# The Genie (HR-44) is killing my network!! I think....HELP??!!



## dcarter4 (Jul 26, 2006)

Hey All,
I hope you can help!!!

I'm about ready to throw in the towel on my new Genie (HR-44) and return it to DTV&#8230;but I wanted to try everything I could to get it to work.

*First the issue*: Since the installation of the Genie, I have been plagued with network anomaly's..of the worst kind.

*Next..quick background:* I am a former high-end Custom Home Electronics Dealer/Installer (Crestron) and a Network Engineer. I am comfortable with Routers and Switchers&#8230;
My home was the showhome for my company, so it has everything from a full Crestron automation system, to a Kaliedescape movie server, to a new HDMI matrix switch. I enjoy my toys&#8230;

I received an offer for a free Genie..and thought it would be fun to try out a newer DVR. All of my other DVRs are 2-5 years old.

The majority of the equipment is rack-mounted, and all Ethernet connections are home run to a Cisco 48 port Gigabit Switch (one at the Head-end..and one in my office). I have a D-Link Gigabit Router and a Gigabit Motorola Cable Modem.

*My problem? * My Kaliedescape Player, now randomly drops off line, my wifes PC won't connect via DHCP or Static IP, and my Samsung Blu Ray player drops off when streaming Netflix.

*Actions: *First, I gave Genie a static IP address (like my other DVRs do. All my DVR's are connected via wire).

During this setup, the Genie kept giving me a network error?

I swapped Ethernet cables and watched the back of Genie. I get network activity during boot u&#8230;then the lights go OUT?! I ended-up connecting via WiFi&#8230;which I do not want to do&#8230; then I did the port-forwarding.

No effect.

*Questions:*
1) It appears my Genie unit is having wired Ethernet issues? Should I call for a replacement?
2) What else can I do to isolate Genie&#8230;if it's the issue.
3) It appears I could have a bad switch (doubtful, as my wifes' PC is on one switch&#8230;while the KScape servers are on another&#8230;.)&#8230;thoughts?
4) Finally, I have disconnected Genie, and have rebooted the Router&#8230;no effect.

Thoughts anyone?

TIA

D


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## gutierrez1234 (Nov 4, 2008)

D, i would suspect the Dlink Router, I run a similer setup with the exception of the Creston system. I seem to go through routers on average every 3 years. Dlink and Netgear seam to have a higher fail rate for me as well. I have also burned through a couple of consumer grade Dlink Giabit switchs, I was able to sqeek out 3 years with those as well. Now days when i start to experience network anomalies on multiple devices that is the first place i start. I"m assuming you have already done a full power cycle and haven't upgraded the firmware on the router recently. In addition the Genie is sometime's a little pickey when plugged in directly to the Lan. I usually make the IP that is assigned to the Genie static at the router once it is assigned. If i power cycle the router at all the Genie usually loses it's connection and I have to power cycle the Genie as well. I stream 1080P rips from a server without a problem when everything is working correctly and Run multiple AP's in the house. I have a Genie and 3 clients. Hope this at least gives you a place to start looking.

-Rich


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## dcarter4 (Jul 26, 2006)

An addendum....

How my Genie is wired....

My new Genie was wire connected to a small gigabit switch in my Den. The Den Switch is home run to the Main Rack Cisco 48 port Gigabit Switch, where my 3 other DVR's are racked.

Those DVR's are also wire connected to the same, Main Rack Cisco 48 port Gigabit Switch.

The Coax for the Genie is home run from my Den, to the same Main Rack area, where the Coax is connected into the DECA Receiver. The coax goes from the DECA "box', to the SWM "splitter". The Ethernet port from the DECA "box" is connected to the same Cisco 48 port Gigabit Switch.

Hope that helps!

D


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## dcarter4 (Jul 26, 2006)

Rich,

Thanks for the reply! 

I really hope it's not the Switch or the Router. The system was perfect...until i installed the Genie....

First thing i did was check the router. It's running the latest Firmware and all. Passes all the diagnostics. I will be trying to directly connect to the Main Cisco Switch this weekend...but that wouldn't explain the issue with my wifes' PC. 

