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MOUNT A FOLDER OF YOUR PC ON THE /HDD FOLDER OF A DREAMBOX SO YOU CAN RECORD AND TIMESHIFT

Overview:
As you may be aware, it is possible to add a hard drive to the Dreambox. With an installed hard drive, you can record movies and shows for viewing at a later time. Time shifting is also possible in some cases.

What if you didnt want to put a Hard Drive in you Dreambox; perhaps you just dont have a spare one lying around; or perhaps you are concerned about heat; could you still take advantage of the recording feature of the Dreambox? Yes.

A Network File Share (NFS) server can share a hard drive of a PC on the same network as the Dreambox. You can mount this NFS share under the name /hdd, thereby fooling the Dreambox into thinking it actually has a hard drive installed.

With a mounted NFS share using the name /hdd, the Dreambox will save the output to your PC over the network.

Requirements:
Dreambox with active network connection
PC with Free space on the Hard Drive
PC must be on the same network or Segment as the Dreambox
TrueGrid NFS server files, must use TrueGrid version 1.1 files
NFSDream files, the current version is 1.05

You can find NFSDream and TrueGrid NFS server on the Software Section

Please, understand that NFSDream is simply a tool to make configuring the TrueGrid NFS server a little more user friendly.

Installation:

Extract the NFSDream file to a folder
Create a new folder within the folder you extracted the NFSDream file to called nfs.
Extract the TrueGrid NFS server files to the folder you created called nfs.

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Configuration:

While the NFSDream tool is completely capable of configuring your NFS server, if you read the installation file that comes with the TrueGrid server files, you will see that it can be configured without the aid of NFSDream.

For now, we will focus on using NFSDream to configure the server. Please note that this document is written with the understanding that you will be using Windows NT, Windows 2000 or Windows XP.
It is important to create a folder in your Systemroot directory called etc. Your Systemroot directory is where you have installed your operating system, for example, Windows or Winnt.

You can do this easily by opening a Command (DOS) prompt and typing the following:

cd %systemroot%
md etc

NFSDream will use this folder to copy two files, exports and rpc, later on in the process.
Start the NFSDream application:

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The first thing to do is install the necessary services on your system. Select

Create > Win NT/XP/2K > Portmap Add

and

Create > Win NT/XP/2K > Nfs Add

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Now you can set your recording path. What you are actually doing here is publishing a share on the PC for other machines on the network to access, including the Dreambox. This is also called creating an Export.

Select

Create > Set record path,

then choose the folder or drive you would like to share.

When you do this, you are telling the NFS server to publish a share called /dreambox which is actually pointing to the folder you selected.

You will also notice there is a new folder within the location you chose called "movie". This is where all recordings will be stored. Do not delete this folder.

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At this point you can actually startup the NFS server and announce the share on the network. Select

Configure > Nfs start.

Dont worry if you see the message "nfs service is (already) started". This is normal.

Picture 6:

You are ready to tell (or mount) the Dreambox that the share is available.

In the top line box, enter the IP address of your Dreambox (in the field labeled IP of Dreambox)

In the next line box down, enter the IP address of the machine NFSDream is installed on.

Once both fields have been populated, press the "Mount" button (give the app the permission in your firewall to go outside).

What is happening here is that when you press the mount button, NFSDream is actually telnetting into the Dreambox and issuing the following mount command: "mount t nfs o nolock local IP:/dreambox /hdd"

Picture 7:

Now you are ready to try recording to your NFS share. If you were to FTP into the Dreambox, you would see a folder called /hdd at the root of the filesystem. This folder is actually located on the PC running the NFS server. The folder you see on the Dreambox is actually just a pointer to the shared folder we created using NFSDream.