How To Add Different Drives To Shared Media Server Windows 10

Whether you already have a media sharing system on your network or are setting one up for the commencement time the options can be bewildering. To stream high-quality video you volition desire the fastest possible connections. Unfortunately, the easiest systems to set up are likewise the least efficient so some effort is needed to get the best performance. Here are some recommendations.

This assumes you take already set up the wired or wireless LAN connections between the server where yous shop your media and the customer(s) where yous want to play it. Come across here: Setting up your network connection - General - OSMC

Any machine can act as a server, including ane running OSMC (run into OSMC equally a server beneath). You lot will get the all-time functioning, especially if in that location are lots of clients, from a purpose-made NAS.

Choosing a filesharing protocol

If you have a NAS that offers the NFS filesharing protocol, choose that for best performance with OSMC devices. NFS is the built-in network filesharing organization in Linux. Windows (simply not 'Home' versions) likewise has an NFS client so you lot tin can still access those NAS files from Windows.

If you keep your media on a Windows machine and then it makes sense to use the SMB protocol, otherwise known as CIFS, especially if you have other Windows machines on the network. SMB is built in to every version of Windows. Linux machines connect to SMB shares using a package called Samba. They tin't bring together a 'HomeGroup' but according to this: http://kodi.wiki/view/SMB/Windows they tin access shares created using a homegroup. The Samba customer is included in OSMC, the Samba server is optional.

If your NAS or other device where you lot store media supports only SMB version ane you lot may have to arrange the SMB version in Kodi (see below). Run across also https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/filecab/2017/06/01/smb1-product-clearinghouse/

If you really don't want to use SMB on Windows, in that location are NFS servers available. Run into hither: [How To] Add NFS server capabilities to Windows (costless).

We practise not generally recommend the use of UPnP for security and performance reasons, merely if you already have a UPnP/DLNA server it should be the easiest of all to gear up upwards. Some media servers may offer simply UPnP for sharing. OSMC has a congenital-in UPnP server.

Note that any filesystem format tin can exist used with any protocol, for example you lot tin share NTFS files using NFS or Linux (ext4) files using SMB. File ownership and permissions won't necessarily translate but that won't affair for media files. It stands to reason though to expect a Windows filesystem to be served best with a Windows filesharing protocol and a Linux filesystem to exist served all-time with a Linux protocol. You can too share the aforementioned files with two unlike protocols at the same time.

OSMC does non support AFP. Apple Mac users can use SMB.

OSMC equally a client – using Kodi

If you accept a media server already you tin can connect to information technology using SMB, NFS or UPnP from the Kodi GUI but you may not get the best performance that mode. As an indication of the difference, @angry.sardine has done some comparison between using Kodi's built-in clients and using operating arrangement clients:

Some rough benchmarks I did just now gave me the following read speeds.

Kodi-level SMB: 192 Mb/s
Kodi-level NFS: 272 Mb/s
Autofs SMB: 904 Mb/s
Autofs NFS: 920Mb/s

(Recall that the maximum allowed bit-rate for a 4K blu-ray is 128Mb/s).

When you add a source, you will be able to browse to any bachelor NFS shares or UPnP devices. To add a network share pick Music (say) so Files and so Add music and enter the network location as follows or click left to browse to the location.

If using NFS, nfs://SERVER/path.
For SMB, smb://user:countersign@SERVER/sharename/folder

Annotation that if you enter your SMB credentials in this mode, they will exist immediately stored and removed from the screen, so you will merely run across:

smb://SERVER/sharename/folder

You cannot currently browse to SMB servers if using the latest version of the SMB protocol. This is a major drawback and is because newer versions of Windows don't allow passwordless (Invitee) admission to shares. You will have to enter the user, password and location manually.

Instead of entering the whole string for each share, you lot can choose Browse and and then Add network location. Enter the server proper name or IP accost in the Server proper noun field and enter appropriate credentials for access to the server in Username and Password. Striking OK and the server will at present appear in the 'Browse for a new share' list and you can so scan to any SMB shares on that server available to user. This is useful if you lot have several shares on one server.

SERVER is the name of the server machine, or preferably an IP address. If using an IP accost, it'southward all-time to make it a stock-still address by telling your router to always assign that address to that machine. If you practice use a Windows machine name, it must be in Capital letter. user is a Windows username with access to the share and password is that user'south password. Path is the location of a share in a Linux filesystem on the server, sharename is the name of a Windows share. path and sharename are optional – without them you lot would meet all visible shares on that machine - folder (also optional) is the path to a folder inside that share.

