Sharing HDD via Wifi - Questions

Craige my use is low for the NAS, since it is mainly for Time Machine Backups for my Macbook Air and my wife's laptop. The only other stuff that it does is record OTA tv shows and movies with the Plex Beta DVR software. We also keep all of our Pictures and documents on it, so that if we are off the LAN, we still have access to a copy if I have not put an updated copy on my iCloud for my phone.

You find that having a decent NAS is a godsend when it comes to streaming media. Just getting something like say the Western Digital LAN capable units are really bad low grade speed CPU's with very limited RAM to handle any exchange of data. In this day you need something that can handle the Wireless-ac and 1000mbps speeds with how much our use of our home networks have changed.

Sharing media with friends and neighbors means that you are doing the same as if you were handing them a DVD or Blu-Ray, even back in the day VHS and hoping that they will not make a copy and you get in trouble for sharing. You also have to remember that the problem with home sharing across the Internet is limited to your upload speed. If your neighbor is using your wifi on a separate segment that does not allow access to your side of the network, but can go into only those shares that their assigned username and password only allows. That is when you are talking a little more advanced, but it can be done with say NethServer or Zentyal handling the sharing and running Plex on a decent system.

I get issues with the NAS dogging down if it is doing a copy job from Time Machine, even though it has decent horsepower, it is the fact that the streams are taking a priority, since I have not really gone in and tweaked things with Plex, since I am still getting used to it.

Craige said:

Although NAS is a great solution, my usage is low with a single user & hence there is absolutely no need for a dedicated NAS box and hence thinking of using PC to stream only.

I do have multiple Plex questions, as I just tried it today:

1] What is the difference and benefits between sharing a folder via windows 10 inbuilt sharing function vs Plex.
2] What kind of security is there in plex so that my neighbor’s cant access my files ?
3] How to stop Plex from transcoding my files before streaming.. couldn’t find anything to stop from settings.
4] In order to stream video files to my laptop I keep getting “the selected server cannot be reached securely”.
Indirect/insure connection would be possible – I checked out and theres a huge troubleshooting things which I will check once I get enough time and with new router. – Any easy solutions lemme know


You the man ! Looking for this forever

Also, one more thing I want to clear my doubts with:

While sharing folders (from Desktop) via windows sharing function and accessing on Laptop –
I also see laptop under “Network” and when I click on it there’s users folder and under all things on my
laptop. Now I haven’t shared any laptop folder, wonder why is it showing the same? Is it by default ?

Hi there

@Craige

To stop PLEX transcoding

ensure in the setttings (click on the tools icon (spanner / wrench symbol) and select WEB. (I'm using Linux but it's identical settings if you run PLEX on Windows). Ensure the ADVANCED mode is enabled.

Now:

1) choose Player from the sidebar

2) select ORIGINAL in all the three quality settings (Local, Online, Remote). Changing these will cause transcoding if the quality you select is different from the original.

3) Select next five options (HTML5, Direct Play,Direct Stream,Allow Direct play of AC3 audio, prefer AAC audio)

4) subtitles - choose for Burn subtitles either Automatic or Only for image formats - the default setting will transcode even if you don't display subtitles if any subtitles exist - also uncheck things like play cinema trailers etc.

5) Now on the GENERAL settings ensure Library is NOT updated hourly - I do it manually as I don't have a huge amount to add to my library very often I send MUSIC to a BOSE sound touch speaker too - BOSE Wifi speakers can access PLEX music libraries BTW.

6) When setting up libraries I'd disable video thumnails and when creating your library use the VIDEO scanner (even for movies) and use Personal media and Local assets as the agent.

These settings I've found minimize transcoding -- although with a decent CPU transcoding usually isn't a problem --selecting correct Buffer size IS though.

To get a decent buffer size (good also if Wifi connection drops a bit) select something like 180 secs for throttle buffer and on Windows set something like 4194304 in the setting Size of IPC buffer in bytes -- in the SERVER -->GENERAL setting

Save video of course in a form plex doesn't have to transcode - MKV, MP4, AVI, XVID etc will be fine.

Hope these tweaks help

For security - this is actually a bit of a dog -- since in theory you need to have a PLEX pass (i.e PAY). However I don't do it that way -

What you can do is in the USERS settings use the Invite Friend and then you can set restrictions on the media access.

Of course you still have standard Wifi password access to prevent 3rd parties from accessing - but as I use mine simply for LOCAL serving (including some Remote TV's via googlecast / amazon fire box / smart TV connections) the security aspect of other users is one I haven't bothered with -- I can see though this Could be a weakness of PLEX.

Cheers
jimbo

Jimbo I am still kind of confused on the whole Transcode. I have my Synology DIS216+2 with the DVR beta set up to record from my HD Home Run Connect, with Quality set for Automatic, Background x264 is set for Faster, Simultaneous is set for 4.

On the NVIDIA Shield TV, it is set for the Plex Player to do Original quality, Direct Stream and Direct Play from the NAS. If I play stuff off of the NAS from the web browser, that is when I get the pause and the server error about processing.

...

Craige said:

Thank-you all for helping me out here.
I have got a new router and streaming is no longer an issue :)
Furthermore I do have certain Sharing questions, which would be great if you can answer here:
Sharing Folders – Multiple Questions

On my network between machines I use Public between Windows and Linux, or will just make sure that the folder for the user allows certain SMB/CIF share rights to the user on that computer and log into my wife's laptop that way if I am needing to put something on her laptop, instead of her share on the Synology NAS on our network.

If having issues with Username on the machine, even with SMB/CIFS advanced permissions are correct, then we would need to dig deeper into what the changes that Microsoft has made to AU and are also making to Redstone 2. The Security software companies cannot keep up with all of the changes that Microsoft is making, along with the different groups at Microsoft are not working together, which has been an issue with them and was like that with Apple before Jobs came back after he was let go and then current management was killing the company like Microsoft has killed theirs since Gates the OCD/PITA has left.

The Everyone or Guest permission is one that Microsoft has made a lot of security changes in the backend to bandaid their Zero Day flaws, since they used a in house version of Samba that is older than the current version that all Linux distro's and Mac OS-X is using, same as the kernels for Linux and OS-X.

Run this report from you My Documents folder in a open Command Window as Administrator: netsh wlan show wlanreport https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/10741 (make sure you place an X in your Public IP digits when you copy the HTML info for you to paste into a Text file to edit out that.) You can change your Username to something like "Help me" or just X's at the end of the folder name. Everything else for Router Internal stuff has to stay, so that we know if you are using a class A (10.10.0.0,

255.0.0.0)

, Class B (172.16.0.0 - 172.31.0.0, 255.240.0.0) or Class C (192.168.0.0, 255.255.255.0).