# Whole Home Oddity



## fluffybear (Jun 19, 2004)

Mrs. Fluffybear and I are having dinner with friends when the conversation turned to DirecTV Whole Home Service. Knowing that we have the service, I was asked if I might be abel to troubleshoot an issue. After looking at the system and wiring, I'm completely lost, so here goes:

System consists of 4 HD DVR's (HR21's and 23) connected to a SWM-16

All the units are working properly and are hooked up correctly.

The DECA Power Supply is connected in the living room to the router. All the lights are green and everything appears to be fine.

The other DECA Units also have green lights and appear to working just fine.

Here is where it gets strange:

DVR 1 can see DVR 2
DVR 2 can see DVR1 and DVR4
DVR 3 can see DVR2 (DECA Power Supply located in this room)
DVR4 can see DVR1

We have rebooted the system, moved the DECA units around, set static IP addresses, went back to dynamic IP addresses and still no change.


So anyone have any suggestions?


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

> So anyone have any suggestions?


Get Dish. !rolling

Why a SWiM-16 with only four DVRs?
There was once a SWiM-16 that had a bad DECA crossover, so each of the two SWiM outputs couldn't see each other.

Check all the network "numbers" and make sure they are all seeing the router. If not, then see about moving them all over to the same SWiM output.

Also you might try a router reboot too.


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## fluffybear (Jun 19, 2004)

veryoldschool said:


> Get Dish. !rolling
> 
> Why a SWiM-16 with only four DVRs?
> There was once a SWiM-16 that had a bad DECA crossover, so each of the two SWiM outputs couldn't see each other.
> ...


No idea as to why they were given a SWM-16.

All the receivers are connected to the same side on the SWM-16. I will call them and suggest they move them though to the other side and see if that makes any difference.

All the receivers are seeing the router. All system tests complete with zero failures.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

fluffybear said:


> No idea as to why they were given a SWM-16.
> 
> All the receivers are connected to the same side on the SWM-16. I will call them and suggest they move them though to the other side and see if that makes any difference.
> 
> All the receivers are seeing the router. All system tests complete with zero failures.


Have them reboot the router first. Pull the power for a min or two and then power it back up. This has resolved this type of issue for others.


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## fluffybear (Jun 19, 2004)

veryoldschool said:


> Have them reboot the router first. Pull the power for a min or two and then power it back up. This has resolved this type of issue for others.


I'll give them a call and see if that makes a difference.


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## JosephB (Nov 14, 2005)

veryoldschool said:


> Have them reboot the router first. Pull the power for a min or two and then power it back up. This has resolved this type of issue for others.


Length of time disconnected doesn't affect the router.

Have them shut everything off. Including the router and the SWM. Power everything up in this order: SWM, router, then each DVR. Let each DVR fully boot before powering on the next. And when I say shut everything off, on the DVRs, have them disconnect power.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

JosephB said:


> Length of time disconnected doesn't affect the router.


This came directly from tier two tech support for my router, so I may disagree with you.


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## fluffybear (Jun 19, 2004)

veryoldschool said:


> This came directly from tier two tech support for my router, so I may disagree with you.


disconnecting power to the router, waiting 5 minutes, reconnecting power and powering it back on had zero effect.

My last suggestion was for them to go to each DVR and turn off Share playlist and once everyone has been turned off, go back to each machine and turn it back on.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

fluffybear said:


> disconnecting power to the router, waiting 5 minutes, reconnecting power and powering it back on had zero effect.
> 
> My last suggestion was for them to go to each DVR and turn off Share playlist and once everyone has been turned off, go back to each machine and turn it back on.


OK, we now know it isn't a simple glitch in the router.
The next thing I'd try is to remove the connection to the router from the broadband DECA [leaving it powered] and then reboot all the receivers. This will change all of them over to using their internal IPs and after a while they should find all the receivers.
Changing how to sort the playlist hasn't helped anything for a long time. This only helped back in the early days and as proven to do nothing of late.
If all the receivers don't find each other, then I'd start swapping DECAs around and try to see if I could narrow down if any are bad.
It's too bad there isn't a 24 around as it can run some DECA network tests and give the status of the coax network.
Seems like there are five DECAs so I would think enough mix & matching could be done to weed out a bad one if this is the cause.
If the receivers do find themselves without the router connection, then you can try going back to the router and setting the IPs statically, but outside the range of the DCHP pool of IPs.


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## fluffybear (Jun 19, 2004)

veryoldschool said:


> OK, we now know it isn't a simple glitch in the router.
> The next thing I'd try is to remove the connection to the router from the broadband DECA [leaving it powered] and then reboot all the receivers. This will change all of them over to using their internal IPs and after a while they should find all the receivers.
> Changing how to sort the playlist hasn't helped anything for a long time. This only helped back in the early days and as proven to do nothing of late.
> If all the receivers don't find each other, then I'd start swapping DECAs around and try to see if I could narrow down if any are bad.
> ...


