XBMC: SMB on Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion)

This article was written on May 03, 2012 by CyberNet.

Mac lion smb samba

When setting up my XBMC instances, I wanted to have a central machine in my house serve up all my media, and for that I chose to use my Mac OS X Lion machine. Since my XBMC machines are being powered by Windows 7 I ran into a bit of a predicament. In Mac OS X Lion, Apple started using the SMB2 protocol that Microsoft introduced in Vista back in 2006. Naturally this would be a welcomed change since the original protocol has been around since the Windows 3.1 days, but XBMC doesn’t include support for SMB2.

There are some alternative protocols you can try using, such as AFP or FTP, but even those have their drawbacks. XBMC 11 added built-in support for AFP shares which is file sharing protocol that Apple prefers. In my case AFP isn’t even an option since Windows doesn’t natively support AFP, which means my XBMC machines don’t see the AFP shares. As far as the FTP goes Apple removed that functionality in Lion, but it can easily be restored. I didn’t want to go that route though because FTP connections limit some of what you can do with the media in XBMC, such as not being able to delete videos directly from the XBMC interface. So for me Samba/SMB was still my best option.

After some searching I came across a free app called SMBUp that restores the old-school SMB protocol compatibility in all its glory on your Mac OS X Lion install. You just have to download the app, open it up, and it will install a version of Samba that works beautifully with XBMC. As you can see in the screenshot above you’ll be provided a full interface for managing all of your shares, and you can even enable guest access to shares making it even easier to hook XBMC up to them.

A lot of geeky people will argue that using the older protocol will drastically limit your transfer speeds compared to other methods, but I have not found that to be the case. In fact before installing SMBUp I was able to transfer files at 92MB/s to a Windows machine, which was being done with the newer SMB2 protocol. After installing SMBUp I saw speeds to the same machine reach 98MB/s, and that was with the older protocol. Not bad, and that shows that my gigabit network is on par to my expectations.

Tip: Most people treat the Samba and SMB terms as one-in-the-same, but in reality they are not. SMB/CIFS is pretty much only found in Microsoft Windows, whereas Samba is the free and open source version that you’ll find in the Mac and Linux OS. Samba was originally developed by reverse engineering SMB.

SMBUp Homepage (Mac only; Freeware)

CyberNet’s XBMC Guides:

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com

Hangouts SMS support doesn’t work with Google Voice

Earlier this week, Google announced a Hangouts update that brings SMS functionality, which is nice but unfortunately comes with a snafu. According to Nikhyl Singhal, who took to Google+ today, there are some issues to be ironed out with Google Voice, and for the time being neither of the two aforementioned Google services will be […]

Android 4.4 KitKat guide to what’s new: SlashGear 101

The newest version of Google’s mobile operating system is on the way to devices of all kinds in the very near future, bringing a load of updates for the back end as well as the front in Android 4.4 KitKat. This version of the software brings changes first to the Google Nexus 5, made by […]

Moto X camera app now on Google Play

Those of you with a hankering for trying out the camera experience included with the Motorola Moto X will now find it in app form on Google Play. Of course just because the app is available on Google Play doesn’t mean its out there for everyone. On the contrary – this app only works with […]

Ingress beta open to all: Google’s game sticks with Android

This week the folks at Google and Niantic have released their cages from the “closed beta” edition of Ingress to allow this augmented reality game to all. The game remains in “beta” mode, though we’re essentially seeing the entirety of this environment’s gameplay live right this minute. This game will be available to iOS users […]

Awesome computer software magically turns Star Wars quotes into GIFs

If you ever, for a second, wondered questions like what’s the purpose of life or why the Internet exists or what are you going to eat for lunch today, the answer is simply this magical software tool created by GitHub user LindseyB. It automatically turns any Star Wars quote into an animated GIF, complete with caption of said quote.

Read more…


    



iPads behind Ohio State Marching Band’s Michael Jackson moonwalk

If you’ve not seen the video of the Ohio State Marching Band taking it to the field with a Michael Jackson tribute march – you’re missing out. This week it’s become a viral hit, grabbing thousands of hits in its original publication on YouTube and thousands more in each consecutive re-upload. Here a few days […]

Android KitKat “Magic” and “Give” videos appear

While you’ll not be seeing one whole heck of a lot of new details appearing on the operating system known as Android 4.4 KitKat in the following teaser trailer, you will find entertainment in abundance. Google and Nestle appear to be rolling out one – if not a whole series – of video advertisements for […]

Firefox 25 update brings Web Audio and more

Mozilla has rolled out Firefox 25, something that brings with it a variety of new happenings, the most touted of which is Web Audio. Mozilla goes into extensive detail about this, as well as a sound demo called Songs of Diridum as a special demo of LOD: Legend of Diridum, an upcoming game. For those […]

Backup Your Firefox Extensions Into One File

This article was written on June 14, 2006 by CyberNet.

Backup Your Firefox Extensions Into One File
 

There are a lot of people who hate the day when you need to wipe your Firefox profile clean and start from scratch. You know the drill: install Firefox, get your extensions, adjust the settings, import your bookmarks, etc…

This can seem overwhelming at some point but Google recently made it easier with the release of Google Sync. That will take care of transferring your bookmarks, some of your cookies, and your passwords. That is where the Firefox Extension Backup Extension (FEBE) comes in. It will backup your Firefox extensions and settings, and then all you need to do is use Compact Library Extension Organizer (CLEO) to bundle all of the information into one single XPI file that can be installed in any Firefox profile.

These features are only offered for Windows users currently, which is a little disappointing because one of the big features of Firefox is being cross-platform. Hopefully they will be able to support other operating systems in the future so that everyone can enjoy the benefits of these two extensions.

Get FEBE and CLEO

News Source: Lifehacker

Copyright © 2013 CyberNetNews.com