Setting up your NETGEAR WNR3500L Media/DLNA Server on Tomato Firmware

One of the great things about the latest Tomato firmware for the WNR3500L is how easy it to set up your router as a Media / DLNA Server.

If you are unfamiliar with what a Media / DLNA Server is, you can read more about how it works and then look into what devices offer the capabilities to play or render your content.

If you already have a device, then you are all set. You first need to download and install the latest Tomato firmware for the WNR3500L that has the ability to set up your router as a Media / DLNA Server.

You first must install the Tomato firmware onto your router. You can read about how to find and install the firmware in this article. Once you have installed the Tomato firmware you will need to set up all the basic settings needed for your router. When done with that save your configuration. That way if you have any issues setting up your router as a Media / DLNA Server you can easily reload you basic settings.

The first thing you should do is plug-in your USB external hard drive to your router. Then reboot the router.

After it reboots then you need to Install USB Support on WNR3500L and Tomato. Once you have done that you should see your USB drive in your attached devices.

It should look something like this.

If you don't see any attached devices then you need to troubleshoot that issue first before attempting to set up your router as media server.

Your media server settings are accesible from the "USB and NAS" > "Media Server" tab.

Click on it and when brought to that settings page click on Media / DNLA Enable.

Once you have it enabled, you need to decide and setup where the database is saved for you media and other options. This is where it can be a little tricky. If you have very few music, pictures or videos then you can leave everything at default and just turn on "Scan Media at startup" and you can reboot your router and you are good to go.

But if you are like most people you have quite a few music or videos. If so you will need to make some decisions on where the database is located and when it should be scanned.

Create a Custom Database Path

What you can do is create and save your database on the same external USB hard drive that your content is on.  Doing this will ensure that you have enough space for your database to reside.

To do this you need to select a "Custom Path" for your database and then enter the drive information and what folder you want it to use.

You do this by selecting a "Custom Path" in the drop down and then entering the path to your hard drive and creating a specific folder for your database.

I used "dlna" for my folder so it was easy for me to remember later. You can use any name you wish.

You router uses a different naming convention than most PC's use so you first need to determine what your router has found and called your the external hard drive. This is easy to do by looking back at your "Attached Devices" report as shown above.

You can see that mine was shown as "tmp/mnt/sda2.  You would enter the "/mnt/sda2" without the "tmp" and then make up a folder name.  You don't have to create the folder on your hard drive before doing this. If the folder does not exist then it will be created for you. As shown above I used the folder name of 'dlna' and will only be using this folder for my database.

Tivo Support

If you have a Series 2, Series 3 or Tivo Premiere you can click on the Tivo Support and you Tivo will be able to connect to your hard drive and play TiVo compatible videos, music and display pictures.

Strictly adhere to DLNA standards

This will allow server-side downscaling of very large JPEG images, which may hurt JPEG serving performance on (at least) Sony DLNA products.

I recommend leaving it off unless you are having a particular issue with Jpeg images.

Media Directories

If you want the whole hard drive to be scanned for media you can leave the directories at the default setting of "/mnt"

If you want to restrict the scan to specific directories or types of media then you can specify the type of media and the directory to scan specifically. The directory has to be exactly entered as the router would find it and punctuation does matter. See example below.

Once you have everything set then click on Save and when it has been saved then click on the "Restart Now" button.

Depending on the amount of files you have to be scanned and their types it could take some time for everything to show up on your DLNA client. In addition, depending on what DLNA client you are using you may need to force a re-scan on it also.

I have been using this setup and it has worked very well. My videos and music play fine without skipping or crashing.

If you decide to give it a go, let us know how it works for you.

wildthink
wildthink's picture
Hi, sorry for my english.

