Dr_koolaid

I'm at a loss trying to get Astro to communicate with my Windows XP home computer. I downloaded the SMB module for my MotoDroid, but am not really clear on how to configure my Windows Networking settings and what exactly needs to be entered in Astro's configuration settings. Is there a guide on how to do this on the web?.. if so, I haven't been able to find it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I've also contacted Metago.. maybe they'll help.

UncleMike

It's working fine for me. What goes in each field seems straight forward, but I did leave the Domain blank (I have no domain controller) and Directory blank (I assume this is a subdirectory of the share, but I'm not sure), so you might want to try leaving them blank to simplify things to start. Also, I DID NOT enter any leading or trailing backslashes in any of the fields. The only other thing I can suggest is making sure you're on Wifi, and to double check your user name and password.

Edit: I just realized I missed big part of your message. Your Windows XP machine must have sharing enabled, and possibly require that simple sharing be disabled. You'll also need to share at least one folder, and grant (at a minimum) read permission to the share for the user name you want to use from your phone.

If you have a home network, I would make sure that file sharing works between PCs before bringing your phone and/or Astro into the picture.

Last edited by UncleMike; June 21st, 2010 at 05:02 PM.

Dr_koolaid

Thanks. I guess I didn't realize that server= my ip address. I got it working. here's the reply I got from Metago:

We're still working on the SMB docs. Here's a quick start guide. Let me know if you have specific questions.


SMB Quick start:

Click the Network button in the toolbar (far right), click the New button, select Windows Server and enter these fields:


Label: icon label (optional)
Server: remote IP address (required)
Share: a windows share (optional)
Domain: a windows domain (optional)
Directory: a directory under the share (optional)
User Name: (required)
Password: (required)


You can click Test to try the settings and then click Save. Now click the newly created icon and you should be connected to your server. If you have problems, try entering only the required fields first and then enter optional fields one at a time to narrow down the problem.

daft009

is there a way to get this to work with just simple file sharing enabled?
so no username/password is required?

airbrat

I'm decent at setting up windows networking, but not too familiar with linux/smb...yet.

Dumb Question: Are you talking about the IP of the phone or the computer you're trying to connect with?

Thanks

ionizer

the key for me was switching the server to an ip address
i had been using the host name, thanks

vaccdroid

WHat is the Username and Password for. I have no passwords to log onto my PC and what is the user name. PC user name ??

dijitz

I second this question as I am not very experienced with networking. I have no passwords for the PC or shared folders, so I am not sure what to enter in these fields.

0sync0

I like Astro but I use ES File Explorer for accessing files on my network. With ES it was very easy to browse my network and bookmark shared drives for future access.

Dr_koolaid

You can't have a home network if you don't share folders. Also, I believe you must use Windows login and set user accounts/permissions. Just set up one and use that as your username. If you don't set a password, then leave this field blank.

begem0t

The easiest solution - install Estrongs File Explorer (ES File Explorer). Then just browse the windows network.

Added bonus is that it has Task manager and Application Manager.

goracin6

The easiest solution - install Estrongs File Explorer (ES File Explorer). Then just browse the windows network.

I could not get Astro to work, so I went w/ ES F/E. This works great! Done a scan, found my desk top, viewed all files and folders that I wanted to...BUT cannot open any document. Word, Excel, PDF, MP3, etc. Everytime I click on the files it says "Sorry, No Application Installed." I can open these types of documents that are attached to an email.
Anyone have any suggestions??

lenardzelig

I can get Astro to work just fine if I'm connected to my home router via wireless and use my laptop's local IP address as the network address. Anyone got any tips on how to get connectivity using 3G from a remote location. I'm guessing it's got something to do with using my router IP address and portforwarding the incoming connection to the laptop's local IP address but I'm reaching (=way beyond) the limits of my knowledge. Anyone able to help me out, please?

speedy1979

I can use Estrongs File Explorers LAN function just fine. But when I try using Astro File Explorer I receive the following error message.



Does anybody know what this means.

Schenley

It means you need to use Estrongs...



That's how I fixed it.

speedy1979

I guess I'll continue using Estrongs.

anthgav

To get it to work you probably have to go into your routers configuration screen and open up port 445 and point it to the IP address of your server whether that be PC or a storage unit. Port 445 is required for SMB protocol. When setting the file explorer to access the server use IP address not name of server.

I am sure this will solve your problem.

ascl

Now it's working!!!
I had the same problem and spent hours to fix the problem..
My settings in windows 7 are the default ones.
The only thing I had to change to make it work was to add the forward slash after the IP.
Old config:
Server:192.168.1.3
New Config:
Server:192.168.1.3/

That solved the problem.
Remember to set the username and password in the phone the way you have in your computer.

