VB 3 knocks out Windows shares

[castalla]

I've discovered that VB 3 (and 2.2.2) knocks out Windows shares on my network.

I have a wifi radio which can access other Windows shares on a NAS and also on my PC.

When VB is installed - the radio can no longer 'see' the PC - it still accesses the NAS.

I believe the network adapter is set to bridged.
In fact, VB doesn't need to be running - simply installing VB afects the sharing behaviour on the network.

Any ideas?

ps: an earlier VB (2.1.4) didn't interfere with sharing.

pps: I switched to VB from VMware because this had the same effect.

[Lothur]

So to restate your problem, when you install 2.2.2 (2.2.4?) or 3.0.0 your wifi radio can no longer see shares on your host system? Or is it shares on a guest system?

I'm guessing host system. What OS is your host system? I'm guessing Vista?

Have you tried uninstalling your prior VBox versions, rebooting and then installing? That's always worth a try.

I personally have struggled mightily with heterogeneous peer-to-peer networking with XP, Vista, and Win7 systems. Usually the XP systems would not be visible from the Vista systems but with many variations on this theme. I would assume that the wifi radio would probably be functioning more like an XP system than a Vista system (just a guess).

The tool that allowed me to solve my issues (within the limitations of Windows peer-to-peer networking) was browstat.

http://networking.nitecruzr.net/2005/05 ... osoft.html

It's not the most user-friendly command-line tool but it allowed me to see that one XP system was attempting to be the browser master at the same time as a Vista/Win7 system. Once that happens the XP systems are not directly visible to the Vista/Win7 systems. This is not the layered topography issue but conflicting master browsers with separate lists of visible systems.

This tool doesn't work on Win7 due to a missing dll entry point.

Here's a command-line reference (for what it's worth):

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/libr ... 10%29.aspx

Remember that you don't have to fully specify the transport name but can give the shortcut number you get from dumpnet.

[castalla]

Thanks for the reply.

You are correct on all points. Host system is Vista, Shares are on the host.

I had uninstalled previous VB versions - the only one which worked for shares was 2.1.4. The fall=over started with 2.2.2.

It's definitely connected with the install of VB. I uninstalled it and Shares became instantly available to the radio.

Thanks for the links - look a bit intimidating for my limited knowledge!

[Lothur]

That's very strange. I've never had VBox impact my share visibility that I'm aware of. Is there a way in the wifi radio settings to specify the IP address and not the machine name? Network discovery is all about the name resolution, IP addresses are usually always usable even if the name is not.

The browstat command-line seems complex but if you just poke at it a bit it starts to make some limited sense. Each option gives you help on how to complete the command with that option. The two tricks are substitute your workgroup name where you see "domain" and use the transport number from dumpnet where it asks for transport.

You might look at trying to mess with the Virtual-Box Host-Only Ethernet Adapter properties settings. You could try turning on and off the two Link-Layer Topology Discovery options. These could impact network discovery.

[castalla]

The problem arises as soon as I install VB - it doesn't have to be running. So it must be something to do with the network installation which VB creates.

The radio has a Search for Windows Shares option - it lists the shared 'computers' which it finds, eg. \\NAS, \\BB1. With VBox only \\NAS is listed. When I uninstall, then \\NAS and \\BB1 are shown.

[castalla]

The problem arises as soon as I install VB - it doesn't have to be running. So it must be something to do with the network installation which VB creates.

The radio has a Search for Windows Shares option - it lists the shared 'computers' which it finds, eg. \\NAS, \\BB1. With VBox only \\NAS is listed. When I uninstall, then \\NAS and \\BB1 are shown.

[castalla]

Okay ...

I ran browstat status on my Vista (VB not installed) and I get this:

Code: Select all

D:\>browstat status


Status for domain MSHOME on transport \Device\NetBT_Tcpip_{F636F5DB-1948-4FE4-8C
96-26DE62F2D861}
    Browsing is active on domain.
    Master browser name is: BB1
        Master browser is running build 6002
    1 backup servers retrieved from master BB1
        \\BB1
    Unable to retrieve server list from BB1: 1130

D:\>

I edited the registry value up to 18 as recommended in the PChuck article with reference to error 1130. I don't have Norton or Symantec running.

What now?

[Lothur]

After modifying increasing the value to 18 are you still getting the error? According to the article, 18 is just the starting point, some people have to go all the way to 48 (50 being the max but should not be used because of some sort of wrap-around problem).

Did you try the IP address from the wifi radio instead of the network name? If that works it means that it's a name resolution error and not a complete connection block. Sort of like doing a ping to an IP address.

How many computers are on your network? If we're just talking one then we're probably going down a rat-hole with this browser stuff because there will only be one master browser. If there is more than one you might try shutting down all of them except the one you want to connect to and then restarting the wifi radio. If that changes then then you do have a master browser conflict.

[castalla]

Thanks again.

Just one PC on the network.

The problem is that the radio is pretty 'dumb' - there's just a menu choice 'Scan for PCs' - this picks up \\NAS and \\BB1. Selecting retruns a list of shared folders, selecting one returns the Artist/Album listings.

I could try increasing the value but each time requires a reboot! Ah well, worth a try. Is there a magic number per setup, or is it a threshold value? If I start with 48 and back down, maybe?

Just reread your post - seems we may be on the wrong track from what you wrote about one computer.

I think it's an incompatibility introduced with the network changes in VB from 2.2.2 onwards.

[Lothur]

Yes, with only one computer on the network a master browser conflict isn't the issue - sorry, should have asked that at the beginning. I guess I assumed that having shares meant more than one computer but I should have thought of only the wifi radio on the network as a possibility.

This is going to be hard since you can't really see what the radio is doing so it's sort of a black box. You would probably have to put another computer on the network and hope that it had the same problem and then you could start eliminating things.

I can say from experience that this isn't a common problem but I can also say from experience that Windows peer-to-peer networking is a big can of worms. I once spent 3 days figuring out why one XP system couldn't see another and had to dig deep into the obscure net command flags to fix it. The worst thing is that I can't remember how I did it and with the release of Vista the relevant articles have vanished from googlespace.

So you have sort of a triple problem: no easy way for others to reproduce the problem, no easy way to diagnose it, and a basically funky area of Windows functionality.

My suspicion is that the wifi radio was designed to work with XP and you might be lucky it works with Vista and it doesn't take much to mess it up. The only thing I can think of is to make sure you are doing a completely clean VB install - uninstall VB, reboot, install the new version. If you've done that with no joy then I'm sort of out of ideas.

[castalla]

Thanks for the advice!

I could try to reproduce the problem by putting another PC on the network to see if that also has the same problem as the wifi radio in seeing the shares. Good idea.

[castalla]

A step on the road to a solution?

I put another PC on the network - this sees the shared folder on first PC.

So, the problem lies in the wifi radio's ability to scan for shares. Time to switch to the radio forum, I think.

Thanks!

[castalla]

Well, this confirms THERE is a problem!

I just installed 2.1.4 and Windows Shares are working.

So there's something in the network drivers which versions above 2.1.4 which conflicts with Windows shares. Think this is something only Sun can fix.

[sandervl]

Create a defect on our bug tracker please.

[castalla]

@sandervl

I submiited a ticket yesterday:

#4384: Vbox 3.0.0 install interferes with Windows Shares on host PC

Cheers