Hi, sorry for my english.
I've got Netgear WNR 3500L with Tomato Firmware v1.28.9052 MIPSR2-beta23 K26 USB Ext. To router is connected HDD by USB (NTFS formatted) and TV Samsung C650 series by ethernet. I was configured all as in this topic, but after router restar in TV is not available multimedia directory. I must rescan whole HHD (it takes about 1 hour - 250GB) after every router restart and when I can play a HDD content. What is wrong?
I often have in logs:
22:10:41 unknown daemon.warn minidlna[1287]: SoapMethod: Unknown: X_GetFeatureList
22:10:41 unknown daemon.warn minidlna[1287]: Returning UPnPError 401: Invalid Action

below a logs fragment:

Jan 1 01:00:50 unknown user.notice kernel: scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access WDC WD64 00AAKS-65A7B0 PQ: 0 ANSI: 2 CCS
Jan 1 01:00:50 unknown user.notice kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 1250263728 512-byte hardware sectors (640135 MB)
Jan 1 01:00:50 unknown user.notice kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
Jan 1 01:00:50 unknown user.debug kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 28 00 00 00
Jan 1 01:00:50 unknown user.err kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
Jan 1 01:00:50 unknown user.err kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
Jan 1 01:00:50 unknown user.info kernel: sda: sda1
Jan 1 01:00:50 unknown user.notice kernel: sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
Jan 1 01:00:50 unknown daemon.warn minidlna[483]: Starting MiniDLNA version 1.0.18.2 [SQLite 3.7.2].
Jan 1 01:00:51 unknown daemon.warn minidlna[483]: Creating new database...
Jan 1 01:00:51 unknown daemon.err nmbd[468]: Samba server UNKNOWN is now a domain master browser for workgroup WORKGROUP on subnet UNICAST_SUBNET
Jan 1 01:00:51 unknown daemon.warn minidlna[483]: HTTP listening on port 46634
Jan 1 01:00:51 unknown daemon.warn minidlna[483]: TiVo support is enabled.
Jan 1 01:00:51 unknown daemon.warn minidlna[518]: Scanning /tmp/mnt
Jan 1 01:00:51 unknown daemon.warn minidlna[518]: Scanning /tmp/mnt finished (0 files)!
Jan 1 01:00:51 unknown user.warn kernel: fuse init (API version 7.8), DCACHE_BUG enabled
Jan 1 01:00:52 unknown daemon.notice ntfs-3g[544]: Version 2010.10.2 integrated FUSE 27
Jan 1 01:00:52 unknown daemon.notice ntfs-3g[544]: Mounted /dev/sda1 (Read-Write, label "Nowy", NTFS 3.1)
Jan 1 01:00:52 unknown daemon.notice ntfs-3g[544]: Cmdline options: iocharset=utf8,noatime,nodev
Jan 1 01:00:52 unknown daemon.notice ntfs-3g[544]: Mount options: iocharset=utf8,nodev,allow_other,nonempty,noatime,fsname=/dev/sda1,blkdev,blksize=4096
Jan 1 01:00:52 unknown daemon.notice ntfs-3g[544]: Ownership and permissions disabled, configuration type 1
Jan 1 01:00:52 unknown user.info hotplug[479]: USB ntfs fs at /dev/sda1 mounted on /tmp/mnt/Nowy

Thanks

wildthink
wildthink's picture
cut...

cut...

leon55
leon55's picture
Post very nicely written, and

Post very nicely written, and it contains useful facts. I am happy to find your
distinguished way of writing the post. Now you make it easy for me to understand and implement. Replica Handbags Wholesale
Thanks for sharing with us.

leon55
leon55's picture
Post very nicely written, and

Post very nicely written, and it contains useful facts. I am happy to find your
distinguished way of writing the post. Now you make it easy for me to understand and implement. Replica Handbags Wholesale
Thanks for sharing with us.

Webinator
Webinator's picture
I did everything you said to

I did everything you said to do in this forum which was very helpful by the way. When I clicked on the restart button it says something like scanning media or something(I'm writing this from work while on lunch and router at home) and stays that way. I thought that it might take awhile because I have a lot of media and big files up to 30gb for some. I let go for all night and has not changed.

