As part of my tuning process on low memory PCs, I always disable the SSDP service, as I have never found a use for it.

I did this for a customer that needed his computer to run faster (he only had 256 MB RAM).

A few weeks later, I get an email asking if what I did would affect media player 11 “media sharing”.

Some poking around on google showed that media sharing uses the WMPNSS service, and in turn, it depends on the SSDP service (which I disabled).

So, I pop over asap and re-enable SSDP. Media sharing now works on the PC end, but there are still problems with the Amplifier side on the home entertainment unit…

After that, I find out how everything is meant to fit together:

The house has ethernet outlets everywhere, and they all lead to a “panel” in the garage (in a cupboard, with bulky equipment in front of it… I was hoping to see if the wiring used a switch, or a router… oh well). Downstairs, there is an “intelligent” Yamaha amplifier in the entertainment unit. My customer was convinced to spend some extra $ to upgrade from the normal amp, to the smart one (apparently it can communicate over the LAN). Over the next few months, the company (Todds) tried to get it to work correctly, but they had no technical know-how (like many retailers nowadays, its just about selling “boxes”, technical backup and know-how, is very low on the priority list). Yamaha could help with the amp, but had no computer expertise. They seem to call ethernet “smart wiring”… They eventually upgraded the amp firmware, so it could handle WMP 11… at the same time, I “tuned” the PC, disabling SSDP. Microsoft were also called, but it seems they couldn’t figure out that the disabled SSDP service was causing the media player sharing problems…

Now, since I don’t know how to configure the amp (and don’t have the time), then I leave the customer with details on the IP addresses, and I try to get the concept of IP address classes across, so that they can (hopefully) configure the amp correctly). I know I have the background to be able to connect all the components, but the customer wouldn’t want to spend money while I learn how it all works.