Home Media Password Protected

[Tron2012]

I am trying to get a DLNA network set up from a Mac. Aside from the fact the connection takes forever to establish, every time I access the Home Media area I'm asked for a password. On the 722 I remember there was a clear option to lock and unlock the DVR. On the HWS, it's not so clear, to me anyway.

On the lock screen I've set everything to No, no ratings locked, no locked channels, nothing. Still see that parental controls is listed as enabled. What obvious thing am I missing!

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[Tron2012]

1

 

[GaryPen]

For some reason, Home Media is locked, full time. It's quite annoying. I would imagine that Dish is just playing safe, as many inappropriate files may exist on a home network.
However, it should be configurable to be unlocked, just like any channel, as many people don't have children in their homes.

 

[Tron2012]

Are you sure about that?? Reason I posted this was because we have two Hoppers. One regular and one with Sling built in (HWS). The HWS is the one where I cannot get parental controls removed at all (after I set them up prior) and the Home Media function is password protected. Everything under the parental controls is off/disabled/whatever it needs to be. Restarted as well. Still says parental controls are enabled.

The regular Hopper never had parental controls enabled and there is no password prompt when accessing home media.

If a DISH customer ever had anything on a home network they didn't want shared then they should block it at the server end. I know every media server I installed on my Mac allowed you to select what folders/files you did or did not want to have accessible on the network. Therefore it doesn't make sense that DISH would automatically make a user enter the SAME password as the system! If you gave it to the kids just to view family photos then they could unlock or mess up the main DVR unit.

 

[GaryPen]

My Hopper2000 has required the unlock code for Home Media from day one. But, I do keep it locked to hide channels from the guide.
I was trying to say that it doesn't allow Home Media to remain unlocked, if the Hopper is locked, unlike individual channels and other items that can be set to remain unlocked.
I apologize for being unclear.

 

[bookworm370]

Personally, I think having it locked out is a very good option. We have 2 HWS and 4 joeys and 2 of the Joey's are in the guest bedrooms. We do have home media and I wouldn't want guests in the bedrooms or anywhere else just wandering around my internal network.

 

[GaryPen]

Personally, I think having it locked out is a very good option. We have 2 HWS and 4 joeys and 2 of the Joey's are in the guest bedrooms. We do have home media and I wouldn't want guests in the bedrooms or anywhere else just wandering around my internal network.

The key word is "option". Users should be able to choose whether or not it is locked.

 

[Hall]

The HWS is the one where I cannot get parental controls removed at all (after I set them up prior) and the Home Media function is password protected. Everything under the parental controls is off/disabled/whatever it needs to be. Restarted as well. Still says parental controls are enabled.

The regular Hopper never had parental controls enabled and there is no password prompt when accessing home media.

Dish's parental controls suck.... I've ran into the same thing. 1) I set up the controls at one time or another and when I tried to remove them, it was a royal pain in the *ss even though I reset everything to "off" that I could find. It still kept telling me something was enabled (a ratings restriction, channel restriction, ???) and wouldn't. 2) To access home media, I have to enter our PIN even though parental controls are supposed to be off now.

I don't recall if it happens on the Hopper/Joey, but on previous VIP receivers, try and watch a DVR event on a channel that you have blocked (on the 'other' TV). You have to enter the PIN to select the event. Then when you tell it to play it, you have to enter the PIN again. Have a 2nd event on that same channel ? Tough.... Repeat those steps again. You'd think it would remember. One of the few good things I remember with Time Warner set-tops was it would unlock everything for your viewing "session" - as long as you kept the box on, it remained unlocked. Once you turned it "off", the locks were turned back on.

 

[Tron2012]

Thanks for all the feedback. It must be the dumb parental controls that simply will not turn off on the HWS that is causing this problem.

I wish Home Media was not controlled by the same lock as the DVR. If a child wanted to view some family photos at times I'm not either A.) going to keep having to go down to the TV and enter a passcode or B.) give them the passcode that controls the entire system!

But realistically, you should never have to lock Home Media. Unless you just have to view the pictures or video you took of yourselves on your honeymoon on the TV! With all home media servers you can control what's presented in the listings. It's not like an open portal to your PC/network for the general user base. So keep the 'private' stuff out of the file path for your regular music, movies and photos...and view that other stuff elsewhere. ;-)

 

[GaryPen]

So keep the 'private' stuff out of the file path for your regular music, movies and photos...and view that other stuff elsewhere. ;-)

Exactly!!! It's easy enough to create a private or restricted folder on the PC or NAS, where the files are residing!

But, at the very least, there should be an individual option for Home Media in the Parental Controls, just like Ratings, Hide Adult, Channels, etc, so that it can remain unlocked even when the system is locked.