I've beenworking at this all day, and I keep making progress, I first started with that fail message, and followed all the directions and got that fixed, and I got the computers talking to eachother, and the last part took me a while. Getting the file mapping to not have an error took a while. Finally everything looks good, so I go to render a small project just to test it out, and it still says "failed" that it couldnt find my project. It says my file mapping checks out, it found the directories. I don't know what it can't find!!

Do all machines have permission to read and write files in the directory containing your output file?

Yes. It is set up to share just by right clicking and choosing properties, then sharing, and then I checked the box that says "share this folder on the network" and also "allow network users to change my files." Is this the same as giving permission to read and write. Do I need to do anything like this with the machine I'm using as a renderer?

I just got network rendering working. I found out you have to identify each folder that contains media or the project. Granting access to just the drive will result in the "failed" status. So even though a drive/directory has been given access, you still have to name the subdirectory. Another thing you have to do is set up the file mappings in the rendering computer.

These posts do not address your specific problem, but they do provide a few more "checklist" items that may help:

Network render bugs, suggestions, & solutions

Network Render Directions

Both the root drive "C:\" drive and the directory containing the files are shared, both of the file mappings check out. I found that if it cant find your specified mappings, it will display a little red exclamation mark and say that it cant find the directory, but I'm not getting that anymore, once I got the mapping figured out. I dont, however, have anything under file mapping for my renderer. I did once try to put the exact same thing as was on my host computer, but naturally, it said the directory didnt exist, which only makes sense, cuz if it didnt, then that would eliminate the need for a network. Everything seems to be working. My renderer is "ready" my file sends just fine, it shows up on the renderer log, only it fails because it says the project isnt found.....

Two things to check:

1) You may not be saving the output file to a shared directory. This
is where the copy of your project is saved that the network renderers
use.

2) You may need to increase the user limit of the shared directories.
If that number is less than the number of renderers (including the
local machine), some renderers will not be able to access the share.

The bug in 5.0a that prevents you from mapping the entire drive is fixed in 5.0b which will be availabe for download very soon.

I'm saving the output file to the same directory where all the source files are, and that directory IS shared. How do I increase the user limit of shared directories? I'm running XP if that will affect anything... Also, what do I need to set up on my "renderer" machine. I read somewhere that under file mappings, i need to put "\\hostmachine\directory" for both local and universal mappings. I did this and I didn't get a red exclamation telling me it couldnt find it, but it still didnt do anythingi.

XP's directory sharing interface is sort of weird because there's an
"advanced" or "classic" interface (which is what I use) and a new
wizard-based interface. I think you're using the new interface (I'm
not sure if it exposes the user limit stuff). There's a bunch of info
on the web about how to switch to the advanced interface.

Besides the user limit, you also need to give read/write permission to
everyone or at least the users that are running the net render
service.

To set the user limit from the cmd prompt you can do this:

C:\> net share <share-name> /UNLIMITED

(replace <share-name> with the name of your shared dir.)

To get a list of your share names just do this:

C:\> net share

The share names are in the first column.

Hey, i did it. It didnt work. Still cant find the project. I saw that in the render log, after "project not found" it shows the name of the output file that I specified, only with an underscore and a number after it. I was wondering if perhaps this had something to do with it.

The underscore and number is expected... that's the way the temporary
project files are named.

Are you using 5.0b on all machines? If not, I would suggest giving it
a try. It has numerous network render bug fixes. If you are using
5.0a and you've added a root directory (such as C:\) to your file
mappings, there was a bug in 5.0a that would probably lead to the
problem you're seeing.

ok, i got the update and that fixed it. the rendering works now. Now my only question is, how do i map the root directory rather than every single individual folder? what does the file mapping look like for that?

on second thought, I DID get one video to render, but now i switched directories on my file mapping to render the project that im actually working on and now I'm getting a new failed error. "failed to open project"... My file mapping looks like this, I'll use the real names of my directories just for the sake of giving you an example. *Ignore the quote marks

Host machine-
LOCAL "C:\nadia video" UNIVERSAL "\\kitchen1\nadia video"

Renderer-
LOCAL "\\kitchen1\nadia video" UNIVERSAL "\\kitchen1\nadia video"

You don't need the file mappings on the renderer... only the editing
machine. But that should not cause any problems. The editing machine
is where the media and project paths gets remapped.

If, when it worked, you had your file mapping set to the drive root
(C:\), there's no need to change it for your new project since it is
contained in a subdirectory of C:
Also keep in mind that all the media used by the project must be
shared as well. If you have your C drive shared and all your
project's media is on C, you should be OK with this:

LOCAL UNIVERSAL
C:\ \\kitchen1\C

(assuming the share name of C:\ is "C"... you may have chosen another
name for it when you set up the share).

If some of your media is on, for example, your D:\ drive, you'll need to
share it too and set up the mappings on your editing machine like
this:

LOCAL UNIVERSAL
C:\ \\kitchen1\C
D:\ \\kitchen1\D

(again, assuming the share name of C:\ is "C" and D:\ is "D"... you
may have chosen other names for them when you set up the shares).

5.0b has the ability to auto-fill your file mappings. Once you've set
up your shared directories in Windows, you can remove all file
mappings in the net render service on your editing machine then
auto-fill. If auto filling adds some that you don't want, you can
remove those individually.