HereSphere VR Video Player (Meta Quest)

VR video player with immersion-enhancing algorithms, streaming, and media library features · By HereSphere

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SMB won't connect

A topic by pk0202 created Jun 25, 2022 Views: 5,861 Replies: 12

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pk02023 years ago

I am using Unraid as my server and I have SMB shares turned on with public settings. I have no issues accessing my SMB shares on my local network using multiple devices (KODI on Amazon Cube, MX Player on Android, Windows 11 PC, etc.). I am also able to access the SMB share using Skybox VR Player.

With Heresphere, when I select SMB, I can see my server show up on the list. When I click on it I get the below error:

Connection to SMB server failed.

Please verify IP address and SMB server are online.

Please let me know how to resolve this. I don't understand why it is working with all over devices/apps and not with Heresphere. I just paid $29.99.

HereSphereDeveloper3 years ago

Try creating a user account and password for your SMB share, and then also manually input your SMB share folder if the app isn't enumerating your shares properly. HereSphere only supports SMB2/3, and not SMB1, which I think the other apps are using for SMB share enumeration. Windows recommends leaving SMB1 and guest access disabled for security reasons.

pk02022 years ago

If you are not going to fix this, then I want a refund. I paid $29.99 and your software is useless because it can't do a simple thing like access SMB as a guest. All other media players (not just VR) can do this.

HereSphereDeveloper2 years ago (4 edits)

I probably won't get around to looking at this issue until I've completed other features. Does creating a user account and password not work for you? For the SMB functionality you want, I'd need to add support for SMB1, which is against Microsoft's recommendations due to security concerns. I'm looking into adding DLNA. You can also use XBVR to set up a local http server. It works really well with HereSphere, since you get tags, thumbnails, and more features. Itch.io probably won't be able to issue a refund since your purchase was over 90 days ago. Sorry about that.

By the way, it seems like I wasn't getting notifications from itch.io about posts on this thread for some reason. Sorry about not responding earlier.

Edit: If creating a user account and password for your SMB share doesn't work, I can try looking into getting guest access to work on SMB2/3 again. There isn't a guarantee that SMB share enumeration will work. With my PC, share enumeration works ok. But with Macs, it doesn't seem to work. I'm not sure it'll work with your UNRAID server.

Edit #2: Ok, turns out guest access does work in HereSphere when accessing my Windows 10 PC. I just had to turn off password protected sharing in the advanced sharing settings in the network and sharing center, and then add either "Everyone" or "Guest" account access to the share folder. SMB share enumeration also works. I haven't used UNRAID before. Can you try inputting your share folder name into the input box on the second line in HereSphere to see if at least accessing the share directly works?

Can you also try adding "min protocol = SMB2" (without the quotes) in the WSD options [experimental] field in your UNRAID settings?

pk02022 years ago

My SMB server is not a Windows Machine, but an Unraid server, which is based on Linux.

If SMB is not going to work, then can you add NFS support?

HereSphereDeveloper2 years ago

To verify, have you tried entering the share folder name in the input box on the second line that says "SMB Share or Path"? Have you also tried using username "guest" and password "1234" as well (apparently, that should be a default user account for unraid). Lastly, have you tried creating a smb user in unraid?

I'm using multiple libraries to get smb to work. If the share name is present, the player will use libsmb2. If the share name is missing, the player will fallback to using smbj-rpc, which attempts to use the rpc protocol to enumerate the shares, but it's an experimental/incomplete library, so it might not be able to enumerate your shares. That's why I recommend inputting the share name into the box.

I'm not aware of any open source libraries that support NFS. I might be able to add SMB1 support, but I think SMB2/3 is faster, so it'd be best if we can figure out how to get smb2 to work with your unraid server. Else, does unraid support DLNA? Or would it be possible to set up XBVR so you can run an http server to host your videos?

pk02022 years ago

I tried all your suggestions.

Heresphere: Scanning for IP addresses for SMB Shares.

A few seconds later I need a list of all shares. I choose the server I want to access and I get: "Connection to SMB Server failed. Please verify IP address and SMB server are online.

I add the shared folder path and try again: "Connection to SMB Server failed. Please verify IP address and SMB server are online."

I try username guest and password 1234: "Connection to SMB Server failed. Please verify IP address and SMB server are online."

Heresphere SEES my server. It just won't connect to it. I don't see the issue as being on my end because SKYBOX VR Player and Pigasus VR Player have no issues seeing my share and accessing it. I can access those SMB shares my phone, my ipad, from my NVidia ShieldTV.

Heresphere is the only app/software that has a problem.

HereSphereDeveloper2 years ago

Thanks for trying out the suggestions. The share folder path that you type in the input box is just the share folder name, correct? So the first input box should be just your host name, second one is user name, third one is password, and fourth one is just the SMB folder. Also, have you tried creating an account on your unraid server, in the case that username guest and password 1234 don't work?

HereSphere doesn't implement low level SMB code itself. It relies on libraries, specifically the libsmb2 library, which I use to list the actual files in the share and stream the video data. I use a different library (jcifs) to detect the server. For some reason, libsmb2 seems unable to access your unraid server. Libsmb2 only supports SMB2/3, so there's a possibility that your unraid server is only configured for SMB1, which would explain why other apps can still read your shares.

I can either look into adding support for SMB1, or if you're willing to do some more troubleshooting, we can try to figure out if there's an issue with unraid and SMB2/3.

pk02023 years ago

I am using UNRAID version 6.10.3 for my SMB Share. Below are the SMB settings.

pk02023 years ago (1 edit)

Any updates on fixing the SMB issue? When I start Heresphere, I can see my SMB share. When I click on the share I cannot connect. Please allow anonymous/guest to use SMB. My server is NOT connected to the Internet and can only be accessed locally. There is no risk of security.

Pigasus and Skybox VR player has no problem accessing my SMB share. It is only Heresphere that refuses to connect.

LightDestory3 years ago (1 edit) (+2)

I got the same issue with my portable SMB server. I kinda tried to find out the reason: it seems that HereSphere can’t read the “root” of the smb sever.

To be able to connect to my server I had to set the “SMB Path” on HereSphere UI to point out a specific path of my SMB.

To be short: HereSphere can’t read “/” of your SMB, you must set specific paths like: “/Movies/”, “/Anime/” if you have your SMB serve organized like me with subfolders.

And like you said, I can confirm that both SkyBoxVr and Pigasus are not affected by this issue, they can connect to my smb without specifing a path.

pk02023 years ago

Seems like this would be an easy fix for the dev

pk02023 years ago

Hello Dev, any updates on fixing this issue?