[louzer]

After the update to 1.0.7, my Playbook can no longer be found on my network. I see the device in my Network by name, but when I click on it, it says that the device can't be found and that the network path might be incorrect. This is true for both a Vista and XP box.

[louzer]

After a bit of troubleshooting this is what I found:

When I open Network (Windows Vista and XP), I see an icon for my Playbook named PLAYBOOK-WXYZ. Before the update, clicking that icon opened the Playbook. Now, when I click it, I get the network error.

From command prompt, I get a DNS error trying to ping PLAYBOOK-WXYZ.

I checked for the IP address on the Playbook and found 10.0.0.42. I'm able to ping 10.0.0.42.

When I enter file://10.0.0.42 in my browser, I see the file system of the Playbook. When I go into Network and I enter \\10.0.0.42 as a location, it opens to show the file system. It correctly prompts me for username and password when I try to access the 'Media' folder.

I then tried changing the name of the Playbook to PLAYBOOK-1234 thinking maybe the OS had cached the name/IP combination and that after the update, my Playbook was served a new IP.

Now, in Networks, I see icons for both PLAYBOOK-WXYZ and PLAYBOOK-1234. I was excited for a moment until I clicked on the PLAYBOOK-1234 icon and got the same network error message.

It appears that the Playbook is incorrectly broadcasting it's name/IP combination because DNS is not able to resolve the name.

[louzer]

Rebooted PC, then rebooted my router and Playbook. Playbook was served up a new IP address. When I look in the Attached Devices in my router's admin console, it's showing the IP address without the device name. Before the update, the device name (PLAYBOOK-WXYZ) was listed in there.

So, the only way to access my Playbook over my network is to know the IP address that has been served to it. It can't be obtained via doing a ping since there is no device name associated with it.

[bribert]

Excellent find. That works in Win7. (\\192.168.1 147\media as the mapped drive rather than \\playbook\media ). At least a solution until they fix it. Now, will my (PB) IP address be the same at home? (Set up with same subnet so it may work.) We will see.

Thanks.

[louzer]

If you restart/reset your router, you could be assigned a new IP address. This means that you can't map a drive to \\[ip address] for your Playbook since it won't work if the IP changes.

It's inconvenient if I'm at my PC (downstairs) and my Playbook is on my nightstand charging. I really liked being able to just open my Network window, click on the Playbook icon, and transfer files. If my Playbook is served a new IP address, I have to run upstairs, check the new address, and thne go back down to access it.

[louzer]

Excellent find. That works in Win7. (\\192.168.1 147\media as the mapped drive rather than \\playbook\media ). At least a solution until they fix it. Now, will my (PB) IP address be the same at home? (Set up with same subnet so it may work.) We will see.

Thanks.

Probably not. Even though the subnet is the same, your Playbook will be assigned the first available IP address in the range that's set up in your router. It will still be 192.168.1.xxx but the xxx won't necessarily be 147.

[BuzzStarField]

Excellent find. That works in Win7. (\\192.168.1 147\media as the mapped drive rather than \\playbook\media ). At least a solution until they fix it. Now, will my (PB) IP address be the same at home? (Set up with same subnet so it may work.) We will see.

Thanks.

Thanks to all for discovering this. I have my pb set up with a static ip (for development purposes) so this solution is perfect. I really like have a functional picture album and other stuff so I did not want to revert back to 1.0.6. Now I don't have to!

[OniBerry]

I have been typing in "\\192.168.2.xx" since I bought the thing.

Windows 7 (Start Menu)
Windows 7, once connected via WiFi to your Playbook, will connect with it regardless of the IP after the first connection.
Works every time. I wasn't even aware you could type in \\Playbook\media (Where Playbook is the PB`s name?)

[ODAAT]

I am a teacher and don't have time to be experimenting with IP addresses on the various networks and routers I use around school and home. Frankly, I just want it working as it was. It was my number one useful functionality of the PB. Let's hope they fix it soon.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com