I think the router has nothing to do with the problem, because if you are connected using wifi, the router does not apply any filter to your packets to switch packets in the internal network. The only thing you have to be sure of, is to be connected to the wifi from your phone.

Last edited by ascl; September 12th, 2010 at 11:00 AM.

oliverjames

I have finally connected my HTC Desire to a computer running XP family edition, on my home/office network.

These are the basic settings in Astro SMB:

Select "New Connection"
Connection type <SMB>
select:-
Server, then enter the IP address in format< xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\> of the XP machine one wishes to connect to, then select
User Name, and enter <guest>

Then select "test". Hopefully this will work for you also, in which case select "save" to place an icon on your Astro network page.

All other entries blank; the Label entry can be completed by entering the name of the connection but this wasn't required to get connected.

The connection came up quickly and gave access to all directories on the XP machine that have been configured to allow network sharing.

I cannot stream over this connection but can copy files from the XP machine to my HTC.

drksilenc

except for the main reason for this to work for me is viewing photos and guess what ESTRONGS is broke for that reason so quit spewing estrongs out your mouth

TravisZ

I just installed and can view photos on networked drives with no problem but trying to open an avi or mkv just give the no application error

Flavy

I'm also getting the smbexception message. Did anyone find a solution to this error? I'm using Windows 7 and have a folder shared. Thanks for the help.

esmann

thank you so much for the "guest" tip, now it works here ;-)

lucifer6642

Me too

EStrongs worked first time but I like Astro. I don't want to have to set up an SFTP server just for this

Flavy

I received an email from the Astro developer. This is a known issue for 64bit Windows 7 machines. There currently is no eta for a fix

open0

Connection type: SMB
Label: "as you like"
Server: 192.168.x.x (for expl: 192.168.1.1, it's your windows/samba server ip address)
Share: "can leave blank"
Domain: "can leave blank"
Directory: "can leave blank"
User name: "you set in your server"
Password: "you set in your server"

Then you tab "Test" button, then "Save" if it works. that's all.

Flavy

What operating system are you running on your pc?

TerryBerry

Oliverjames had the best response for me that worked with my Backflip with Eclair

I have finally connected my HTC Desire to a computer running XP family edition, on my home/office network.

These are the basic settings in Astro SMB:

Select "New Connection"
Connection type <SMB>
select:-
Server, then enter the IP address in format< xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx\> of the XP machine one wishes to connect to, then select
User Name, and enter <guest>

Then select "test". Hopefully this will work for you also, in which case select "save" to place an icon on your Astro network page.

All other entries blank; the Label entry can be completed by entering the name of the connection but this wasn't required to get connected.

The connection came up quickly and gave access to all directories on the XP machine that have been configured to allow network sharing.

I cannot stream over this connection but can copy files from the XP machine to my HTC.

skydogg

There is one error in the above instructions:

After entering your IP, xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/ enter a FORWARD slash (not back slash)

lexluthor

If anyone is interested I posted some issues I'm having with Astro SMB connections here.
Astro and SMB Connection

That thread didn't really go too far, but the one over here as a lot more info.
Astro & LAN Shares

Very interesting and confusing with how it works. Please feel free to jump in on one of those threads if you have anything to add.

motomart

Astro with SMB module is just a half way connected Android. Astro should be configured using your NETBIOS name as the server name, because IP address of your server might change. If you're using the IP address make sure you have your router DHCP server configured to always assign that IP to this particular server. Also, avoid "guest" as username because most of Windows machines have Guest account disabled as security measure. If you can log in as a guest it only means that you have to go back to your Windows machine and disable that user login.

• Connection type: SMB
• Label: "as you like"
• Server: "NETBIOS hostname" - to find your windows name RightClick My Computer for System Properties, Computer Name Tab, Full computer name
• Share: "/public" - or whatewer windows directory you're sharing
• Domain: "Your workgroup or domain name" - to find your workgroup or domain name - RightClick My Computer for System Properties, Computer Name Tab, Domain
• Directory: "/"
• User name: "your windows login"
• Password: "your windows password"

To share a folder on your Android so you can browse your phone from your PC you need Samba Server.


Step by step guide: Android Phone On Your Home Network

Thanks to xda-developers for SambaFilesharing APK.

Last edited by motomart; January 11th, 2011 at 10:25 AM.

Stupifier

Seriously, this should not be any bit complicated at all. Astro should be looking at ES File Explorer's layout for network connections. ES File Explorer is far simpler in this regard. I basically use Astro for everything EXCEPT network connections.

lexluthor

Agree, this should be a lot easier on Astro.

