# Problem with Whole Home and Internet



## hdwannabee (Jul 15, 2008)

Let me start out by saying that I don't know too much about all of this. But I think I have a pretty unique problem with whole home viewing and internet.

I have 6 HD-DVRs, and 1 HD receiver. They were all hapily talking to each other and I was able to use whole home viewing without issues until i connected the Cinema Connection Kit. I had ordered the wireless cinema connection kit and connected it in line with a few different DVRs and had the same problem. When the internet is connected, whole home viewing does not work properly. Sometimes when trying to view programs from another DVR, the program plays but it is very choppy, with pauses avery couple of seconds. Other times, it tries to play the program, but returns an error and says it can access the program. When I disconnect the internet, after a while, the whole home is back working again.

So today I had a tecnician come out since I pay the mainenance fee. We checked many thingsm that did not help the problem. He installed a wired connection kit, changed out my SWM-16, and still no help.
Finally, as a test, he temporarily replaced my 5 LNB on the dish with a new 3 LNB he had in the truck, ran a coax directly from the LNB to a new splitter, and connected 2 of my DVRs and the internet connection kit to the new splitter. Same problem existed. So we removed those 2 DVR's and connected 2 different DVR's - problem still there. But when we disconnect the internet from the Cinema Connection Kit, Whole Home works again.

I live in Katy, TX, and use Entouch for internet service. The internet service is fiber optic. I come out from the modem to an eight port Netgear Gigabit Switch. From this switch, I have ethernet going to the connection kit, and 2 wireless routers, as well as a couple of other ethernet outlets in the house.

I now have the internet disconnected from the cinema connection kit, and all the DVRs can see each other again and play back with no issues. Just can't do internet and whole home at the same time. Has anyone ever heard of this issue?

Thank in advance.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Yes, I've heard of things like this.
There most likely is something on your home network that is causing this.
Sometimes it can be a smart phone, sometimes it can be ooma.
I'd suggest disconnecting the other devices on the network one at a time to see if one is causing it.


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## Beerstalker (Feb 9, 2009)

Why two routers? Hopefully one of them is working as a router and the other is working as an access point only?


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## hdwannabee (Jul 15, 2008)

Thank you VOS. I will try to isolate things on my home network. 

I have an 8 port switch in the wiring closet to connect the prewired locations in my home. At one location downstairs, I have a wireless router which creates a wifi network for downstairs. We were not getting a very good signal from this upstairs, so at another location wired to the switch, I have my second router with a different SSID creating a second wifi network. I am not a networking guru, so maybe this is causing my problem.

Thanks for your help.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

hdwannabee said:


> Thank you VOS. I will try to isolate things on my home network.
> 
> I have an 8 port switch in the wiring closet to connect the prewired locations in my home. At one location downstairs, I have a wireless router which creates a wifi network for downstairs. We were not getting a very good signal from this upstairs, so at another location wired to the switch, I have my second router with a different SSID creating a second wifi network. I am not a networking guru, so maybe this is causing my problem.
> 
> Thanks for your help.


Neither am I any great networking type, but I do know the DECA and follow a lot of the posts here.
With the switches you have, it seems "sort of easy" to pull the plug on major "legs" to see if anything on them is the cause, and then narrow down to the device on the leg, "if there is one".


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## hdwannabee (Jul 15, 2008)

That's what I was thinking as well. I may wait until the weekend. I have been working from home and my son is taking an online class with an exam on Friday, so somehow messing up the home network right now would be very bad.


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

hdwannabee said:


> Let me start out by saying that I don't know too much about all of this. But I think I have a pretty unique problem with whole home viewing and internet.
> 
> I have 6 HD-DVRs, and 1 HD receiver. They were all hapily talking to each other and I was able to use whole home viewing without issues until i connected the Cinema Connection Kit. I had ordered the wireless cinema connection kit and connected it in line with a few different DVRs and had the same problem. When the internet is connected, whole home viewing does not work properly. Sometimes when trying to view programs from another DVR, the program plays but it is very choppy, with pauses avery couple of seconds. Other times, it tries to play the program, but returns an error and says it can access the program. When I disconnect the internet, after a while, the whole home is back working again.
> 
> ...


Curious - do you have multiple IP's from the provider or is your modem also a router? The normal connection if you are only using a dhcp supplied address from the provider is to come out of the cable modem to a router then tie in the 8 port switch

cable ---> modem -----> router -----> switch

then from the switch branch off to your devices, the router would supply the IP addresses


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## jtworldwide2 (Jun 21, 2012)

What device do you have handing out IPs?
This is what i would do
Cable modem----------Router one (DHCP on)--------Switch-------Router 2 (DHCP off, access point only) You of course could use the other ports in the first router.


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## Beerstalker (Feb 9, 2009)

What modem are you using? Most of the ones I have dealt with lately have a router built in. So you might have 3 routers on the same network, that is bound to cause issues.


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## texasbrit (Aug 9, 2006)

If the routers are configured as access points, should not be a problem since only one of them will be running DHCP..


