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Full Version: [WINDOWS] Specify specific Network Adapter to use
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Is there an advanced way to specify the network adapter to use? The GUI Settings/Network doesn't stick. I have 2 adapters and of course it is defaulting to the wrong one.
i havent tried this personally, but you may be able to force it to the correct one by manually updating the guisettings.xml file.

** edit **
i just looked at the source, and there should be a <network> section. you should be able to add an <interface> tag, but i have no idea what to put in there.
You mean the network section in the advancedsettings.xml file right?
I'll add a <interface> tag and put the name of the adapter in there and see what happens Wink
no, i meant guisettings.xml. its can be manually updated. its not really advisable, but it should work. advancedsettings.xml can be used override gui settings, but im not positive if it can override all of them.
Well, I don't know to put in there either, but obviously not what I'm doing. I put in the name of the adapter I want XBMC to use based on the name I see on the settings/network screen. Doing that results in the network being disabled and unable to change it in the GUI.
kraqh3d Wrote:no, i meant guisettings.xml. its can be manually updated. its not really advisable, but it should work. advancedsettings.xml can be used override gui settings, but im not positive if it can override all of them.
No matter what I put in the guisettings.xml it doesn't stick.
I disabled the network adapter (Microsoft Loopback Ddapter) it was automatically choosing and restarted XBMC. It picked the other adapter this time, but I was still unable to browse the network. The adapter it picked was called "NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller - Packet Scheduler Miniport" which is actually a hidden device. The device manager shows my main adapter as "NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller"
The network section in XBMC win32 is still unusable. It just shows the available adapter but you can't change there anything. It just uses the default route which windows provides.
Reason for that:
- thinkings of disable the network settings completely (why prog something which can do the OS much better)
- requirement of wlanapi.dll which is only available on systems with wlan attached
- stupid network settings in win32. Looks like it's only possible to configure them via WMI

Patches are welcome.
kraqh; advanced can override everything fyi.
Windows, by default, has a QOS Packet Scheduler enabled for all interfaces. When its enabled, it presents itself as a virtual adapter linked to the main adapter.

(Hmm, I just thought of this because Wireshark used to have an issue when the QOS Packet Scheduler was enabled but they fixed it. The Wireshark code handles Windows interfaces nicely. It may a good source to borrow code from. But, as Wiso says, it shouldn't matter as the OS is going always follow the routing table.)

I've not tried using SMB on the Win32 build, but I have seen reports here that it doesn't work right. There seem to be various problems. On Win32, the ultimate goal should be to use the OS to browse the workgroup, and not Xbmc's samba client. Until then, you're probably better off using drive mappings or mount points to make the remote locations look like local ones.

And thanks spiff. I thought that was the case, but I've only used that in some very rare instances.
Well guys, here is where it gets strange. On my other PC, browsing the network in XBMC works perfectly. After seeing that I thought someone had fixed it. So that's when I started playing with it on my HTPC, which can't browse the network. I guess it just works with some adapters and not others.
That is very strange. Run wireshark concurrently and see if anything gets transmitted and returned from the network.
okay.
kraqh3d Wrote:I've not tried using SMB on the Win32 build, but I have seen reports here that it doesn't work right. There seem to be various problems. On Win32, the ultimate goal should be to use the OS to browse the workgroup, and not Xbmc's samba client. Until then, you're probably better off using drive mappings or mount points to make the remote locations look like local ones.
It works quite well if you don't want to browse for shares (smb://). Windows still uses the old smbclient code from xbox because switching to a newer version would imply some effort to get all changes done to compile and run it on Windows.
I started with a light implementation of using windows functionality (see WIN32Util.cpp) but give up after discussion with the team that we should use the same code for all ports where possible.
What I was thinking off was the same functionality as Linux had/has before the HAL manager was introduced. Once you have the smb sources saved in your xml the user can decide via a setting to mount those shares when XBMC starts or to use smbclient for every connect.
This is probably a moot point, but I just wanted to update since kraqh3d asked me to run wireshark.
Well. I installed wireshark on the devPC that could browse for shares in XBMC. I ran wireshark then XBMC. I did this to have a baseline for what to expect on the HTPC which could not browse for shares. Now that devPC can no longer browse for Shares. I have removed wireshark and still can no longer browse for shares. I did test before installing wireshark and I could definately browse for shares. At least it appeard to be. I could hit browse, then see the workgroup, then see my HTPC (but not the devPC) and could connect to it.
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