I have a thread here that I never got resolved. I gave up and use ES

Astro and SMB Connection

motomart

I did Astro in 10 minutes but I was looking to browse my phone filesystem by PC. I wanted to see Droid the same as any other networked computer, to map it as a drive on 2 other computers. No File Explorer, FTP or WEB servers would give me that option. I think samba should be incorporated into android OS. It is a computer after all, should not be hard to network.

twokatmew

I'm getting the same error on my Win7 Pro x64 desktop. Astro connects to my Win7 HP x64 laptop without issue. Similarly, it connects to my D-Link NAS (DNS-323) just fine. I tried ES File Explorer because some in this thread said they could connect via ESFE when Astro failed. No joy. Just like with Astro, ESFE connects to my laptop and NAS, but it fails to connect to my desktop.

As the problem occurs with both Astro and ES, the issue has got to be something related to my Pro machine's network access.

Win 7 Pro allows configuration of the Local Security Policy, while Win 7 Home Premium does not. Thus I'm trying to recall if I tightened security on my Pro box to prevent access to non-workgroup hosts. Nothing jumps out at me when I look at the settings, but as Android can't join a Windows workgroup or domain, it would make sense that a setting in Pro's security policy is causing access to be denied. Too bad I can't compare the settings on my Home Premium laptop to those on my Pro desktop.

To those of you with this same issue, what version of Win 7 are you running. Home Premium, Pro, Ultimate?

TIA!

Flavy

I have the same issue. My PC is running Win 7 Home Premium 64bit.

MagicianPe

Originally Posted by ss4rob
I wanted to connect to my SMB shares on my Mac running Snow Leopard OS X, and while other PCs could see the windows shares just fine, on my Android p
hone with the Astro SMB module I kept getting Invalid payload size: 254. To solve the problem, while in the connection profile editor, I pushed Menu and chose Advanced. Then I created a new property and key:

jcifs.smb.client.useExtendedSecurity = false

Once I added this, I was able to connect to all of my Mac samba shares just fine!

twokatmew

Thanks so much for this tip! I can now connect to my Win 7 Pro SP1 x64 box. I don't know why this parameter is required for this machine, as I can connect just fine (without it) to my DNS-323 NAS, my Win 7 HP SP1 x64 laptop, and my new WD My Book Live 2TB NAS.

Anyway, thanks again.

Ghetto Geeksta

Hello, im new to this forum, ive just bought a new Dell Streak downloaded 2.2 and im loving it! Could of got a iPhone but screw that im support Google.

Anyway, Ive down loaded Linda File Manager and EStrongs File Management programs. When I log into my computer over the LAN entering in my host ip address, and administrator user name and password, I get in but I don't get any useful folders, just some folders with a letter and a $ sign (ex:C$/ D$/ IPC$/ print$ etc). Is it because im logging in as administrator, do I need the username a password my isp gave me? I don't what that is right now I guess I have to call them. What could be the problem? Thanks

Dvalin21

Pretend like I don't know what ur talking. Can u give More detail? Thanks. Running w7 x64

KidMoe85

Do you enter "false" into the value field or just enter the entire statement in the key field? I keep getting "error writing file" no matter which way I try it.

Flavy

Thank you!! This fixed the issue I was having with Astro trying to connect to my PC.

lava9611

SMB module crahes on Honeycomb while opening

Dvalin21

Originally Posted by MagicianPe
Originally Posted by ss4rob
I wanted to connect to my SMB shares on my Mac running Snow Leopard OS X, and while other PCs could see the windows shares just fine, on my Android p
hone with the Astro SMB module I kept getting Invalid payload size: 254. To solve the problem, while in the connection profile editor, I pushed Menu and chose Advanced. Then I created a new property and key:

jcifs.smb.client.useExtendedSecurity = false

Once I added this, I was able to connect to all of my Mac samba shares just fine!
__________________________________________________ _____________________

I've been trying to get this to work with Window 7 64 Ultimate and its a fail EVERYTIME! I'm not getting this Advance selection that your talking about. Please help!?

quigonkenny

Many thanks to MagicianPe as I was able to access my remote PC (Win7 Ultimate x64) using this option. But others seem to be having problems, so I will try to help.