Again...all of these issues started last week....

Any other thoughts?

D


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## Kaiser Bob (Aug 17, 2012)

dcarter4 said:


> An addendum....
> 
> How my Genie is wired....
> 
> ...


Sounds like you have a BB Deca in the rack area that should serve internet to your DTV receivers and the HR44 is ethernet connected. While not necessarily the root cause of your issue it should be addressed. You might want to leave the BB Deca and remove ethernet connection to the HR44 and restore network defaults to start.


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## dcarter4 (Jul 26, 2006)

Hey All...

Another Update...this time, from Kaliedescape!

I had KScape "look" at my Player to see why it was going off-line sporadically. They reported no problems with the unit...but my network is showing *MULTIPLE duplicate IP Addresses!*!

So...I've got that going for me....

D


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## dcarter4 (Jul 26, 2006)

Kaiser Bob said:


> Sounds like you have a BB Deca in the rack area that should serve internet to your DTV receivers and the HR44 is ethernet connected. While not necessarily the root cause of your issue it should be addressed. You might want to leave the BB Deca and remove ethernet connection to the HR44 and restore network defaults to start.


Kaiser Bob...i'm willing to try anything! So you are saying...i should remove the wired connection to the HR44 (wasn't working anyway)...but also turn off or disable the WiFi connection, also?

I assuming then, the DECA will provide internet access to the HR44, then?

What about my other DVR's? Should i remove the ethernet cables to them...and set them to DHCP?

TIA
D


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## Bill Broderick (Aug 25, 2006)

I agree with Bob. It sounds like you are mixing DECA and direct Ethernet and it's screwing things up. Although, I would disconnect all DVR's, except for the HR44, from your network. I, depending on the models of the DVR's, I'd then use coax directly or routed through a DECA adapter to connect the remaining DVR's to the DECA cloud.


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## dcarter4 (Jul 26, 2006)

Bill Broderick said:


> I agree with Bob. It sounds like you are mixing DECA and direct Ethernet and it's screwing things up. Although, I would disconnect all DVR's, except for the HR44, from your network. I, depending on the models of the DVR's, I'd then use coax directly or routed through a DECA adapter to connect the remaining DVR's to the DECA cloud.


OK..Please bare with me....

These are the older models DVR's I have: *Model:* HR21P-200, *Model:* HR23-700 and *Model:* HR20-700.

You are saying, i should disconnect the ethernet from these three models....but leave the Ethernet connection (if i can get it to work) or Wifi connection to the Genie? Right?

Then the Genie will have Ethernet connection to my gigabit network via the DECA connection and the WiFi or Ethernet connection on the unit...correct?

TIA

D


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

dcarter4 said:


> OK..Please bare with me....
> 
> These are the older models DVR's I have: *Model:* HR21P-200, *Model:* HR23-700 and *Model:* HR20-700.
> 
> ...


You will need these on the other 3 DVRs, but not the Genie. http://www.satpro.tv/deca.aspx?gclid=CL2P87C63MACFQQQ7AodA3UA2Q


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## Bill Broderick (Aug 25, 2006)

dcarter4 said:


> OK..Please bare with me....
> 
> These are the older models DVR's I have: *Model:* HR21P-200, *Model:* HR23-700 and *Model:* HR20-700.
> 
> ...





sigma1914 said:


> You will need these on the other 3 DVRs, but not the Genie. http://www.satpro.tv/deca.aspx?gclid=CL2P87C63MACFQQQ7AodA3UA2Q


That's exactly what I'm suggesting.


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## gutierrez1234 (Nov 4, 2008)

D - the guys are correct, I didn't not take into consideration the other connected DVR's. One other thing to consider and i'm not 100 precent on this. You most likly have a cinima connection kit hooked up to the DECA, the guys may be able to answer this, does D still need that connected or does the HR44 supply IP to the DECA cloud? With the DECA connectors hooked up to the other DVR's they would now be accessing the internet through the HR44 Gateway?


