Issues with a wireless bridge
Hi all,
Really hoping someone can help me with this, been driving me up the wall for ages now and I just cannot work out what the problem is.
We have a Humax Retail DTR-T2000 which we've been using since 2015, lovely box, I mean, the latest updates since the new 2021 interface have slowed it down considerably but it is still a lovely recorder and we enjoy using it.
We were starting to get some problems with connectivity a few months back. Programmes would stop at random times, no rhyme or reason to it at all. We were using Powerline adapters. They were TP Link ones from 2010, having taken out the TV cabinet and watched the TP Link adapters at both the TV and router end, both are repeatedly restarting, so I'm going to guess they've gone wrong. They are 11 years old, after all.
I looked around in a drawer and found an old wifi extender which still works but has been superseded by a much better wifi extender we now use. I did a bit of tinkering and turned it into the mode where it's basically a wifi bridge. It doesn't broadcast anything itself, it is just grabbing a wifi connection and putting it out through the ethernet port on it.
This extender/bridge reports over 70% signal to our router. But since trying this new method we get constant YVM102 and YVM104 messages at the top of anything we're watching, immediately replaced by "Broadband internet connection restored" etc. The error messages appear for three seconds then we get the "restored". Give it anything from 30 seconds to two minutes, and it's doing it again. It's just an endless loop. Trying to stream anything does work, but with constantly varying quality, and the message at the top is driving us mad.
A bit of background, we were using Virgin Media but moved to Three home broadband a short while back, but this problem with the Powerline adapters existed before the move to Three broadband. The extender we're using as the bridge for the YouView is one of those fairly basic Netgear EX2700-type ones. I'm wondering if the YouView software just isn't cut out for anything other than a direct ethernet connection or Powerline adapters.
Is there anything we can do to get our set up resuscitated? I'm reluctant to fork out £50+ on new Powerline sockets, especially for an old box which is now really slow anyway.
I'm thinking of just moving everything to streaming through a Fire Stick/Fire Edition TV if there's no easy fix for this whole problem, we were contemplating the move to a new UHD TV anyway. The overwhelming majority of everything we watch is just BBC iPlayer and Netflix.
Thanks in advance.
Really hoping someone can help me with this, been driving me up the wall for ages now and I just cannot work out what the problem is.
We have a Humax Retail DTR-T2000 which we've been using since 2015, lovely box, I mean, the latest updates since the new 2021 interface have slowed it down considerably but it is still a lovely recorder and we enjoy using it.
We were starting to get some problems with connectivity a few months back. Programmes would stop at random times, no rhyme or reason to it at all. We were using Powerline adapters. They were TP Link ones from 2010, having taken out the TV cabinet and watched the TP Link adapters at both the TV and router end, both are repeatedly restarting, so I'm going to guess they've gone wrong. They are 11 years old, after all.
I looked around in a drawer and found an old wifi extender which still works but has been superseded by a much better wifi extender we now use. I did a bit of tinkering and turned it into the mode where it's basically a wifi bridge. It doesn't broadcast anything itself, it is just grabbing a wifi connection and putting it out through the ethernet port on it.
This extender/bridge reports over 70% signal to our router. But since trying this new method we get constant YVM102 and YVM104 messages at the top of anything we're watching, immediately replaced by "Broadband internet connection restored" etc. The error messages appear for three seconds then we get the "restored". Give it anything from 30 seconds to two minutes, and it's doing it again. It's just an endless loop. Trying to stream anything does work, but with constantly varying quality, and the message at the top is driving us mad.
A bit of background, we were using Virgin Media but moved to Three home broadband a short while back, but this problem with the Powerline adapters existed before the move to Three broadband. The extender we're using as the bridge for the YouView is one of those fairly basic Netgear EX2700-type ones. I'm wondering if the YouView software just isn't cut out for anything other than a direct ethernet connection or Powerline adapters.
Is there anything we can do to get our set up resuscitated? I'm reluctant to fork out £50+ on new Powerline sockets, especially for an old box which is now really slow anyway.
I'm thinking of just moving everything to streaming through a Fire Stick/Fire Edition TV if there's no easy fix for this whole problem, we were contemplating the move to a new UHD TV anyway. The overwhelming majority of everything we watch is just BBC iPlayer and Netflix.
Thanks in advance.
Tagged:
0
Comments
Have you checked just for testing purposes that a direct ethernet connection does in fact work?
The only alternative solution I am aware of is to use a separate router in Client mode, many have successfully cited the TP Link Nano router.
Building on what @redchiz has said, I used a TPLINK nanorouter with my YouView box in Spain, in Client mode, and it was rock solid.
So it can be done, and it does work (except with multicast from BT [EDIT, remove ‘or TalkTalk’ as per @redchiz’ correction below], but neither applies here).
Re the device you have, if it is an EX-2700, then according to the Netgear documentation, it only acts as a range extender, and you can’t configure it as anything else, but it does support an Ethernet connection that would work as you intend with a YouView box.
But if the device isn’t quite an EX-2700, and you can indeed put it into various modes, then you should go for Client mode, not Bridge mode.
I also note some comments in the EX-2700 documentation about various router settings that will prevent successful operation, where you might want to make sure the Virgin router doesn’t have these, which would probably equally affect the extender you do have.
I haven't actually tried a direct ethernet connection yet @redchiz , the Three router only gets good signal upstairs, so if it works in our front room directly it still remains a bit of a moot point, but we could try it just to eliminate any problems with the actual box. Had been wondering that myself.
I'll have another go with the extender again, not sure it has a client mode, @Roy, but I might try reconfiguring it as an extender again, but this time just have it on the lowest power as an extender, just see if that works while the ethernet is connected.
Will report back...
Will have a rethink. I will also try a direct ethernet connection by bringing down the Three router just to make sure the endlessly restarting Powerline adapters over the past few months haven't somehow fried the ethernet connector in the YouView box.
If not, I'll pick up a TP Link AC750 people mention online, pop it in client mode and see if that works for us. They're only £30 on Amazon so it's worth a try.
I've remembered that actually years ago, before we properly used the Powerline adapters we already had, the YouView box actually used a 1st generation Sky Wireless Connector that we had from when we used to have Sky, so it must be possible to have a Wifi connection to YouView.
Thanks both, again, for all your help.