Can't serve media from SMB shares

[hamaholic]

I am on my second day of trial. This is one of several issues I would like to get resolved before I buy it, which hope to do :) . I read the FAQ about adding credentials but it doesn't address my problem.

I have a network file server that has protected shares (requiring passwords) and open shares (i.e., they are shared with EVERYONE, R/W privilege). I Mezzmo does not export the SMB shares to my DLNA devices. The FAQ says to give account and password credentials on the SMB server for the Mezzmo to use for login. The point is, there IS no login for the open files. They do not require password access. I have an account and password on that machine, of course, but I certainly don't want to give Mezzmo's service that administrative account and password. This would negate the security that is set up on the file server.

Windows has some strange ways about how it handles anonymous or guest users. There are some requirements about encrypted/decrypted passwords, whether the account is "GUEST" or "ANONYMOUS", etc. There are a lot of factors which I have to relearn whenever i want to understand it, but shouldn't Mezzmo be able to access the wide-open shares on that server?
Thanks,
Dean

[JohnM]

Hi hamaholic
Welcome to the forums. The login credentials for Mezzmo are to allow it to start the server process when the system boots. The SMB shares can have different types of security which will affect how you access the folder. It sounds like you are using the more secure user level security. This relies on the user being validated by machine/user/password before it allows access to the file system. This will not work well since the dlna client does not understand how to get the credentials. The less secure model of share level security is more appropriate. This type does not rely on a user being validated but the simple sharename/password combination (password can be blank). I assure you that it does work with Mezzmo. All of my media is kept on my network NAS and can be accessed by any of my dlna clients (7-blurays, 6-pcs and multiple phone/tablets).

[hamaholic]

Hmm.
The share level security may be more appropriate for Mezzmo, but certainly not for my network. I saw someone suggested that I create a user account on my server that matches my Mezzmo account user/password and give it full r/w access. I will try it later. I have already spent about 6 hours in the last day, and I just downloaded 20 hours ago! Just a day in the life of home media networking, I guess. I'll try the user account work-around later and perhaps add those to the credentials manager, as given in the FAQ.
Thanks,
Dean

[hamaholic]

I believe I have it working. I am starting over from scratch because now I am seeing a folder repeated (and the intended one is missing). But the solution that appeared to work was to simply change the service configuration to start with the user & password of the account where Mezmo is running (instead of the default, system). It did show the files on the drive that was previously blank, and served them up to my Samsung UNC55C6500. That's progress! Thanks to the FAQ and all who have replied to similar threads on this topic!
Dean

[Paul]

Glad you got up and running, Dean. If you have any further questions or problems, let us know and we'll help out.