Assuming you are already in the "Network" section of Astro:

1. Select "New".
2. Select "SMB".
3. Press the <Menu> button on your phone.
4. An "Advanced Settings" button should pop up. Select it.
5. Select "New Property".
6. Enter "jcifs.smb.client.useExtendedSecurity" (no quotes, note capitalization) under "Key" and "false" (no quotes) under "Value".
7. Select "OK" then press <Back>.
8. Enter your share information:
8a. Label: What you want to call the link. Will appear under the icon.
8b. Server: The IP address of the remote computer. The "Full Computer Name" mentioned by mo*****t should work as well.
8c. Share: Optional. Best to leave it blank if you're just trying to get it to connect the first time.
8d. Domain: The domain name or more likely workgroup name that the remote PC is a part of.
8e. Directory: Optional. Best to leave it blank if you're just trying to get it to connect the first time.
8f. User Name: Your username on the remote PC. If you don't have a password for that username, try leaving this entry and the one below blank and see if you can't access certain files or folders.
8g. Password: The password for the above username. As suggested above, if you don't have one, try leaving both these entries blank the first time through.
9. Select "Test" and if it works, "Save".

A couple notes:

If you were able to successfully "Test" without a "User Name" and "Password", see if some of your folders or files are missing. If so, create a password on the remote PC, reboot it, and once it's back up and logged in, edit your network link in Astro (select it, but don't let go until a menu pops up, then select "Edit") and enter the username and password, and see if that fixes the problem.

"Share" and "Directory" are optional. If you leave them both blank, you will link to a "root share", where the drives on your remote PC (represented by C$, D$, etc.) are shown but probably inaccessible, and there is a separate folder for each of your shares. If you put one of your share's names in "Share", you can link directly to that share, but probably can't then go "up" to the "root share" from there. "Directory" should allow you to link to a folder inside of whichever share you entered, but I didn't try it, so I could be wrong.

Again, many thanks to MagicianPe.

Last edited by quigonkenny; May 27th, 2011 at 10:32 PM.

markkal123

thanks to quigonkenny and i suppose ultimately magicianpe. followed your setup and all is working as expected.

an additional note. i use swiftkey. what i discovered is that the auto-fill feature of swiftkey enters a space after an auto-fill word is selected. for example when entering my username, "mark" is autofilled as "mark_ " [the space is indicated here as an underscore].

SammyAcclaim

I was thinking of starting a new thread for this but this one looks like it is dealing with my question.

So I have been testing a couple of different File Manager apps from the market to access Windows Server shares on my network. So far I have tried ES File Manager, Astro with Astro SMB plugin and AndSMB. So far only ASTRO and AndSMB have worked to at least let me browse and copy files off of the shares to my phone.

ES File Manager gives me

Login Failure
This may be caused by:
WiFi is off
SMB server is out of network scope
The IP is invalid
Blocked by firewall
SMB service is off

I connected to the server by letting ES scan my network and I choose the server from the list created by that scan. Not sure what is going on there.

I acutally really like ASTRO but I have found that I can't open any files(I get different errors depending on what phone application tries to open the file I choose) from the SMB share. Doesn't seem to matter what type of file. I have to copy the files to my SD card and then I can open them.

AndSMB works to connect and browse the share but it forces you to download the files down to the device to open them also.

So although ASTRO and AndSMB work I can't seem to do in place viewing and editing of files which is the functionality that I am looking for.

I am making these connections to the SMB shares over WiFi in a Active Directory Environment. I have no need for remote SMB access.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get Astro to allow opening files from SMB shares? How about any suggestions on other apps that are able to do what I am looking for?

daragh

THANK YOU +1! A great example of why to read to the end of a thread. Thank you for sharing!

karolosz

hello, im using android 2.2 i've got Asto with Astro smb module; also i'm runing ubuntu 10.04 with samba,
Firs I've tried connect to samab by AndSMB- i've got connection (but unfortunatelly not allways- sometimes I've got info "broken pipe")... so i start to looking for better solution, ASTRO-

with Astro I've got allways details:

"Directory not found"
"Java.net.SocketException: Broken pipe"


my config:
conection type: SMB
label:smb
server: i put my IP adress: xxx.xxx.xx.x
share: (i've leaved blind)
domain: diunowate (my workgroup name)
directory: /xxx.xxx.xx.x/wallpappers (my directory by IP adress to share)
user name: my user
password: my pasword

How to solve this??

rocketero

Thank you for letting us know that there is an issue with Windows 7 x64 bit.

I was racking my brain trying to connect to the network with this app, with tenths of combinations and none of them worked.

So now I am using ESTRONG File Explorer with ES Task Manager and I'm VERY HAPPY with it.


EDITED: After rebooting the tablet somehow the problem got fixed and Now I can access the Network with ASTRO FILE MANAGER. I recommend this to anyone who have expended 1 or more hours trying to connect by creating a new Network account and trying to open the network right away and not having any luck.
I had given up with this app but now I am using it and it look very nice.

I'm using a 9.7" tablet and through Wi-Fi I connected to a Windows7 x64-Bit System.

Last edited by rocketero; January 14th, 2012 at 06:41 AM.