How to make your networked device work real bad

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Rikkitic

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#237735 15-Jun-2018 18:43

I don't know if this is a beginner's error or a case of knowing enough to be dangerous, but it might serve as a cautionary tale or source of amusement to others.

I am upgrading our TV set-up with a Mecool combo box that has DVB-S, DVB-T and Android all in one package. With some difficulty I got the satellite and terrestrial working (I think) and spent most of today trying to set up the streaming. It was a frustrating endeavour. Regardless of what tried the streaming was pathetic, with freezing, buffering, very slow loading. I couldn't figure out what was wrong, especially as other test devices seemed to work fine. The only thing I could think of was that the unit was faulty.

After far too long, the penny finally dropped. I have static IP and I just clicked through the defaults, as I usually do. The only problem is I also did that the last time with my Shield. As a result, I had two devices assigned IP addresses that end with 128. No wonder there were conflicts! I gave the new device an unused IP and now it is working fine. Something to keep in mind for the future.

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#2038453 15-Jun-2018 22:11

I feel your pain , I've managed to do it twice .

Batman

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#2038488 16-Jun-2018 08:06

Every time i touch anything on my router i have no internet for a while. Needs multiple router reboots, a lot of swearing, and smashing of things. No idea why it then works again or why it loses connection in the first place.

andrewNZ

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#2038491 16-Jun-2018 08:18

I've seen something similar in industrial situations. A machine gets connected to the site network with a static IP, then it or another machine begins generating random faults.

Can be very hard to find the problem because it's normally reporting that it can't see one of its own devices.

It's atrocious how many sites don't take control of their own networks. It's often up to the installer to find an address that isn't used.

robjg63

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#2038504 16-Jun-2018 09:27

Rikkitic:

I am upgrading our TV set-up with a Mecool combo box that has DVB-S, DVB-T and Android all in one package..

Sounds very interesting. How about a link to the device and a mini review?

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

kryptonjohn

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#2038518 16-Jun-2018 10:02

robjg63:
Rikkitic:

I am upgrading our TV set-up with a Mecool combo box that has DVB-S, DVB-T and Android all in one package..

Sounds very interesting. How about a link to the device and a mini review?

I see them on aliexpress - just search for Mecool there.

Yes, it does look intersting. I'd like to hear your review, @Rikkitic!

kryptonjohn

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#2038519 16-Jun-2018 10:03

It says CCAM - does that mean you can put your sykTV card in it?

Rikkitic

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#2038559 16-Jun-2018 10:48

I don't have the tech smarts to do proper review and I'm still working through the set-up but I can post my impressions at a later time. I bought the unit from AliExpress. A few dealers there have it and it is also on some other sites. I have heard good things about it and they may be true but I have had some issues (probably due to me) setting it up.

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kryptonjohn

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#2038560 16-Jun-2018 10:50

Just be interested to know what broadcast and streaming channels you can play on it - netflix/vudu/hulu/lightbox etc?

Cheers

JohnO

Rikkitic

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#2038603 16-Jun-2018 11:26

I installed Kodi yesterday but haven't done much with it yet. I have the apsattv channels on it and played around with YouTube. It comes with apps for Netflix and some other things but I don't subscribe to any of the channels you mention. It may not have enough grunt for some things, not sure yet. I couldn't get Arte 7 to play on it but it worked fine on the Shield. I haven't had time to look into that yet. It will be awhile until things settle down and I have some idea of what I am doing. Still a lot of settings to work through.

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nunz

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#2038641 16-Jun-2018 13:18

Rikkitic:

I don't know if this is a beginner's error or a case of knowing enough to be dangerous, but it might serve as a cautionary tale or source of amusement to others.

I am upgrading our TV set-up with a Mecool combo box that has DVB-S, DVB-T and Android all in one package. With some difficulty I got the satellite and terrestrial working (I think) and spent most of today trying to set up the streaming. It was a frustrating endeavour. Regardless of what tried the streaming was pathetic, with freezing, buffering, very slow loading. I couldn't figure out what was wrong, especially as other test devices seemed to work fine. The only thing I could think of was that the unit was faulty.

After far too long, the penny finally dropped. I have static IP and I just clicked through the defaults, as I usually do. The only problem is I also did that the last time with my Shield. As a result, I had two devices assigned IP addresses that end with 128. No wonder there were conflicts! I gave the new device an unused IP and now it is working fine. Something to keep in mind for the future.

