Methods for my home network

[tinpanalley]

I'm lost...
I'm very good at keeping up to date with computer tech developments (helps having this forum to ask questions in :thumbsup but somewhere along the line I lost track of the home networking world. Didn't help that before Windows 7 it was a bit of a mess.
I seem to always use SMB shares to access my internal HDDs from my media players, laptops, etc. But I read online and find people refer to SMB shares as being the less desired way to connect to a network. And then I see all these other types and wonder if one or the other isn't suited better to my needs. I do find that I do get problems from time to time of network access issues, devices that demand passwords though I don't use one, etc. Does anyone have a link that explains this stuff well? I find info online but they all talk about this like it's something obvious that people already know about, further increasing the feeling of not knowing what's going on.

Any help, recommendations?

 

[Mushkins]

There's not really anything anyone can recommend as a "best" solution unless you have a specific project in mind. Every network is different.

That being said, there's absolutely nothing wrong with SMB shares and mapped drives. The only time I ever really see them act funky is if you're mixing Macs and Windows and Linux.

 

[tinpanalley]

Right. Ok.
I have this nagging problem with my Raspberry Pi 2 setup where half the time it simply won't access my SMB shares or even my external HDD for that matter. Before that it was the Boxee that would often do that. Both of those are Linux aren't they?

 

[JackMDS]

http://raspberrypihq.com/how-to-share-a-folder-with-a-windows-computer-from-a-raspberry-pi/

 

[Mushkins]

Right. Ok.
I have this nagging problem with my Raspberry Pi 2 setup where half the time it simply won't access my SMB shares or even my external HDD for that matter. Before that it was the Boxee that would often do that. Both of those are Linux aren't they?

Also important to note what your SMB shares are on. Is it a server running a Windows Server variation? A desktop sharing a USB drive? A mac? A SOHO NAS?

Both sides have to be configured to play nice.

 

[tinpanalley]

Also important to note what your SMB shares are on. Is it a server running a Windows Server variation? A desktop sharing a USB drive? A mac? A SOHO NAS?
Both sides have to be configured to play nice.

It's a desktop running Windows 7 with shared folders on an internal HDD containing videos, music.