NFS & Windows Home Versions, Using NFS file sharing on Windows machines Options

[MacCpl]

Hello All,

Being a relative newbie to the WDTV I have been taking things a step at a time. Even though I have a BSEE and an MSEE, I find that there is a LOT of knowledge out there that I don't know. I used the WDTV for the first few weeks with standard software before I got the nerve up to try the "enhanced" versions. I opted to use WDlxTV for no particular reason other than what appeared to be a bit more simplicity. I added the network connectivity first and made sure I could FTP to the WDTV. It worked, but I must admit, not to my satisfaction. I am still waiting for my TreadNet USB adapter to see if the first one I bought is the problem. My FTPs seem to be limited to about 450 Kbps. Many report much better speeds here.

My second attack was to get file sharing working. It appeared to me that cifs would be the easiest to do first. I had some problems, but with the help of the postings on the web I was able to get cifs shares on both XP and Vista Home Premium machnes on my network. I was surprised that I could stream 1080i content from both machines to the WDTV and it seemed to work almost flawlessly. I did have a couple of freezes, but they were rare.

Having heard that NFS was twice as fast, I next tried that. Much to my chagrin, I found that NFS capabilities were NOT included in Vista. However, I read that I could add them using the Programs and Features control panel Windows Features option. It was a little while later that I finally came to the realization that the NFS capabilities that I sought are ONLY available on Vista Business and Vista Ultimate. What a bummer. The cost of upgrading to either of these looks pretty prohibitive. So that leaves the third party software market as the last resort. There seem to be about a half dozen or so NFS server/client packages out there. Has anyone else come to the same roadblock that I have and decided which direction to go? My cifs shares seem to be working pretty well, but the engineer in me wants the maximum connectivity available.

OH! And PS. I have not figured out why I can stream about 10 Gbps from my XP or Vista PC to the WDTV using the SAME ethernet adapter that limits me to 450 Kbps when I try to transfer a file to the WDTV attached USB drive from one of the PC drives. It must be an issue with either the "pureftp" server or my FTP client. Anyone have any ideas on this one?

Regards,
JR

[ToJa92]

"The cost of upgrading to either of these looks pretty prohibitive. So that leaves the third party software market as the last resort. There seem to be about a half dozen or so NFS server/client packages out there. Has anyone else come to the same roadblock that I have and decided which direction to go? My cifs shares seem to be working pretty well, but the engineer in me wants the maximum connectivity available."

I don't have a network adapter yet, so I can't advice, but I would advise you to test all available softwares and see whichever suites you best.

"OH! And PS. I have not figured out why I can stream about 10 Gbps from my XP or Vista PC to the WDTV using the SAME ethernet adapter that limits me to 450 Kbps when I try to transfer a file to the WDTV attached USB drive from one of the PC drives. It must be an issue with either the "pureftp" server or my FTP client. Anyone have any ideas on this one?"

Here I think the processing power are the problem. Hopefully the developers will be able to fix it, or at least speed it up.