Just a question - why no dhcp? Most router boxes can let you assign the same ip to the same mac address via dhcp - which means you kind of have permanent static addresses via dhcp.

I had a similar problem two days ago. Turned out a clients machine, dropped off and plugged into guest wireless, self assigned its own address. Killed all sorts of functionality - mostly the internet and gateway. I always go back to the last thing I did and turn it off. Works most of the time.

Glad to know there are other fallible humans out there :)

Rikkitic

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#2038650 16-Jun-2018 13:39

No DHCP because my ISP offers static IP and I use DNS4ME on individual devices (not the router).

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Rikkitic

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#2038661 16-Jun-2018 13:51

First report on the Mecool: Sensitivity (in any case on satellite) seems not as good as my other unit. I have three satellites on my dish using offset LNBs. D1 is strong, D2 nearly as good, Intelsat 19 weaker but usable. On my old sat box it works fine, with a little bit of occasional pixelation. On the Mecool it has been working, but occasionally would suddenly report no signal. Today for some reason it won't get a signal at all. The other two are okay and Intelsat 19 also works fine on my old box but the Mecool doesn't see it at all. I need to drill into this further but it doesn't seem to have the same sensitivity as the other box. This would not be a problem for most people, only if you are trying to pick up a marginal satellite signal.

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robjg63

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#2038755 16-Jun-2018 18:57

Rikkitic:

No DHCP because my ISP offers static IP and I use DNS4ME on individual devices (not the router).

I think possibly you are misunderstanding the static IP address.

The static IP means that the internet connection to your house (the router effectively) does not change - for example 203.123.123.123.

So for example - if you open a browser and go to http://www.whatsmyip.org/ it will show your 'public' IP address. This will report the same IP address on every device in your house that uses that internet connection. Phones (on wifi), media boxes, PCs etc.

That is the IP address you will tell DNS4me is your IP address - your public IP address - so DNS4me knows your connection is registered with them.

Within your home network, you will be using a separate IP address range - probably 192.168.x.x or 10.10.x.x . These are address ranges that do not exist in the public world. They are for private/business use within your network.

So if your router is set up to hand out IP addresses to devices within your home network (using DHCP) it is probably using address like 192.168.0.1 or .2 etc

By default with DHCP, the devices will pick up the DNS servers from the router - usually these are the DNS servers that your ISP uses.

If you specifically set your device to use the DNS4me DNS servers it will check that your public IP address is the one you have registered (with DNS4me) and the device will be able to use DNS4mes unblocking. However, if you set the device to use googles DNS servers, or the DNS server from your ISP, then the device will bypass DNS4me unblocking service.

The alternative is that you edit the DNS server addresses in your router and set these addresses to be the dns4me DNS servers.

If you did that and used DHCP on every device in your house, then every device will pick up the DNS entries from your router and use the DNS4me DNS servers and the unblocking rules will work for every device.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

Rikkitic

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#2038804 16-Jun-2018 19:30

Thanks for the explanation but I do (I think) get that part. I used to use multiple DNS proxies, of which DNS4ME was only one. I had DNS switchers on my different devices and would often have them using different proxies. For that reason I specifically did not want the proxy tied to my router. I don't use that so much any more, but I like the flexibility so prefer to keep it this way. One never knows what the future may bring.

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robjg63

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#2038807 16-Jun-2018 19:46

Awwww - I get what you mean.

You mean you dont want to use DHCP because you want to enter the DNS servers manually on some devices to use the DNS4ME DNS servers.

On windows devices you can still get a PC to use DHCP (from your router) to pick up an internal IP address (192.168.x.x) that your router automatically and uniquely assigns on your home network. Windows does let you enter your own DNS server addresses though if you want to.

Android devices are a bit cranky though, and if you want to use a different DNS server address you have to set the networking to use a fixed IP address in your internal network (192.168.x.x) and you can enter and IP addresses you like/need under the DNS server settings. Obviously accidentally having 2 devices with the same internal IP address is a bad thing - and that's what you meant.

Your reference to your ISP offering a static IP address was the confusing item here - Its not relevant to you duplicating an address on your internal network.

Glad you got it sorted.

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

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