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## Bill Broderick (Aug 25, 2006)

gutierrez1234 said:


> D - the guys are correct, I didn't not take into consideration the other connected DVR's. One other thing to consider and i'm not 100 precent on this. You most likly have a cinima connection kit hooked up to the DECA, the guys may be able to answer this, does D still need that connected or does the HR44 supply IP to the DECA cloud? With the DECA connectors hooked up to the other DVR's they would now be accessing the internet through the HR44 Gateway?


I don't believe that he already has a CCK connected, Otherwise, I think that he would have already been having these problems before connecting the Genie.


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## dennisj00 (Sep 27, 2007)

It's very possible that he has a CCK connecting to the router . . . and the Genie connected via Ethernet would create two connections back to the router (bad).

I re-read the thread and still not sure but there should be only 1 route back to a connection to the router. Only Genies have both Ethernet and coax DECA active at the same time.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

I don't think he's got a CCK because his other HRs are ethernet so he's on MRV via ethernet.


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## dennisj00 (Sep 27, 2007)

Re-reading again . . . Post #3 says .. .

"The Coax for the Genie is home run from my Den, to the same Main Rack area, where the Coax is connected into the DECA Receiver. The coax goes from the DECA "box', to the SWM "splitter". The Ethernet port from the DECA "box" is connected to the same Cisco 48 port Gigabit Switch."

Sounds like a CCK to me.

With his other boxes connected via Ethernet, wouldn't cause a problem until a Genie is inserted.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

dennisj00 said:


> Re-reading again . . . Post #3 says .. .
> 
> "The Coax for the Genie is home run from my Den, to the same Main Rack area, where the Coax is connected into the DECA Receiver. The coax goes from the DECA "box', to the SWM "splitter". The Ethernet port from the DECA "box" is connected to the same Cisco 48 port Gigabit Switch."
> 
> ...


Good catch.


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## gutierrez1234 (Nov 4, 2008)

after re-reading this if D does in fact have a CCK connected i think we found the root cause of the problem. I attached another thread on the same topic. Basicly you can use either the CCK or the HR44 for your BBdeca connection to the internet but not both. Some folks think that the CCK provide a more stable connection, if you do decide to continue to use the CCK then you will only need to connect your HR44 via coax make sure the wireless is turned off or not connected in connection setting and you do not have the RJ45 Lan port connected.

http://www.dbstalk.com/topic/207944-wired-cck-with-hr44/


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## lugnutathome (Apr 13, 2009)

It does in fact sound like the Genie is running a dual path back to your router via its direct LAN port connection and also via the "DECA box" you refer to.

Simplest way to handle this is to unplug the Ethernet cable from the Genie, menu reset and wait appx 5 minutes to verify if it "sees" and is seen on your whole home network. If so your problems should be solved. You will need to clear the duplicated entries most likely. Might be rebooting a lot of stuff now that I think about it :-(

For those of us familiar with traditional networking, DECA is a bit of a reality check. It is a complete end to end supportable infrastructure for DirecTV and within some fairly broad limitations it works absolutely transparently as if it were on switched Ethernet. I run both fabrics seamlessly in my implementation. It is hard at first to let go of the old Ethernet over coax follies of yesteryear but DECA works just fine.

Where confusion may lie is the Genie is the first model of DirecTV's equipment line that can bridge the two fabrics. It runs both the LAN port and DECA services concurrently. NONE of the other models do this. HR/H24 series equipment runs either/or (if a LAN cable is plugged on boot it uses LAN, if not DECA). Lower model designations (23s on down) require a DECA adapter to convert the DECA traffic from the coax borne RF signals to LAN services.

So it is HIGHLY likely that your Genie is running the IP connection for itself plus the rest of its DECA borne brothers out to the LAN directly PLUS the DECA box you described is performing that same function.

I maintain an item called a BAND STOP filter behind my HR44 so it only communicates out it's LAN port and have no such issues. I prefer my Cinema Connection Kit be the bridge between the fabrics as that bridge remains up when the Genie is being booted. But that is a personal preference.

