XBox cannot authenticate.

I have made a specific user account for the XboxOne and made it a member of an appropriate User Group. This User Group is properly accredited to connect with the shared folder and has read access there. I use this group for all my media-player accounts to access my media folders. Again, all my other devices can see the share.

Let us say my domain is called: home-network.local
Let us say my VLC for XBox account is called: XBoxOne
Let us say my XBox account password is: Shared10Media

Using these account details I supply the VLC Browse authentication dialogue:

home-network.local;XBoxOne as the DOMAIN;Username entry.

and obviously:

Shared10Media as the password.

However when I try to 'Submit' these details nothing happens. The authentication screen vanishes for a moment but then obviously fails to connect and reappears.

Exactly the same thing happens if I use the pre-Windows 2000 Workgroup style domain name:

HOME-NETWORK;XBoxOne

and

Shared10Media

Again VLC fails to authenticate.

This quickly becomes a little frustrating as I have used every permutation I can think of:

home-network.local;XBoxOne@home-network.local

HOME-NETWORK;XBoxOne@home-network.local

and so on. All fail.

I would be very grateful for any advice the forum might have to solve this issue.

[mfkl]

Hello morelenmir,

Can you log in with other VLC apps (regular desktop, Android, iOS)?
Is your server using SMBv1? Only SMBv1 is supported at the moment.

Am afraid there are issue with Windows Server auth https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc-winrt/issues/141

[morelenmir]

Hey mfkl!!!

Yep, to the best of my understanding Server 2003 is SMB 1 only. I use it for my low-user-count home network so do not need any of the whizz-bang features that later active directory-based servers brought. In regards logging in from the desktop, I can certainly play music from my media server on my desktop Win7 machine using VLC. I assumed in that configuration VLC would just use the underlying file system provided by the desktop OS--Win7 can see the shares so VLC does too?

I have not tried putting VLC on to a tablet and connecting from there. I will give that a shot and get back to you.

[morelenmir]

So, I tested the version of VLC that is available for the Kindle Fire. The application installed properly and if I went to the 'Local Network' tab it could see all the machines on the local network that offer SMB shares--including the media server where I keep my music. However, if I tried to connect and open the contents of that server nothing happened except the android equivalent of an hourglass. It did not even ask me to supply the DOMAIN;Username and password.

So I guess right now VLC is not fully compatible with SMB shares, at least not when they are user account and password protected under a true domain network. A real shame as VLC is the best media player in existence. It would be marvellous to no longer go through the rigmarole of running a DNLA server to provide the XboxOne's native media player with the very limited list of containers and codecs it will accept. Here's hoping this gets sorted out in a future version!

[mfkl]

Can you try logging in with the VLC Windows 10 app from the Windows Store?
If you have the same issue then you can get the logs https://code.videolan.org/videolan/vlc- ... -find-logs