Samba File Transfer - HELP!

[andfor]

Hello.

I'm having a nightmare getting samba to work with Windows 10. I have a music archive on my laptop HDD and all I would like to be able to do is transfer over a copy of new album to Rune when I get one.

I have an external HDD on the RPi3 and I am able to see the network folder and can read he contents of /mnt/MPD/USB/[myhdd] on the laptop. I have updated samba with rern's addons menu.

Sometimes it works flawlessly. I can transfer an album folder with no problem. Other times there are one of many issues happening:

- Transfer starts, but Laptop network connection drops completely.
- Transfer starts but slows to a crawl and just bumps along going nowhere, still connected.
- Windows shows me the transfer dialogue box but progress stays at 0%. Can't cancel. Explorer crashes.
- Unexpected network error 0x8007003B.
- Windows tells me the network path can't be found. Even though I can see the damn folder!

I have attempted many fixes suggested by various internet forums, but problems persist.

The Pi and the laptop are both connected with WiFi dongles. (I don't have a choice in this. Has to be WiFi). Maybe WiFi is the problem, but I don't use it all that often and I'm only transferring one album at a time. And I know it CAN work! Surely WiFi should handle a single album?

I'm not really asking for solutions, although if anyone has any insight I'd gladly accept it. All I want to know is this: does anyone use wifi to successfully transfer album files to a Pi HDD mount without all these problems? And reliably?

If it's possible for others then I'm hopeful to keep trying.

Thanks in advance.....

[hondagx35]

[andfor]

Hi Frank,

Yes I have WinSCP, it was the first file transfer method I tried, but had found that it had the same choking behaviour: starting a transfer ok, but then slowing to a crawl. That's why I was messing about with samba in the first place.

Just tried WinSCP now and it worked fine. Whatever I've done since the last time I tried it has made the difference.

I guess I just liked the idea of having a network drive accessible without opening another program. Is samba just not suitable for such file transfers?

Thanks

[R101]

andfor,

I use Samba to transfer ripped files to a Pi3 without problems, but I use a dongle rather than the integrated wifi. I found the integrated wifi pretty unreliable. I also had problems persuading the Pi to use AES encryption rather than TKIP, which slowed everything down to "g" speed.

If you have neighbours, it might be worth using a scanning utility to check that they are not using the same channel as you are.

[andfor]

Hi R101,

Thanks for the input. I have an Edimax 7612UAn dongle on my Pi3 (it's the one with a long antenna not the nano size) and the integrated WiFi is disabled. I have a good WiFi signal.

I fiddled with the interface configuration file to get rid of TKIP and use AES (based on internet suggestions). Not sure if this was necessary.

I have scanned my WiFi channels and selected the best ones. I didn't mention that my laptop is on 5ghz and the pi on 2.4ghz, but that shouldn't matter, right? As I say the signal is very strong.

Have you altered anything to get yours working or is it just stock? Would you mind sharing your smb.conf file? Just for comparison. There's a chance I altered something crucial, but lost track of it.

And btw I have had network disconnections using WinSCP now as well, so there's something network-related going on between the laptop, router and the pi. I know this because I can use a mobile phone to access the Rune UI as well as SSH when Windows isn't cooperating.

It's just a mess. I'm a hair's breadth away from re-imaging my sdcard. Don't want to do this as I've got everything else set up just right.

Going to try and re-trace my steps first and undo all the tweaking....maybe I shot myself in the foot somewhere along the way.

[R101]

[andfor]

Thanks.

I've checked with a multimeter and I've got a good supply to the Pi. Power management is off (by default I think in 0.4b). The HDD is run off the usb port, but I don't think that's the problem. I have been able to transfer several albums at a go without any issues in the past.

Besides, one of the fail states is that the laptop disconnects itself from the router (no internet, no network connection), which can't be an issue with the Pi. It's baffling.

I'm going to set up a second Pi with a fresh rune install to test like you suggested.

[andfor]