Need a little networking help....

I am trying to connect a second 45xx replay to my Mom's network, and everything "appears" to be working except that I cannot stream between units. Here is a little info that may help someone assist with this issue...

1. Both units are 45xx
2. I hooked both units up to my own home network (4 replays), and it streams fine both ways from all units.
3. When on my Mom's network, both units "see" each other, and will display each other's Replay Guides.
4. When I try to stream a show from either one, I get a window stating that it is unable to play the show.
5. If I try to stream again, the Replay pauses, then reboots.
6. Neither have many shows in the Replay Guide (less than 10).
7. Both units will connect to the mothership for channel guide updates, etc.
8. Both units are set with a static IP.

The network is wired as follows:

Each Replay is connected to a single wall jack connection installed in each of the two rooms that run to another 2 port wall jack in the room where the router is located (Cat 5e), then from the single wall jack, 2 cat 5e cables connect to a Linksys Router (wrt54g), which is the network gateway device.

Both jack runs are wired identically.

Since they both connect to the mothership, I never suspected I would have a networking problem when adding the second replay. However, based on my limited network wiring experience, I am wondering if the networking cables that run from the wall jacks to each replay are 568B cables, should the cabling between each individual wall jack be wired as an A, B, or crossover? It is currently wired as a B also.

IE: Cable from each replay are B's, wiring between jacks are B, Cables from jack to router are B's.

Should the jacks be wired as crossovers, or A's?

The only other difference I can think of, but might really be a long shot, is that the zip codes are different between the two replay's at my Mom's house. This is due to one replay using a cable box and the other is not. Since the channel guide is correct in another city for her cable box, it is using a different zip. Could that do it?

Any other thoughts?

Getting to the age where the scalp is getting a little sparse and this issue is getting to the point of my starting to pull more out!

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Jay

Thanks for the replies!! Much appreciated.

Dang, it's been so long since I had to mess with anything replay related (other than hd replacements) that I had completely forgotten about the DHCP bug. So, I did discover that I was remiss in turning of DHCP on the router after setting up the second replay. So I did that now, then rebooted both replay's (with static IP's assigned), but that didn't resolve it.

I don't setup or use DHCP unless I absolutely have to (such as setting up the replay for the first time), so both her computers as well as both Replay's are all static IP's on the same subnet.

I haven't had a chance to get back over there, but my next trip will be to perform the following:

re-check all jack wiring (borrowing a tester from a co-worker).

reboot the router to clear any pre-existing mac/ip dhcp data

take two 50' network cables and direct connect both replay's to the router to determine if one or both of the jack runs are the culprits (so I don't have to move them). Glad she has a smaller house!!

take an extra switch with me to see if that helps. The only catch to this theory is that when testing her replay's on my network (on the kitchen table), each one (one at a time) were connected directly into my router (same as hers) and worked fine between her's and all of mine. Although, all of "my" replays are behind switches before the router.

Will let you all know what I find out. Thanks again!

Update.........

re-check all jack wiring (borrowing a tester from a co-worker).

wiring checked out ok! Whew!

reboot the router to clear any pre-existing mac/ip dhcp data

Still didn't work

take two 50' network cables and direct connect both replay's to the router to determine if one or both of the jack runs are the culprits (so I don't have to move them). Glad she has a smaller house!!

Still no glory

take an extra switch with me to see if that helps.

Eureka! Don't know why it wouldn't work within the router since it is supposed to have a switching capability in it (isn't it?), but after putting a switch between the wall jack and the router, it now works as expected!

Really appreciate the assistance!!!

Jay

Unfortunately, No it's not. It's a "hand me down" from me when I rebuilt my own network a while back. The wireless part puked out (which I need but she doesn't) but the rest worked fine on my network, so it found it's new home when I set her's up the first time.

What suprised me is that that router already had 2 computers (one regular use, one dvarchive server) and a replay already connected to it without issues. Was able to stream between DVArchive server and first Replay just fine, as well as download shows to the server.

The issue only showed itself once I added the second replay, which made me suspect the wiring, but after seeing the solution, makes me lean towards a bad port on the router.

When I added the switch, I took the cable that was connected to one of the pc's and plugged it into the uplink port on the switch, then connected everything else directly to the switch so that now, the only connection to the router is the uplink cable.

If I run into further issues, I will just replace the router and call it a day since it appears that this one may be dying a slow death with first the wireless going out, and now most likely a port or more.


Already over the 50 mark! However, in my case it appears that the "MEMORY" is going faster than the rest! I just call them "Blonde Moments" and leave it at that!

Thanks again!

That was one of the first things I checked. According to DVA, they were 1 second difference. Don't they set/reset the clocks everytime you force a net connect either thru setup or the CFP? I did manual connects numerous times between the two prior to posting, as well as checked in DVA.

But thanks for the thought!

I set all my replays to use the gateway router as my default DNS server, and a public DNS server as the backup. Have never had a DNS related issue since, unless of course my router acts up or Comcrap has cable service issues, of which I usually figure out by rebooting the router.

I just refer to those little pains as the "Gates Syndrome". When in doubt, reboot!