# Windows 7 64bit and MSE - PyTivo Shares disappearing randomly



## Morpheus101 (Jan 14, 2006)

I have Windows 7 and was previously used Norton and never had a problem with loosing my PyTivo shares. I'm now using MSE and the Windows 7 firewall. My system is all on the local network. It can run for some time without losing the shares but going into the TiVo sometimes at random all the shares are missing. If I reset the PyTivo service the shares come back.

Firewall settings...

Inbound (TCP-In) Local Port: 9032 Profiles: All
Outbound (TCP-Out) Remote Port: 9032 Profiles: All
Outbound (UDP-Out) Remote Port: 5353 Profiles: All

Pytivo.conf


```
[Server]
port=9032
ffmpeg=C:\Program Files (x86)\pyTivo\bin\ffmpeg.exe
temp=C:\Users\Public\Documents\pyTivo
tivo_password = <removed>
tivo_mak = <removed>
tivo_username = <removed>


[_tivo_SD]

[Movie Central]
type=video
path=F:\Video\Movies

[TV Central]
type = video
path = F:\Video\TV

[TV Nancy]
type = video
path = F:\Video\N-TV

[Pictures]
type = photo
path = F:\Pictures

[Music]
type = music
path = F:\Music

[Admin]
type=admin

[loggers]
keys=root

[handlers]
keys=console,rotfile

[formatters]
keys=basicform

[logger_root]
level=DEBUG
handlers=console,rotfile

[handler_console]
class=StreamHandler
formatter=basicform
args=(sys.stdout,)

[handler_rotfile]
class=handlers.RotatingFileHandler
formatter=basicform
args=('C:\Users\Public\Documents\pyTivo\debug.log', 'a', 10485760, 5)

[formatter_basicform]
format=%(asctime)s %(levelname)-5s %(name)s: %(message)s
```
I'm not sure what is wrong here but possibly something with the firewall settings or the tivo.conf. Maybe there is a better way to configure?

TIA...


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## JulienPDX77 (Jan 13, 2012)

Why is windows firewall even on at all? I bet its the culprit. a "real" firewall through your router blocking stuff from outside your network is all you usually need at home....


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## Speed Daemon (Jan 15, 2012)

JulienPDX77 said:


> Why is windows firewall even on at all? I bet its the culprit. a "real" firewall through your router blocking stuff from outside your network is all you usually need at home....


If only that was still true... *sigh*

I spent a lot of my IT career having to take the initiative to educate corporate top management about the various and growing security threats, and why they should make policies now, before a major breach happens. Looking back, the worst corporate IT attacks were puny in comparison to what the average home PC comes under whenever it's connected to the Internet.

Back when it took an unscrupulous content provider and a user who didn't know to "not push that button!" to get resident servers onto a computer, the Internet was still small enough that we could use a combination of edge firewalls and proactive PC maintenance to stop most of it. These days we rely on so much client-side software to do legitimate stuff that it's a much harder challenge to keep the bad stuff out.

A good and properly configured edge (where your LAN connects to the ISP service drop) firewall with stateful packet inspection is a must. But it's important to know that they only know about IP addresses, ports and application layers that they can recognize. Having a layer of security that inspects processes is the next level of protection that has become necessary, not just a luxury. And that can only work when it's on the machine that's execution those processes.

I'd think twice before completely disabling the one thing that can protect against the currently most common exploits.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Morpheus101 said:


> Pytivo.conf
> 
> 
> ```
> ...


You shouldn't have installed PyTivo in the 'Program Files (x86)' folder, or you can run into all sorts of problems.


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## Morpheus101 (Jan 14, 2006)

I've been running PyTivo from that folder for at least 4-5 years with no problems.

It happened again, no shares. Restarted the PyTivo service and the shares appeared.

What about the log would it capture this happening?


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## Morpheus101 (Jan 14, 2006)

After some testing I found that Windows 7 has a Private Network and a Public Network activated in in the Firewall setting. If I disable the Public part of the firewall the shares stick. As soon as I enable the Public Network, within a few minutes the Shares completely disappear or there is only one share showing.

The Public Network has a 'Unidentified Network' listed in there.


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## Morpheus101 (Jan 14, 2006)

I think I have a stable problem. I can start the TiVo service, and all my shares are there. I have 3 video shares, 1 picture share, and 1 music share. After a few minutes I go back into shows and only 1 video share is showing. The music and picture shares are also missing. I can see the files in the 1 remaining video share. I can have the share showing on the TiVo under shows at the bottom, go in to my PC and restart the TiVo service, return to the TiVo and all 3 shares are showing under shows at the bottom, with me doing nothing.


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## Morpheus101 (Jan 14, 2006)

I couldn't take it so I reverted back to SEP and my shares are now stable again.

If someone has a solution I'll give it another go. The three major players are

1) Windows 7 64bit
2) Microsoft Security Essentials
3) VMWare

I believe the problem has to do with VMWare showing up in the Public Network (VMNet1 and VMNet8).


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

In your situation, you may want to make use of the "beacon" keyword in your pyTivo.conf.


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## Morpheus101 (Jan 14, 2006)

I set "beacon=true" and so far it is working. So simple and was such a pain in my backside!

Thanks....


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

No, that's not how beacon works...

http://pytivo.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Configure_pyTivo#beacon

With "beacon=true", I guess you're disabling the old-style beacon, so only Zeroconf is being used.


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## curt1s (Jul 5, 2007)

Hi all,

I had this exact same problem for over a year now. I have it working now by doing two things:

1. Setting zeroconf to off
2. Setting beacon to 192.168.2.255 (note the first three octets should be the ones specifically for your router).

I used to use the exact IP of my Tivo for beacon, but it is DHCP, and it changed and I got annoyed with adding multiple IP addresses to the beacon line. Basically I found I was debugging the same issue of my Tivo not working about once per year, and I never quite figured out it is the same issue, so a year later same debugging process until I entered yet another IP address to the beacon line. The typical definition on insanity. I reflect back on my life and I am a bit embarrassed by this. 

Note also that my procedure is completely debugging by superstition. I have no idea which of those two made it work, or if either of them did, and it might just break again later. The sad thing too is I am a professional programmer with over 20 years of experience, and I refuse to look at the code to debug. I am way too lazy. Ironically I spend more time probably by debugging by superstition. 

Good luck!


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