[Bert Coules]

I'm running Kodi on a small dedicated computer as part of my AV setup, with my video files on a separate PC running Windows 7. I've now added a new Windows 10 machine to the network and since it has much more capacity I'll be transferring everything to it.

I'm having a problem adding the new machine as a source. When I browse the new share menu it's listed under Windows network (SMB)/Workgroup but when I select it and enter the user name and password they are not accepted - clicking OK just keeps me on the same page.

Does that mean that the information I'm entering is incorrect? It's the name and password I set up on the new PC and it successfully added it to the network.

One thing though - Windows 10 insists that the machine is in the Homegroup rather than the Workgroup - is that the problem?

Could I have set up a separate Kodi password when I first started using it, which I've forgotten about? If so, how can I retrieve it?

I've checked the Wiki and searched the forum but not found anything that seems to apply to this particular problem.

Many thanks.

[lizard-king]

Create an new account on your Win OS and try to connect via Samba with the new username and password.

[Bert Coules]

Thanks. I'd never heard of Samba and had to look it up. I'll check it out, but it seems strange that it should be necessary when I've had no difficulties in the past - or is it because the new PC is running Windows 10 that I'm having the problem?

[lizard-king]

I had the same problem with my Win8 OS and Kodi, but creating the new account solved that issue (for me).

[scott967]

I think people often use "Samba" as synonymous with "SMB" for file and printer sharing on LAN, but probably most often used to mean the SMB implementation often used on *nix OS machines.

I think what's important is that if all computers on a LAN are Win 7 or better, you can use "Homegroups" to manage user authentication and logon simply by setting up the HOMEGROUP on all machines. But if not all machines are part of the HOMEGROUP (either not set up on the windows OS machine, or using non windows machines like Android) then the HOMEGROUP won't work.

I think it is in this mixed environment where creating a new user that is not part of the HOMEGROUP will make it possible for that machine to access other (non-HOMEGROUP) machines on the LAN using username and password authentication to access shares (there is also file access which has to be set for the files on the shared folder).

A separate but related issue is network discovery and name resolution which HOMEGROUP also takes care of. When not using the HOMEGROUP windows machines are dependent on something called the "master browser" to identify machines that are on the LAN and what services they provide (folder shares or printers) aka "network neighborhood". But even if you have network browsing issues you can typically connect just by using the local IP address of the machine and the shared folder name (helps of course to use static IP address assignment).

scott s.
.

[Bert Coules]

Scott967, thanks for that. This situation has me puzzled (not that that's difficult to achieve): the new PC is definitely established as part of the network, its name shows up on my Kodi computer, but I can't access it.

But even if you have network browsing issues you can typically connect just by using the local IP address of the machine and the shared folder name (helps of course to use static IP address assignment).

That's something I've not had to do before. I know the IP address but I can't find an option in Kodi for setting things up using it. I'll check again in the Wiki.

LATER:

Ah! Found it. I'll see what happens...

LATER STILL:

No, that didn't work either. It seems fairly clear that the problem lies with the source computer. It doesn't seem to be a sharing issue, since the relevant directories all show up on the other desktop in the network, but there's obviously something wrong somewhere. I'll keep at it.
.

[Bert Coules]

Well, Kodi persists in asking for a user name and password when I try to add the new Windows 10 PC as a source

Just to clarify, if I go to

Add Videos / Browse / Windows Network (smb) / Workgroup

then the new PC (name: WIN10-PC) is listed, together with an older machine (WIN7-PC). If I click on the old machine, I get a list of all the shared directories. If I click on the new one, I'm asked for a user name and password.

There is definitely no password set up on the machine. And I checked under Advanced Sharing and made sure that Turn off password protected sharing was selected.

I am now completely out of ideas.

[black_eagle]

Although I don't use Windows, AFAIK Win 10 forces you to authenticate with a username and password, despite none being set. A work-around is given here -> https://www.schkerke.com/wps/2015/06/win...ba-shares/ . Note that this involves editing the registry, a task you should not approach lightly unless you are sure you know what you are doing.

[Bert Coules]

Thanks for that; I'll take a look. I'm OK with editing the registry.

LATER:

That made a partial difference. I added the registry key and tried again with Kodi: this time clicking on WIN10-PC brought up a list of the shared directories. Unfortunately, selecting any of them immediately generated the user name/password dialogue again.

But it's progress of a sort...

LATER STILL:

A development! Along with the list of shared folders there's an entry Users. Clicking on that takes me to Public. And clicking on that brings up this list:

Documents
Downloads
Music
Pictures
Videos

These are the Windows 10 libraries. And I have them set up to include the specific directories I want to access. Unfortunately, clicking on them in Kodi brings up no contents: for some reason the included directories are not being detected.

But this is definite progress!