[BASSOFeeSH]

Up until last week I had all of my PC's & RTV4040 connected together via a Linksys router.


Then I needed another network connection in the same room as the RTV(I ran 50ft of CAT5 from RTV to router), so I decided to put a hub there. Of course I forgot that I sold my hub, so I had to use a spare dlink Internet router/switch. The replay has been successfully connecting to get guide data since I installed the switch(and forced a successfull connection), but DVArchive no longer automatically detects it. I can ping it from my PC. I can also manually connect via DVArchive, but downloads either don't start at all, or proceed at about 5k.


Um...why? I'm sure I'll kick myself for not figuring this out myself, and I'm going to end up buying a cheap hub anyway but I'd like to know.

 

[gduprey]

Quote:

Originally posted by BASSOFeeSH Up until last week I had all of my PC's & RTV4040 connected together via a Linksys router. DVArchive no longer automatically detects it. I can ping it from my PC. I can also manually connect via DVArchive, but downloads either don't start at all, or proceed at about 5k.

Well, on the failure to auto-detect, it's because of the router.


ReplayTV (and so, DVArchive) use broadcasts to tell the world about themselves and where they are. But by definition, broadcast style messages never cross routers - they are only broadcast on the local segment of the network. A hub (switching or dumb) would redistribute it because it considers everything hooked up to it as being local.


Since the broadcast of the ReplayTV isn't carried across the router, DVA can't auto-see it. As you see though, the rest of the communication is done with normal point to point connections which a router will carry making it possible to open/download from RTV to DVA over a router.


If you don't want to live with this, you could use DVAs proxy ability to add a local broadcaster for the RTV on the other network. However, the proxy is "dumb" - it really won't adjust to show if the other RTV is really available or not. Since RTVs are usually up, this isn't a biggie. Or you could replace the router with a hub.


As for the downloads failing after a while - if they didn't before, there may be something goofy with your router, though that would be very odd.

 

[BASSOFeeSH]

I switched the configuration back to the way it was & everything works perfectly again. I'll just take a trip to Best Buy & spring for a cheap 4-port hub.


Thanks

 

[acourvil]

Get a switch! The cost is almost the same now, and if you have other things on the network, you will get better throughput.

 

[BASSOFeeSH]

I guess the title of this thread is misnamed, because they were BOTH home cable/dsl routers with 4-port switches. I guess I don't know why the 2nd device was causing problems. I was NOT using the WAN port, so I expected it to funtion as a switch only.


Anyway, I cheaped out & bought a 5-port hub for $15 less than a new 4-port hub partly because the first switch(albeit with router functionality) wasn't working. I know switches are "Better", but my network is almost totally for sharing the broadband connections & offloading RTV files for burning onto DVD.

 

[bogie3]

I'm a little confused by Gerry's answer. I have a Linksys switch/router & the two replays see each other all the time. In order for DVA to see either replay, I had to first put their IP's in the open a DVR & on subsequent use click on recently opened DVR's & their name & IP.

 

[l8er]

Quote:

Originally posted by BASSOFeeSH I guess the title of this thread is misnamed, because they were BOTH home cable/dsl routers with 4-port switches.

Just out of curiosity, did you turn off DHCP and the router functions in the second one?


-Gary

 

[bogie3]

Not sure what you mean by the 2nd one. The Linksys is one unit (BEFSR41).

I now have assigned ip's to all devices but it worked exactly the same with DHCP turned on.

Ron

 

[heathriel]

You originally said you had two routers. l8er was asking if you'd tuned off DHCP on the second router as well as the first. In order to turn a router into a switch you have to plug the cable into the uplink port AND turn off DHCP.

 

[BASSOFeeSH]

To clear things up:


Router/switch #1(Linksys): 192.168.1.1

DHCP -> ON

WAN port -> cable modem

Uplink port -> Router/switch #2(DLink)

Ports 2 - 4 -> 3 PC's


Router/switch #2(Dlink): 192.168.1.2

DHCP->OFF

WAN port -> nothing

Port 1 -> uplink port on router #1

port 3 -> RTV4040

Port 4 -> Laptop