If using UPnP, you must use the browse office.

OSMC as a client – using fstab or autofs

Using the SMB or NFS services in Kodi is somewhat elementary to set merely may not deliver the best performance. It may be fine for music and low-resolution video merely non for high video flake-rates. For that it is better to 'mount' a shared folder in OSMC'due south filesystem. You volition need to access the commandline equally described here: Accessing the commandline.

Yous make a directory in the filesystem then attach the shared directory to that 'mountpoint', usually nether the /mnt directory. The share can be mounted automatically past editing file /etc/fstab.

Warning - we take been recommending using fstab for years, and it'due south fine when accessing a server which is always on. If the server can become offline (eg a Windows desktop that gets turned off or sleeps) then utilize autofs every bit described here: Mounting network shares with autofs (alternative to fstab). Autofs automatically handles creating the mountpoint(s).

Mounting using fstab is described hither: Configuring fstab based Samba share mounts or here: Configuring fstab based NFS share mounts

When mounted, the shared directory looks to Kodi just similar a local directory so you demand to scan to Root filesystem and so the mountpoint when calculation a media location (source).

OSMC as a server

To share files on your OSMC device with other devices proceed equally follows. You can use NFS, SMB or UPnP. If sharing a USB bulldoze or other removable media information technology outset needs to be mounted in the filesystem. OSMC automatically mounts removable devices nether the /media directory and automatically shares them if you lot accept installed the SMB server (see below).

To share using NFS you need to install the nfs server:

          sudo apt-go update sudo apt-get install nfs-kernel-server

For NFS do not rely on the built-in automount which mounts removable drives under /media. Instead, add together a line in fstab to mount the drive nether /mnt and then that its location and shared name is predictable. First make a directory under /mnt. Lets phone call information technology mySharedDrive.

sudo mkdir /mnt/mySharedDrive

Type blkid at the control prompt to go the UUID of the partitioning y'all desire to mount. You volition come across something like this:

/dev/sda3: LABEL="OSMCsystem" UUID="db216be0-6d8e-45b6-97ad-0fd806e961dc" TYPE="ext4"

And then edit file /etc/fstab (sudo nano /etc/fstab) and add a line to it like this

UUID=db216be0-6d8e-45b6-97ad-0fd806e961dc /mnt/mySharedDrive ext4 defaults,noatime,nofail,x-systemd.mountain-timeout=30 0 0

but using the value of UUID for your sectionalization.

Mount it with sudo mountain -a

Apply nano over again to make a file /etc/exports which will contain lines like this:

/mnt/mySharedDrive 192.168.1.0/24(sync,no_subtree_check)

and so type exportfs -a

In the case, the bulldoze mounted at /mnt/mySharedDrive is shared with whatsoever device on the 192.168.i.x subnet. Admission will be read-only past default. For other sharing options refer to linux documentation for exportfs.

Windows machines (Pro, Ultimate and Enterprise) can access NFS shares by adding the NFS customer.

It is not possible to browse to an NFS share from Windows but you tin can go in that location by entering the location eg \\192.168.1.1\mnt\mySharedDrive in Windows Explorer and y'all tin can map a Windows drive letter to that NFS shared directory.

To share OSMC's files using SMB, install the Samba server from the AppStore. The server automatically shares your home directory and any removable media. OSMC's automount feature and Samba use the sectionalisation Label (see above) as the mountpoint and share name. Brand sure you lot set that to something recognisable when you format the drive. Configuration files for the server are in /etc/samba. If you want to change the SMB version or other defaults, create a new file smb-local.conf as described in smb.conf. OSMC's samba server by default volition back up any SMB version. To browse to the samba shares from Windows, turn on the SMB 1.0/CIFS Client in Windows features. To force a more secure protocol, add server min protocol = SMB2_10 to the [global] department of smb-local.conf. You may notice calculation lanman auth = aye and ntlm auth = aye necessary besides.

To share using UPnP/DLNA plow this option on in Settings->Services. Other devices will then be viewing your media through the library rather than directly through the filesystem. They will only exist able to access media that yous have added to the library, therefore.

Note on SMB version 1

There are two reasons you lot may wish to use the old, but insecure SMB version 1. Older devices may support merely that version, and it does allow you to browse for SMB servers.
There is a security risk in using SMB1. Do non go out it enabled if y'all too desire to access your files from the internet. To use it, you volition have to force both client and server to use SMB version 1. In Windows, search for Windows Features and enable SMB 1.0/CIFS File Sharing Back up.