Anon
Anon's picture
Im using the same setup and

Im using the same setup and as a heads up, the HDD can freeze up while scanning if it finds something it dose not like. for instance i have a 500gb HDD with limited content to .AVI only files but on my 1TB HDD ive got .AVI .MKV .OGG .MPEG and some others and when i scan this drive it can freeze up (im assuming its a file or file type) but i also loose internet when i get this problem to fix it i turn of the router (off button) unplug the drive then turn it back on and everything works fine (internet is back, but still no media since 1TB is unplugged) but also on my 500GB i have never had a scan take longer than 25min (drive is 95% full and Fat32 Format) I am using Tomato Firmware v1.28.9052 MIPSR2-beta23 K26 USB Ext

Im just posting this from my experience so I hope it helps but also this is what works for me so compare my situation to yours and i hope it can help im still trying to mount the 1TB drive with a successful scan though (its 80% full with NTFS) but i think it comes down to a certain file which im trying to find...

DanB
DanB's picture
Hi all

Hi all

Thanks a lot for this tutorial! I was about to buy some NAS when I saw this, then decided otherwise to get this great Router, installed Tomato, did what's told above and it works like a charm! Thanks!

My 1TB HD from Western Digital works fine, goes to sleep when not in use, and the best thing is, when I add some files over the network share, the media server seems to be notified and re-scans the files. This can take some time, but it works.
Also, for others to know, the first Scan took very long (several hours), but again, that's fine for me.

So thanks Tomato people, thanks to you, Brandon, for this guide.
It rocks!

Webinator
Webinator's picture
If anybody has any problems

If anybody has any problems you can check out tomatousb.org. Its the (i think offical) site of tomato.

jonja1
jonja1's picture
I am running Tomato USB on an

I am running Tomato USB on an Asus RT-N16...so far so good!

As for a media server, the USB hard drive mounts very well via Samba on my PC/Macs and my PS3 can access all of the files via DLNA. I will say NTFS was dog slow, so I moved to FAT32 which was much faster but you can't store files over 4gig...so now I am using ext3, which is faster and more flexible (but a pain to format without a Linux box.)

I will say that I cannot get my Tivo HD to see the Tomato NAS though. First time I tried it seemed to work, but I have been optimizing the system and it stopped working with the Tivo along the way. No idea how to make it play nice with my Tivo, which works fine with PyTivoX (Mac) and Tivo Desktop (XP and Mac). The tomato org forums people clearly aren't Tivo people and haven't responded to my hails.

mvine
mvine's picture
Jonja1,

Jonja1,

I have the same set up as you, except my drive is formatted as NTFS. I keep on getting DLNA server errors from my PS3 when I try to access any files. Plus, not many files are actually found. Am I just being impatient? Plus, with the drive formatted as ext3, are you having any issues with files being seen on your pcs or macs?

jonja1
jonja1's picture
mvine said: Jonja1, I have

mvine said: Jonja1, I have the same set up as you, except my drive is formatted as NTFS. I keep on getting DLNA server errors from my PS3 when I try to access any files. Plus, not many files are actually found. Am I just being impatient? Plus, with the drive formatted as ext3, are you having any issues with files being seen on your pcs or macs?

Neither my mac nor PCs can read the ext3 formatted USB drive directly, but using Samba, it works fine on both. Samba handles it.

Haven't seen any DLNA errors yet on my PS3. Just wish my Tivo would see the disk, too...

Pete
Pete's picture
Hi

Hi
Thanks for a great forum and a nice firmware! But I have some problems.

Ive installed Tomato 1.28.9053 MIPSR2-beta K26 USB Ext on my Netgear WNR3500L.. With my 2 TB Western digital disk. I partioned it in two 1 TB partions. It´s mounted as mnt/Tomatodisk and mnt/tomatobackup both are NTFS..
Tomatobackup is used as backup for my computers and tomatodisk is used for movies pictures and stuff. I use a PS3 to stream/look at the mediafiles.