Personally if DECA is set up, I'd suggest you just use it. I do what I do because of near 200 ft wire runs and 13 whole home connected receivers.

Don "really easy to get balled up in this when your world is more traditional network oriented but just let it go and it works" Bolton


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## Nighthawk68 (Oct 14, 2004)

I don't know if this will work for you, but have you tried getting rid of all DECA and CCK equipment and running just your own Cat5/6 runs to your Cisco?
I had all kinds of trouble with IP conflicts, whole home not working, network congestion until I pulled out the entire CCK and all DECA stuff. I have an HR44-700, an HR22 and an HR21. Everything has homerun Ethernet to my switch. After rebooting everything, it all worked with no issues. That was 1.5 yrs ago.

Ed


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

dcarter4 said:


> They reported no problems with the unit...but my network is showing *MULTIPLE duplicate IP Addresses!*!


What do you mean by "duplicate IP addresses"?

More than one address per MAC, per device or multiple devices sharing the same IP address?


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## acostapimps (Nov 6, 2011)

I would guess devices sharing same IP, but network issues would develop not just on Genie, and would need to refreshed with a different IP from the router's DHCP settings, then reboot router, but everything else MAC address,Gateway,Subnet,DNS have to match from the router to receiver, or else it won't work and needs default restored to match, With static IP that shouldn't be an issue with no lease time for IP's.


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## steve053 (May 11, 2007)

What router are you using?

This past August I upgraded to the Lynksys WRT1900AC and it trashed my network by assigining the same ip addresss to multiple clints. I found a number of posts that claimed the solution was to NOT use a mix of static and dynamic IP addresses, the suggestion was to use dhcp reservations in place of static ip addressing. To me that was completely unacceptable and I moved on to a netgear router. Problem solved.

And for the record I am a certified network engineer and understand network addressing, reservations, dhcp pools, subnets etc.In my case it was the router.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Heh, so the "upgrade"- the first one, really wasn't an upgrade.... 
Thanks for sharing your solution. I loathe Lynksys.


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## Jasqid (Oct 26, 2008)

steve053 said:


> What router are you using?
> 
> This past August I upgraded to the Lynksys WRT1900AC and it trashed my network by assigining the same ip addresss to multiple clints. I found a number of posts that claimed the solution was to NOT use a mix of static and dynamic IP addresses, the suggestion was to use dhcp reservations in place of static ip addressing. To me that was completely unacceptable and I moved on to a netgear router. Problem solved.
> 
> And for the record I am a certified network engineer and understand network addressing, reservations, dhcp pools, subnets etc.In my case it was the router.


WOW! I just found this issue this morning in my WRT1900ac. I logged into my router cause my network seemed sluggish. Check for a firmware upgrade and then the network map and noticed 15 entries in the map for "Network Device" all with the same IP 192.168.1.112. I knew it was DirecTV related because of the listing type.

I have a Genie HR44 and 1 client. Internet is connected via DECCA. Guess when I get home tonight I'll pull the DECCA out and just run the wired cat 5 to Genie Server.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

steve053 said:


> What router are you using?
> 
> This past August I upgraded to the Lynksys WRT1900AC and it trashed my network by assigining the same ip addresss to multiple clints. I found a number of posts that claimed the solution was to NOT use a mix of static and dynamic IP addresses, the suggestion was to use dhcp reservations in place of static ip addressing. To me that was completely unacceptable and I moved on to a netgear router. Problem solved.


I found, with a few different Netgear routers, that a mix of static and dynamic caused 0 problems. My method, not entirely approved by all, was to set IPs within the router's normal range, but place them a dozen or so numbers higher than any of the other bits and pieces on my LAN would be assigned. The IPs were set on the DVRs themselves, very easy to do.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Laxguy said:


> I loathe Lynksys.


Linksys probably isn't so much the problem as is the influence of Cisco.


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## steve053 (May 11, 2007)

harsh said:


> Linksys probably isn't so much the problem as is the influence of Cisco.


When Linksys was sold to Cisco I had hopes of a great consumer router.....but not so much. Somtime in early 2013 the Linksys brand was sold to Belkin.