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## wingrider01 (Sep 9, 2005)

Beerstalker said:


> What modem are you using? Most of the ones I have dealt with lately have a router built in. So you might have 3 routers on the same network, that is bound to cause issues.


configured correctly multiple routers on the same network are not a problem. I actually segment my home network with multiple routers and vlans, not for the faint of heart or novice, but it cand be done


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## hdwannabee (Jul 15, 2008)

I don't believe the modem is a router, As it only has one Ethernet port. The reason I have the switch coming just after the router is because it is all in my wiring cabinet. There are several cat-5e cables from this cabinet to locations throughout the home, so I use the switch to distribute to those locations. Coming off of one of these ports, I have wireless router 1. Coming off of another port, I have wireless router 2. These are both coming off of the switch in parallel, in different locations in the home.

So perhaps instead of a switch, I should have a router first after the modem? Then I could plug the second wireless router and the switch into the ports in exist router? 

And I will have to go into the setup of the second router to ensure it is setup as a wireless access point only, correct?

Thanks again for all the help.


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## west99999 (May 12, 2007)

hdwannabee said:


> So perhaps instead of a switch, I should have a router first after the modem? Then I could plug the second wireless router and the switch into the ports in exist router?
> 
> And I will have to go into the setup of the second router to ensure it is setup as a wireless access point only, correct?
> 
> ...


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## The Merg (Jun 24, 2007)

The way you have it should work fine, but your revised setup is fine too. As mentioned, make sure only one router is set up for DHCP.

- Merg


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## hdwannabee (Jul 15, 2008)

Ok. So I rearranged the setup to where it was modem-router-switch-router, and made sure the dhcp was disabled on the second router. Actually, second router and switch were in parallel, with both connected to first router. Internet works fine on computers, tablet, etc.
With connection kit connected to first router, still problems with whole home playback. So I disconnected the switch. Same problem. 
So now I decided to connect the CCK directly to the modem. Checked the Internet on the DVRs and was able to watch YouTube videos as when it was connected to the router. Tried to playback a program from a diferent dvr, still problems. The only thing on the network is the cinema connection kit. I rebooted everything - still same problem. So I disconnected the cck and rebooted the DVR, and whole home works right again.
The only thing I can think of that could be causing the problem is some compatibility problem between my Entouch Internet and DirecTV. 
If I knew my neighbors better I would ask them if I could run a long ethernet cable from their house to mine just to see if it would work on a different internet.
So for now I will live with having my DVRs not connected to the internet.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Complete WAG:
What happens with CCK to switch to router?


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## hdwannabee (Jul 15, 2008)

I just tri ed that again. Connecting cck to switch produces the same problems. The cck only has one ethernet port, so I can't put it in series with any equipment.
I wonder if I am the only one in the area with this ISP and DirecTV who is trying this.... I would love to call and try to get help from the ISP (Entouch), but my Internet works. They will say the problem is with DTV. DTV has said the problem must be with the ISP.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

hdwannabee said:


> I just tri ed that again. Connecting cck to switch produces the same problems. The cck only has one ethernet port, so I can't put it in series with any equipment.
> I wonder if I am the only one in the area with this ISP and DirecTV who is trying this.... I would love to call and try to get help from the ISP (Entouch), but my Internet works. They will say the problem is with DTV. DTV has said the problem must be with the ISP.


I'd hoped the switch would have kept whatever this traffic/requests from getting to the CCK.
I've had DECA & a CCK connected to a couple of ISPs and never had this problem.
While this sure isn't my strongest suit, it still seem like it's coming from the router, or should be blocked by the router if it's coming from the internet.

You've got other routers, so my next "wag" would be to configure one of them as the router and see what happens
Maybe go modem to switch to both routers, or ... :shrug:

Hey Merg... help!!!!!


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## The Merg (Jun 24, 2007)

veryoldschool said:


> Hey Merg... help!!!!!


:lol:

I'll try to get back into this thread this weekend... Been a little busy recently...

- Merg


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

The Merg said:


> :lol:
> 
> I'll try to get back into this thread this weekend... Been a little busy recently...
> 
> - Merg


Glad I didn't call 911 !rolling


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## hdwannabee (Jul 15, 2008)

Well, I still have no resolution to this problem. I have the cck disconnected except when I want to download a movie. To download a movie, I connect the cck to the router via Ethernet, download and watch the movie, and then disconnect the Ethernet. Usually, I have to reboot several boxes to get whole home to work again. 
I think I will call me ISP (Entouch), just in case they have heard of such a problem. I am eve considering changing ISPs, but I cringe at having to change my email address.


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## employee3 (Aug 15, 2006)

I have a "similar" issue in that internet connectivity negatively affects whole home connectivity. I've been having internet issues (finally fixed) and whenever the internet would go down the HR34 would not be able to see the HR24's programming but they could see the HR34.

My HR34 is connected to all the other receivers over SWM and then connected to the home network/internet via Ethernet so that it is the "router" between the SWM network and home network. BTW all the other receivers can get to the internet at all times.

A reboot is necessary to get the HR34 to see all the other receivers.


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