After further testing of the Thecus with SoftDMA from Cyberlink (30 day trail) I was able to test the Thecus N2100 immediately after a reboot from a PC right next to it.
This is what I found so far was within seconds of the N2100 rebooting completing the Cyberlink SoftDMA from (DigitalHomeEnablerkit.zip) detected the N2100: Mediabolic Server.
Was able to get SoftDMA to show the 3 main folders then the sub-folder/catagories/genres etc went in and displayed a picture, it worked, then when back and forth thru the menu and tried to display the same picture a few seconds later ... error file was not available/accessable .. a few seconds later the N2100: Mediabolic Server was not accessable. Rebooted it again the same thing happened.
Yet the samba shares and web-shares still accessable of the same folders.
Conclusion: The Mediabolic Server was finding a folder/file name or data it did not like and crashed or shutdown the service/server this seems very UNFORGIVING it should instead skip such a file or folder and continue serving what it can i.e. some form of exception testing in its script and log these exceptions to the log file so the administrator can rename or take the required action to fix the problem rather than guess and hit and missing or 4000 plus files and folders.
Temporary resolution until THECUS can fix the SCAN script to handle/skip exceptions and log them:
1) Remove all files and folders from N2100 to Computer backup
2) Add or move 1 file or folder or sub-folder 1 at a time to N2100
3) Re-scan the folders then test
4) if test worked go back to step 2)
5) if test failed remove last moved data back to Computer /Rescan and perhaps reboot N2100 in case Mediabolic server crashed or shutdown. Check files/folders names contain no invalid characters that are invalid under linux as folder names or file names or for XML special tag characters, These may include , : [ ] ! @ % ~* ; etc check the release notes for firmware about these.
6) after a reboot test again.
I found after removing the file and rebooting the N2100 this work after 1 put 1 picture and 13 avi and 20 or so Mp3 in the various media folders and rescanning ... left the thing on overnight and tested it from the Acer AT3705-MGW which is a DLNA/ DMA player and it worked Mp3 played and avi Divx videos and the picture showed as well.
I guess now a process of elimination only 3962 files to go and then some.
NOT VERY FORGIVE THE MEDIABOLIC software or should i say DIABOLIC ... logging of scan problems would have made this easier to find rather the 5 bold patches I have from pulling my hair out.
Update 3 Sept 2007 11am
Tested some more over the weekend and have managed to get 4.8gb out 5.1gb of my MP3 collection into the MUSIC folder under Mediabolic
I have also found in addition to the special characters / \ : * ? ” < > | [ ] = + ; , I also avoided double spaces in names and ['] single quote.
Now have not to the point where I am trying to put the last few folders and it crashes the MEDIABOLIC(DIABOLIC) server not sure why.
I remove the folder I last put on there and reboot/re-scan it works.
I am now wondering if there is a limits on the amount files or directories you can have under one share folder ...does the long files cause a problem e.g. 4000 or so long names fills the XML ?
I will try tonight to add that folder again and if it crashes again will remove another folder of the same size to elmininate this theory of number of files/directories issue..
Failing this and the renamed fils I might try the USHARE if I can fine some instruction on installing it.