While I was over there this evening, I swapped DECA's around and it did not appear to make a difference but I'm willing to try it again. I have a couple of extra DECA's laying around here which I was going to take over this weekend and see if that makes a difference.


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## azarby (Dec 15, 2006)

fluffybear said:


> Mrs. Fluffybear and I are having dinner with friends when the conversation turned to DirecTV Whole Home Service. Knowing that we have the service, I was asked if I might be abel to troubleshoot an issue. After looking at the system and wiring, I'm completely lost, so here goes:
> 
> System consists of 4 HD DVR's (HR21's and 23) connected to a SWM-16
> 
> ...


How is SWM16 powered? Are there any Bandstop filters? How many and what kind of splitters are used? What ports are the Ethernet cables from DECA connected to on the HR2xs?


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## fluffybear (Jun 19, 2004)

azarby said:


> How is SWM16 powered? Are there any Bandstop filters? How many and what kind of splitters are used? What ports are the Ethernet cables from DECA connected to on the HR2xs?


Power connected the power port on the SWM16 
NO BSF 
No Splitters 
Ethernet cables are connected to the top ethernet jack on each DVR


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## Go Beavs (Nov 18, 2008)

fluffybear said:


> No idea as to why they were given a SWM-16.
> 
> *All the receivers are connected to the same side on the SWM-16*. I will call them and suggest they move them though to the other side and see if that makes any difference.
> 
> All the receivers are seeing the router. All system tests complete with zero failures.





fluffybear said:


> Power connected the power port on the SWM16
> NO BSF
> *No Splitters*
> Ethernet cables are connected to the top ethernet jack on each DVR


There has to be a splitter in there somewhere. With only one line coming from the SWM16 it has to be split to feed all the boxes.

...or am I missing something here...


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## joed32 (Jul 27, 2006)

I would call Directv and let them fix it.


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## fluffybear (Jun 19, 2004)

Go Beavs said:


> There has to be a splitter in there somewhere. With only one line coming from the SWM16 it has to be split to feed all the boxes.
> 
> ...or am I missing something here...


No, you didn't miss anything, just replying to things before my morning coffee.

You are correct, there has to a be splitter somewhere. I'm guessing under the house.

Update: According to an email, there is a splitter (no idea if it is green label or not) located on the side of the house near the A/C unit. This is on the complete opposite side of the house from where the SWM16 is located (garage)


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## Richierich (Jan 10, 2008)

fluffybear said:


> No idea as to why they were given a SWM-16.
> 
> All the receivers are connected to the same side on the SWM-16. I will call them and suggest they move them though to the other side and see if that makes any difference.
> 
> All the receivers are seeing the router. All system tests complete with zero failures.


I would put 2 on SWM1 and 2 on SWM2.


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## fluffybear (Jun 19, 2004)

A new twists this morning:

According to an e-mail which I received, there has been some progress.

DVR1 now can see DVR2 and DVR4
DVR2 now can see DVR1 and DVR4
DVR3 now can see DVR1 and DVR2
DVR4 now can see DVR1 and DVR2

So no one can see DVR3 and DVR3 can not see DVR4 (while DVR's 1 and 2 can)


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

fluffybear said:


> A new twists this morning:
> 
> According to an e-mail which I received, there has been some progress.
> 
> ...


As posted ^, I'd still remove the connection to the router and see how well these all work/find each other while using their internal IPs/network.
If they do, it narrow downs where to look. If they don't, it narrows down to another area to look.


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## bigwad (Oct 19, 2006)

I have 2 HR20-700 and an H24 with the whole home setup. Mine couldn't see each other, until we moved the power inserter(?). We had to move it to the DVR that was closest to the router. Don't know why that made a difference, but it worked.


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## fluffybear (Jun 19, 2004)

bigwad said:


> I have 2 HR20-700 and an H24 with the whole home setup. Mine couldn't see each other, until we moved the power inserter(?). We had to move it to the DVR that was closest to the router. Don't know why that made a difference, but it worked.


The DECA PI is in the same room with the router


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## fluffybear (Jun 19, 2004)

veryoldschool said:


> As posted ^, I'd still remove the connection to the router and see how well these all work/find each other while using their internal IPs/network.
> If they do, it narrow downs where to look. If they don't, it narrows down to another area to look.


If they don't get it solved by the weekend, I'll go over and give that a try..


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

bigwad said:


> I have 2 HR20-700 and an H24 with the whole home setup. Mine couldn't see each other, until we moved the power inserter(?). We had to move it to the DVR that was closest to the router. Don't know why that made a difference, but it worked.





fluffybear said:


> The DECA PI is in the same room with the router


This isn't the DECA PI, since it's behind the DECA. The SWiM PI location can change how well the DECA network performs, but only a H/HR24 have the tests to check this. These tests show the loss between nodes and the bit-rates between them. This can't be done on receivers using the external DECAs.


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