At first it worked fine, I lookad at movies pictures etc at my PS3. But when I started to fill "tomatodisk" with more movies pictures folders etc(I have about 150 movies and about 30GB pictures on the disk as it is now) all of a sudden it stopped working?? And now it only finds some of the media files on the partion?! If I use a computer and acces the network share everything works fine all the files are there.. But the PS3 Cant find it??

I tried a lot of stuff the latest was that I changed the Router DB location to mnt/tomatodisk/dlna.. But my PS3 still only find minor parts of the media files?! Ivé waited for several hours.. The instruction above said it would create DLNA folder itself but when I access the networkshare I cant see it?

Any suggestions what to do next?
Can the Router DB resist on NTFS?

Thanks
Pete

Anon
Anon's picture
If it works for you then its

If it works for you then its GREAT :D some people just wanted to be able to have there media coming from their router rather than turning on your computer but that dose not mean its better than your way and vise versa. :D

IMO as long as your happy with the outcome then that is what really matters

P.S. I used to broadcast from my PC and would experience the same slow down but once I started doing it directly from the router i no longer had this issue.

cczero
cczero's picture
Thanks for a great guide!

Thanks for a great guide!

I'm having some problems doe.. the DNLA server scans my movie and tv folder, but when it scans my MoviesHD folder it fails..

Oct 16 17:21:54 unknown daemon.warn minidlna[10251]: Scanning /tmp/mnt/sda4/MoviesHD
Oct 16 17:46:02 unknown user.warn kernel: minidlna invoked oom-killer: gfp_mask=0xa01d2, order=0, oomkilladj=0
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.warn kernel: Call Trace:[][][][]
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.warn kernel: Mem-info:
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.warn kernel: Normal per-cpu:
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.warn kernel: CPU 0: Hot: hi: 18, btch: 3 usd: 5 Cold: hi: 6, btch: 1 usd: 0
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.warn kernel: Active:11226 inactive:0 dirty:0 writeback:0 unstable:0
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.warn kernel: free:2048 slab:1080 mapped:2 pagetables:70 bounce:0
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.warn kernel: Normal free:8192kB min:8192kB low:10240kB high:12288kB active:44904kB inactive:0kB present:65024kB pages_scanned:75791 all_unreclaimable? yes
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.warn kernel: lowmem_reserve[]: 0
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.warn kernel: Normal: 0*4kB 0*8kB 2*16kB 1*32kB 1*64kB 1*128kB 1*256kB 1*512kB 1*1024kB 1*2048kB 1*4096kB = 8192kB
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.warn kernel: Swap cache: add 0, delete 0, find 0/0, race 0+0
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.warn kernel: Free swap = 0kB
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.warn kernel: Total swap = 0kB
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.warn kernel: Free swap: 0kB
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.warn kernel: 16384 pages of RAM
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.warn kernel: 0 pages of HIGHMEM
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.warn kernel: 854 reserved pages
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.warn kernel: 28 pages shared
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.warn kernel: 0 pages swap cached
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.err kernel: Out of memory: kill process 10248 (minidlna) score 447 or a child
Oct 16 17:46:03 unknown user.err kernel: Killed process 10251 (minidlna)

Any help would be appreciateded :)

Edit: using a WNR3500L with Tomato Firmware v1.28.7479 MIPSR2-Toastman-RT K26 USB Ext

kd2000
kd2000's picture
I have same issues with PS3.

I have same issues with PS3. PS3 can detect the media server. I can browse folders but everything thing is empty. The scan for 10% full 1 TB drive takes forever. It is NTFS, and scan never really ends. Is this a bug ?
Any updates or fixes from Tomato ? Why would scan take such a long time ?