Help - All I did was change Routers......

[johnw]

I have Sage Server v6.3.5.159 on XPSP2 running with 2 PC Clients and 4 Hauppauge Sourced MPVs, all running on a Gigabit network.

All has been well until I changed my ISP from ADSL to Cable which necessited me replacing my Netgear DG834N ADSL router with a Netgear WPN824 Cable router.

All now worked except that the MPVs do not appear to be getting IP addresses from the new router and are therefore giving the dreaded black screen.

I can swap between routers at will, Cable to ADSL and vv; each time the MPV boots up with the ADSL router and not with cable. Each time I swop, apart from ensuring that the IP address of the Media Server is registered through ipconfig /release and then /renew and then restarting the Sage application (I am not running it as a service), there are no other changes made.

Looking at the configuration files of each router, I cannot see anything different between them that might account for this problem; both routers use identical ip addresses (192.168.0.1) and address ranges etc.

I have given both the server and the MPV that I am using to test (although I get the identical error on each of them), the same fixed IP addresses (192.168.0.26 and 192.168.0.4 respectively) in each of the two router configurations.

I have attached a file in case anyone is able to help me listing the following:
A portion of the Sage server properties file
The client properties file for the MPV concerned (I have tried deleting it but to no avail)
An extract from the sagetv_0 log file where the MPV unsuccessfully attempts to boot up through the Cable router.
An extract from the sagetv_0 log file where the MPV successfully boots up through the ADSL router.


Each of those boot results are repeatable in every respect whenever I swap routers.

Has anyone any ideas?

Regards

John

[zoundz]

Not to pound the obvious, but does the new router have it's DHCP server activated? And/or does it have enough IP's authorized to cover the needs of all your backchannel requests?

[johnw]

Each router has DHCP activated with 255 available IP addresses

John

[matt91]

And do you have other computers sucessfully getting a DHCP-issued IP address from the new router?

[johnw]

Absolutely. Everything else works as it should. Just the MPvs don't.

[mistergq]

thinking out loud ... does MVP use a specific port to access Sage? I wonder if that port is turned off with the new router?

[johnw]

I will check but I don't think so. There is nothing in the cable router configuration to suggest that any particular port is switched off.

John

[sainswor99]

The MVP's are notorious for having flaky network support; have you unplugged the MVP's and let them sit for a few minutes (I've heard anywhere from 30 seconds to 15 minutes) since you switched the network? I believe there's some sort of flash-based memory inside the things which needs to be cleared whenever you make network changes.

You may also want to consider setting a static IP for your media server (if you haven't done so already), and if your router is capable, forcing your MVP's to get the same IP when connecting.

HTH,
Stu

[johnw]

I have enabled static addresses for both the MPV and the server. I have also left the MPV powered down for periods of up to 24 hours, all to no avail.

[zoundz]

Nother thought. I've seen situations where a particular net adapter just didn't like a particular switch or hub. You might try sticking a spare switch or hub in between the MVP and the router, just to make sure it's not a simple ethernet problem.

[Taddeusz]

It sounds like you're setting the router to auto-assign a specific address to your server through DHCP. This is not a static address. A static address would be set in Windows on the server and should not be an address that is within the DHCP range of the router.

Have you verified that your router is really assigning that address to the server? Have you rebooted your server since changing routers? Or at least released and renewed it's IP since it appears you're using a router assigned fixed address?

[sleonard]

Your router should list all the IP addresses that it has assigned. See if the MVP is listed there. Also, the router should have a logging feature. Turn it on if it's not already and look for DHCP requests and assignments for the MVP. They will be using ports 67 and 68.

Another test you could do is turn off the routers DHCP server and set up one on the XP box that is running Sage and see if the MVP gets an address that way.

S