Kodi Community Forum

System setup:

Kodi 17.1 on Fire TV running latest versions
iMac with USB drive stored media shared over SMB
Draytek 2830n Router
3 x T-P Link 1200 Homeplugs

This setup has worked on a WIRED network for years at my previous house where i had my own wired network. I recently moved to a new apartment that doesn't have a wired network so i set my system up WIRELESS, but, the buffering was unreal, and videos often just crashed which made the system useless, so yesterday i went out & bought a load of TP Link 1200 Homeplugs. I connected one to my router, 1 to my iMac in another room & 1 to my Fire TV in the lounge, as soon as i did this i was unable to see my media files using SMB, it showed WORKGROUP but my iMac isn't visible in the WORKGROUP, I've tried adding & setting up a new folder but i cannot see my shared content.

I left my router connected to a home plug & my iMac connected to a homeplug but disconnected my Fire TV letting that operate over wifi & now i have access to my SMB shared content, BUT the Fire TV is now wireless, and the buffering & video crashing is back again...

When the Fire TV is connected to the homeplug the general Amazon side works great, very quick & video plays without buffering, but i just cannot see my shared SMB medie.

Any ideas as to how I can connect my Fire TV up again to the homeplug to stop the flakey video streaming but for Kodi to continue seeing my content would be greatly appreciated.

cheers

Give your imac a static ip and then manually enter the static ip into kodi when setting up network location.

thanks for the advice, i've tried that but no joy, it times out & states that there may be a network problem.

everything is operating perfectly well on the network, and seeing the internet, just not seeing stored content unless i pull the network cable to the Fire TV, any other advice?

What version of your OS on your iMac are you running? I had this same problem on both my fire tv gen 2 box and my LibreElec box after upgrading from Snow Lep to El Cap with my shares both wifi and wired. The only way I could get it to work was to use a third party app for smb, in this case I installed SMBup and then entered my IP manually through "Add Network Location" in Kodi as rontonomo states above and everything was back to normal. Every now and then I'll get a timeout, but that's only because my drives are spinning up from sleep and SMB isn't patient enough

EDIT: I also noticed some users with a similar issue had to input the full smb address, ex: 192.168.1.1:445

Thanks JxPx, my iMac is on Snow Leapord (10.6.8), it's an old Mac that is just used as my media server, it only has a small RAM so I haven't updated the OSX.

I've been through all of my settings in the router & the Mac, i can't see anything wrong, the frustrating thing is that everything works like a dream over WiFi (it's just too flakey to actually watch a movie), but as soon as i plug the cable in to run wired Kodi can't see it, it feels like it's almost as if there's a port not open over Ethernet or something, but i can't see it.

I'm not sure SMBup is the answer as i'm running a stable OSX & it works ok over WiFi, I'm sure there is something simple causing this, but i'll certainly give it a try. will i need to remap my library or will it still be correct when i change the network location for my existing libraries?

[quote='Dantheman10' pid='2578389' dateline='1493420431'

I'm not sure SMBup is the answer as i'm running a stable OSX & it works ok over WiFi, I'm sure there is something simple causing this, but i'll certainly give it a try. will i need to remap my library or will it still be correct when i change the network location for my existing libraries?
[/quote]

Yeah if you are running Snow Lep, no need for SMBup. Snow Leps SMB protocol is fine. It was the OS upgrades after Snow Lep that jacked up the SMB. So works over wifi but not wired. Somethings blocking your connection. Man I know I had this happen to me years ago when I was running Snow Lep and for the life of me I cannot remember how I solved it. I will do some homework and get back with you.

Struggling with the same problem with my fire tv stick (kodi 17.1). Found this and seems promising, but haven't tried it yet myself:
http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=308054

i was having the same problem.  smb works fine on other systems.  new install of 17.1 on fire tv 

i had to use the IPaddress, did not have to use the port (445)
but i HAD to give it a username and password even though guest access is turned on for this share.