# Whole Home issues with ethernet



## flasherz (May 27, 2007)

Okay, I'm completely baffled and now I'm going to come to the expert!

I have 2 receivers:
HR20-100 and HR22-100

Neither can see each other using WHDVR.

No SWiM, no DECA. Both are connected using hardwire ethernet connected to a Cisco 3750 switch.
Both report authorized for WHDVR and have shared playlists enabled.
Both have static IP addresses.
Both report no other DVR's detected under whole-home.

Both can successfully access YouTube videos.
The programs on both can be seen via my old DIRECTV2PC.

I have tried resetting the network to default settings, red-button-rebooting them, setting up the network again, to no avail.

This has worked just fine before, but after the latest NR it stopped working.

What am I missing? Any way I can troubleshoot more?
Long-time network engineer and Cisco CCIE, so don't be afraid to be technical.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Try taking them both off fixed IPs.


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## flasherz (May 27, 2007)

Did that too. Originally they were served by dynamic IP's from DHCP.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Since I'm not an ethernet expert [by any means], I've moved this to its own thread for others to help.


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## Supramom2000 (Jun 21, 2007)

I've never had either of those receivers: can they be direct ethernet connected without a Deca or CCK?


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Supramom2000 said:


> I've never had either of those receivers: can they be direct ethernet connected without a Deca or CCK?


Sure.
They may take a longer time finding other receivers without a router.


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## tbolt (Aug 22, 2009)

Have you tried rebooting your switch and router?

Have there been any other changes to your network or new devices added?


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## flasherz (May 27, 2007)

Yes. Router is a Cisco 3845 with 4xT1 to the Internet, multilink PPP. I've rebooted both. I will get out the sniffer next t ensure SSDP is making it through. I was just hoping there were better ways to troubleshoot.


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## lugnutathome (Apr 13, 2009)

What are your list options? It could be the receivers are both set to only display their own on board content. If set to all toggle to the specific DVR run list and then go back and set option to all. Dash key in list select filter by playlist which opens the playlist options menu. If it is set to local you will not see the other DVR content regardless of all the other settings.

Switched Ethernet works just fine I have a number of DVRs and assorted other receivers on switched ethernet outside of my DECA cloud and it is transparent as to which fabric is in use.

I am just guessing here but. . .

Don "ain't got no gas in it" Bolton


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## flasherz (May 27, 2007)

I thought of that too, but couldn't remember where that option was. Alas, no such option. Playlist options are "mark programs to delete", "sort programs by category", "change order of playlist", and "open/close all".

Menu/Settings/Settings/Whole-Home/Status shows "authorized" and "No networked DVRs found".

Time to get out the sniffer to see if I can see the request go out on the wire, and to see if there's any response.


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## lugnutathome (Apr 13, 2009)

You should be able to go online on your account and deactivate the whole home service then reactivate. You *should* have the option I described if Whole Home is properly activated. I got the coordinates off a genie client but they have existed since the beginning on all models of DVR.

Your account may be set right and your DVRs may see that but they have't opened up the menus and functions to support the processes.

Don "I don't think it is your network here" Bolton



flasherz said:


> I thought of that too, but couldn't remember where that option was. Alas, no such option. Playlist options are "mark programs to delete", "sort programs by category", "change order of playlist", and "open/close all".
> 
> Menu/Settings/Settings/Whole-Home/Status shows "authorized" and "No networked DVRs found".
> 
> Time to get out the sniffer to see if I can see the request go out on the wire, and to see if there's any response.


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## flasherz (May 27, 2007)

I attached the sniffer, disabled whole-home DVR, and did a red-button reset. After the receivers booted, I went through the network setup, setting defaults, and then going through setup again. After it confirmed internet connectivity, it asked me to turn on whole-home, and I did. I did that on both receivers.

Then I watched. Both receivers did SSDP NOTIFY's to 239.255.255.250 to announce their presence. Then the receivers began their occasional SSDP M-SEARCH * queries to the multicast group; immediately, the other receiver would respond with a unicast SSDP response identifying itself as a Media Server to UDP port 49152 on the querying receiver. However, that seems to be the only communication. The receivers continue to send the searches, and continue to reply. Nothing further.


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## flasherz (May 27, 2007)

I tried several things to make it work...

* First, I tried a from-scratch power down / power up with default network settings. No dice.

* Next, someone at the DirecTV forums said that HR* receivers worked only with RFC1918 addresses, not public addresses. So I tried assigning a secondary subnet to the segment and putting the receivers into that subnet. No luck.

* It wasn't until I created a new VLAN and isolated the two receivers to their own VLAN that it started working. Erm, yay. Except that now there is no Internet access, so no program guide or YouTube videos.

* Finally, I put the ports back into the original VLAN and now WHDVR works with Internet access.

From this experience, I'm frustrated. The finicky nature of WHDVR and the lack of troubleshooting information is incredibly painful. I could see on the sniffer that both of my receivers were advertising their capabilities, sending their searches, and attempting to announce themselves in reply. Yet there was no information available at all to help figure out why.


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

Do you have upnp turned on in your router? Try turning it off I you have issues again. 


Sent from my iPhone using DBSTalk


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## flasherz (May 27, 2007)

My router is not a consumer-grade router, as mentioned above. It's a Cisco 3845, so it doesn't have/do/etc. UPNP by default.


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## lugnutathome (Apr 13, 2009)

I was going to mention the UPnP till I realized the iron you are running. Still NONE of the BS you experienced should have occurred. I have run Whole Home on several routers using Switched Ethernet with none of the headaches you went through.

Glad it is working now but gotta wonder what really fixed it.

Don "not a network guy but the sit over the cube wall from me here at work" Bolton



flasherz said:


> My router is not a consumer-grade router, as mentioned above. It's a Cisco 3845, so it doesn't have/do/etc. UPNP by default.


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## dennisj00 (Sep 27, 2007)

flasherz said:


> My router is not a consumer-grade router, as mentioned above. It's a Cisco 3845, so it doesn't have/do/etc. UPNP by default.


My experience with this type of Cisco is everything is blocked by default and you have to open or give permissions to what you want. Home routers are pretty much open from the inside with the NAT from a private 192.168.x.x IP scheme translated to your WAN address.

Do yourself a favor and get a Linksys, hook it up temporarily and get your whole home running .. . . then move back to the 3845 if you really need it.


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## Diana C (Mar 30, 2007)

flasherz said:


> I tried several things to make it work...
> 
> * First, I tried a from-scratch power down / power up with default network settings. No dice.
> 
> ...


Sigh...reminds me of Windows Home edition - no real control of, or diagnostics for, network issues, all in the name of making things "simpler" for the user. Except for when it "simply" won't work. 

BTW, you don't need internet access for the program guide...that comes via satellite. Internet access is only required for "On Demand" content, YouTube and Pandora.


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## jdspencer (Nov 8, 2003)

I just noticed that I have the same problem as the TS with the same reported indications.
This may have been going on for a few days.
I have the same unsupported network.
I noticed that the HR24 didn't list the HR23 shows except for one, "Revolution" on the HR23 did show in the list on the HR24 and it did play. Yet the "no supported DVRs on the network" was shown. Go figure!

So, I just restarted both DVRs and all is well.

I have yet to receive the latest firmware (0x0740).


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## JosephB (Nov 14, 2005)

You had your receivers directly out on the internet with public IPs? You're a braver man than I

I'm curious why you've got that kind of networking equipment at home?


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