Rigol DHO800 Wifi dongle connects to internet but smb Connection fails.

[bobert]

Hi, I have been using the Rigol DHO804 happily for the past couple of months and was able to get smb connectivity to my samba share via the ethernet connection at the back of my scope to save waveforms to my PC without having to use a thumbdrive.

I recently installed a tplink tl-wn725n wireless dongle on my scope as shown on numerous guides on youtube and was able to get a wifi connection up and running for internet and local network access but when I tried to connect to my samba share a "connection terminated" message pops up on the GUI. Checking the smb logs on my samba server show no connection attempt received on the server.

When I plug my ethernet cable back into my scope, i am able to connect to my samba share as before and the samba logs show a connection from my scope IP.

Unplugging the ethernet cable and making sure the wifi connection was up by pinging the wlan ip I am unable to connect to the samba share. As soon as I plug my ethernet cable back into my scope, my smb connection succeeds as normal.

I am not too familiar with how android or specifically this device connects to the samba share. Using adb shell to the device i am unable to locate a samba client on the device and cannot seem to locate where the smb connection settings are stored.

I may be wrong but I suspect the built in samba client is hard-coded to only work via the ethernet interface.

Does anyone have a similar experience with this device or have a solution to this problem?

Thanks.

[Whales]

Shot in the dark: is your wifi a "meshed" setup?  Are you connecting to the SMB host using IP or name?

(There is method to my madness   Recently discovered some appliances that don't work on meshed wifi.  mDNS doesn't work because IP multicast is intentionally disabled.  Not sure if SMB does something similar for name resolution. )

[bobert]

I am not on a mesh network. I have a single wifi router connected to my network. Both my wireless and wired network are on the same subnet. I am connecting to the samba server using its' IP address like the following. \\x.x.x.x\sharename with a specified username and password which you enter on the scope UI. I have been using these parameters on the ethernet connection for a few months now with no problem. But these settings only seem to work on the wired connection but not on my wifi connection. I have googled this problem but have not come up with a clue about this problem.

[zelectronicauy]

You tried it by FTP, I connect to the oscilloscope via WIFI and I have no problem.

[bobert]

The DHO800 series of oscilloscopes do not have the option to connect via ftp only smb.

[zelectronicauy]

Ummm, I have the DHO814 connected via the Wi-Fi module and that's how I use it.... try it.

[bobert]

Oh you mean connect to the scope itself via ftp, I thought you meant connect to an ftp server from the scope .

Thanks for the tip,  I just probed 21 on the scope and it seems to be running an ftp server which i had no idea about.

The root directory of the ftp server seems to point to the /data/userdata/ which is local storage on the sdcard.
I was hoping to not have to write directly to the sdcard itself though it seems I have no choice unless i can solve the problem of the scope not being able to connect to a samba share via wifi.

Oh well. Thanks again zelectronicauy.

[LiftedTrace]

Forgive me if this has been solved, but I was unable to find a working solution. Not being able to save snapshots to an smb share was bugging me. I decided to use claude to help and it was pretty fun letting it dig into why exactly smb doesnt work over wifi.
What follows if a write up claude did explaining whats going on and how to apply the workaround. If there are any questions, reach out Ill try to respond best I can.
Anyways, here is claude's writeup, and attached is the .GEL file needed to get smb over wifi working.

What this is
If your WiFi dongle works fine for internet but the "SMB Connect" button for saving to a network share always fails instantly with no error, this is a firmware bug, not your setup. Below is a small fix and how to install it.


Before you start
This fix does not set up WiFi and does not take new credentials. Make sure both of these are already done first:

1. Your USB WiFi dongle is already working and connected to your network.
Note: the scope's own screen never shows WiFi as "connected," even when it's working fine — that display only ever reflects the wired Ethernet port.
Also note: the scope can only use the oldest SMB version (SMB1) to connect to a share. Whatever you're connecting to (NAS, PC, etc.) needs to allow SMB1 — most have this disabled by default nowadays due to security concerns, so you may need to turn it on for this to work.

2. You've already entered your server path, username, and password into the scope's own SMB settings screen (Storage → SMB settings), even though pressing Connect there fails. The fix reads those saved values — it doesn't ask for them again.


Install
0. Rename the attached file to a file name of '.GEL', remove the .tar extension, it needs to be .GEL for the scope to recognize it, but it is a simple .tar file.
1. Copy the attached file to a USB stick.
2. Plug it into the scope.
3. Touchscreen: Storage → Upgrade → browse to the file → tap Upgrade.
4. Wait — this takes about 45 seconds to finish. Let it run until it reports success before doing anything else. This isn't slow because of anything this fix does — the scope's own built-in update process automatically backs up its internal files first, every time you run any Upgrade, real or not, and that backup step is what takes most of the time.
5. Power cycle the scope once.

It starts working automatically using whatever server/username/password is already saved in the SMB settings screen — nothing new to type in.

One real limitation: the scope can only use the oldest SMB version (SMB1). Newer versions (SMB2/SMB3) are rejected outright — this is a hardware/firmware limit, not something the fix can change. Many NAS devices have SMB1 disabled by default; you may need to re-enable it for this share specifically.

One cosmetic side effect: a "Connection Terminated" message may flash on screen during boot. It's harmless — it's a pre-existing message in the scope's own software (tapping the physical Connect button shows the same thing, since that part was always broken). The share works fine regardless.


Why it's broken
Before the scope even looks at the server address, username, or password you entered, it checks one thing: is the wired Ethernet port connected. If there's no cable plugged in, it immediately gives up and reports "disconnected" — without ever attempting to reach your NAS.

The WiFi dongle is a community add-on, not an official Rigol feature. The scope's software has no idea it exists. It only ever checks the wired port. So even with a fully working WiFi connection, correct credentials, and a reachable NAS, this check always fails first and blocks everything else.

I confirmed this by pulling apart the scope's software and watching exactly what runs when you press Connect. This wired-port check is the very first thing that happens — before the server path is even read.


How the fix works
The scope's actual network and file-sharing software is fine — only that one check is broken. The fix is a small background script that:

1. Waits for WiFi to come up.
2. Reads the server address/username/password already saved from the SMB settings screen.
3. Connects to the share directly, skipping the broken check entirely.
4. Tells the screen to refresh so the share shows up as a save location.

It runs a lightweight check every 30 seconds and only attempts a real connection when something changes, so it doesn't sit there using resources.


Is this safe?

• Everything is plain readable text, nothing compiled or hidden.
• It doesn't touch your router, NAS, or other network settings.
• It doesn't touch the scope's firmware, FPGA, or main app — it only adds itself to one startup file, and the original untouched file is automatically backed up so it can be reverted by hand.
• It installs through the same official update process used for real firmware updates.

Files
Attached: the install file, plus the plain-text scripts inside it if you want to read what it does first.
Tested on a DHO804. If you try this on another model or firmware version, please report back either way.


I have a DHO804 that is not modified running version 1.05. Given what this does, I cant see it not working on other versions.  You can open it with any program that can open .tar files and see the contents and look at they for yourself.

Hope this helps, happy wifi smb scope snapshot saving!