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## steve053 (May 11, 2007)

Laxguy said:


> I found, with a few different Netgear routers, that a mix of static and dynamic caused 0 problems. My method, not entirely approved by all, was to set IPs within the router's normal range, but place them a dozen or so numbers higher than any of the other bits and pieces on my LAN would be assigned. The IPs were set on the DVRs themselves, very easy to do.


I've had a home network up and running since early 2001 and have always used a mix of static (computers, printers, DirecTv), dynamic (laptops, phones, tablets) and reserved ip addresses (ooma, femtocell). I never had problems with ip addresses. Completely hosed my nightly backups until I straightened it out.

Until this last fiasco with the WRT1900 I always used Linksys routerers. I knew their limitations but was very familiar with the setup and administratin screens; and for the most part they did everhthing I needed and were reliable.


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## steve053 (May 11, 2007)

Jasqid said:


> WOW! I just found this issue this morning in my WRT1900ac. I logged into my router cause my network seemed sluggish. Check for a firmware upgrade and then the network map and noticed 15 entries in the map for "Network Device" all with the same IP 192.168.1.112. I knew it was DirecTV related because of the listing type.
> 
> I have a Genie HR44 and 1 client. Internet is connected via DECCA. Guess when I get home tonight I'll pull the DECCA out and just run the wired cat 5 to Genie Server.


Jasqid, It's not the Genie, it's the WRT1900ac. My Genie was up and running fine on my network for over a year and a half before I swaped out the router and 'upgraded' to the WRT1900. Shutting down the network, updating the router firmware, then brining everything back on line 'fixed' it for a few hours. Then back to ip addrressing hell.

The true fix was to return the Linksys for a netgear. It was a shame because the wireless range/strength on the WRT was awesome. Even though they touted 'open source', there weren't any stabble drivers available for the open source developers (at least not when I was experiencing the issues). You might want to check to see if dd-wrt or tomato have anything yet.


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## lugnutathome (Apr 13, 2009)

ASUS RT{N || AC}66 U. And now they have some star cruizer class model out too.

In the current world your router is increasingly becoming the single most important piece of technology you have. It is not the place for cost savings, or brand loyalty. Buy the best you can afford. Talk to people that do networking for a living, research and see which ones get the awards.

Don "been using the N version of this for almost two years now. Pure perfection" Bolton


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## dcarter4 (Jul 26, 2006)

Nighthawk68 said:


> I don't know if this will work for you, but have you tried getting rid of all DECA and CCK equipment and running just your own Cat5/6 runs to your Cisco?
> I had all kinds of trouble with IP conflicts, whole home not working, network congestion until I pulled out the entire CCK and all DECA stuff. I have an HR44-700, an HR22 and an HR21. Everything has homerun Ethernet to my switch. After rebooting everything, it all worked with no issues. That was 1.5 yrs ago.
> 
> Ed


Ed,
My network is like you described. All my ethernet is homerun back to my Cisco switch. I do not have a CCK. Until adding the Genie...i have no network problems...but i think I still have a switch or Router 
issue. Genie is completely unplugged...and I still have issues.

So...once I solve that...I will reconnect Genie. I will first try just the ethernet connection, then disconnect that.and try the DECA connection and see what happens.

i will let all of you know.

TIA

D


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## dcarter4 (Jul 26, 2006)

steve053 said:


> What router are you using?
> 
> This past August I upgraded to the Lynksys WRT1900AC and it trashed my network by assigining the same ip addresss to multiple clints. I found a number of posts that claimed the solution was to NOT use a mix of static and dynamic IP addresses, the suggestion was to use dhcp reservations in place of static ip addressing. To me that was completely unacceptable and I moved on to a netgear router. Problem solved.
> 
> And for the record I am a certified network engineer and understand network addressing, reservations, dhcp pools, subnets etc.In my case it was the router.


Steve, me too. That's why this is really buggin me!

I'm swapping out the the switch. If that doesn't do it...then the Router gets switched!

D


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