switching broadband - how to re-engage set-top box
I have recently switched from Virgin to Vodafone with my broadband, and my set-top box cannot "see" the new broadband/internet. I've tried looking at Settings/Broadband but there is nothing helpful there. How do I get to a place where I can replace the Virgin Media Wi-Fi name with the new Vodafone one?
If I have to reset, will I lose all my recordings?
Do I still need the ethernet cable?
Tiina
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I'm assuming your box isn't the new wireless Pro box.
plug in the ethernet cable to your voda router and the youview box..then just follow the on screen guide.
All your recordings are safe and waiting for you.
Enjoy.
To slightly amplify the sound advice from @kodikid, above:-
You box isn’t WiFi, so you cannot make, and do not need, any WiFi settings on your YouView box.
Yes you still need the Ethernet cable.
Connect it as kodikid describes, and you probably won’t even need to change anything at all; it should just work.
But do please let us know if you have any further difficulties with this.
Are we talking about a Virgin set top box?.
If so that won't work now you've abandoned Virgin media.
If it's a non wifi youview box you will need to invest in "powerline adapters " (get them in argos)
Same principle, plug in the ethernet cable to the router and one of the adapters and repeat the process with the youview box downstairs.
Dead easy.
Powerline adapters vary in price but I personally used to use the BT ones.
Enjoy.
Why was it moved from where the Virgin router was? And how is it connected to the internet? Via a BT Master Socket, or direct fibre or is it 4/5G?
If you can’t move the router nearer, then your options are a pair of PowerLine Adaptors or a nanorouter, which effectively makes the YouView box a WiFi device; I use one of these because my BT router only has three free ports, these are all in use, and this way was easier than trying to shoehorn my Ethernet switch into the understairs cupboard where the router has to sit with all the other electronic gubbins, including the eight-way distro box that pumps TV (OTA and satellite), FM and Ethernet into every room (except the utility room, much to my wife’s displeasure).
Does you router look like the one on page 4 here?
https://www.vodafone.co.uk/cs/groups/public/documents/webcontent/vfcon098518.pdf
If not, can you please post a picture of it here, or at least find a model number on it and tell us that?
On the one shown above the red connector is for the cable to the WAN, either going to a BT Master socket, or if you have fibre, to a modem on the wall. And it sounds like what you have.
And on the one shown above, there are four yellow sockets, for your internal Ethernet connections.
If the Virgin router was more or less where the Vodafone router is now, then nothing much should have changed internally, though, so whatever you used to plug into the Virgin router, just plug it into a yellow socket on the Vodafone router.
And can you please also post a picture of what you think is the PowerLine Adaptor, as I don’t know why that would have two cables going into it (where do they lead? - one should go to the YouView box at least) though it’s possible.
But if it is indeed a PLA, then there should be another one up near the router, from which an Ethernet cable should lead to the router.
Is this the case?
Good thing about this forum is as well as experts we also have input from people like myself, no technical knowledge but have been using youview since its inception.
So for the idiot viewpoint..
surely when swapping the Virgin router for the Voda one there would have been a surplus cable if it was connected like for like?. And who fitted the new router as any installer worth their salt would have replaced the cables that were obviously there for a reason.
Also any PLA'S I've purchased have been single cabled, so I'm thinking for whatever reason at the moment the equipment just isn't inplace to connect router and youview box.
So for a simplified solution if it was me I would just start from scratch.
I would invest in a set of PLA'S (only cheap) and just install them,
again dead simple.
Again speaking as someone will no tech knowledge even I know changing a router is one of the easiest jobs as apart from the power cable it really is unplug and replace in the same order.
That's why I feel something is a miss here and best to start from the beginning with a new set of powerline adapters which I suspect at the moment are awol.
Good luck.
I am following exactly the same logic as you, but coming to a rather different conclusion.
Assuming the Vodafone router has LAN ports, and your conjecture that there must be a ‘surplus’ cable lying about (or more exactly, that whatever cable(s) were previously plugged into the Virgin router were not plugged into the Vodafone router when it was swapped for the Virgin router), then all that is necessary is for @Tiinar to find that cable or cables and plug them into the Vodafone router LAN ports (doesn’t matter which cable goes in which if there is more than one cable, as all the LAN ports are completely interchangeable).
And about as unlikely as it having worked without PLAs previously, but now needing some.
And it’s not been my experience in the past that any broadband installer ever wired the LAN side of my router for me, and even wiring the WAN side was a bonus.
Photos and model numbers - excellent!
We live and learn - that is indeed a two-port PLA.
And yes - neither the YouView box nor the DVD player will be connected to the router unless you connect a pair of Ethernet cables from the upstairs PLA to two of the LAN ports on the router. (I’ve just looked it up, and you have four to play with).
But, but, but - why cable the DVD player? Is it so old that it doesn’t have WiFi, and yet new enough to have internet apps on it that still work? And which you use?
If that’s not the case - i.e. the DVD player can connect over WiFi anyway, or you don’t actually use the internet on it - then take the downstairs cable off the DVD player and the downstairs PLA, and use it to connect the upstairs PLA, using the same Left or Right port as you are using for the YouView box into the downstairs PLA*, to one of the empty LAN ports on the router (doesn’t matter which).
Actually, try it with the Ethernet cable from the DVD player anyway, and let’s see if we can get this YouView box working for you again 😛
And then you can use any new cable that you have to buy, if you actually need one for the DVD player, to get that back connected again, at your leisure (get CAT 6 or better, straight through not crossover, anything else is personal taste, e.g. flat or round).
Do keep us posted as to how you get on!
*So far, I have been totally unable to find out how having two ports works, and maybe one cable from the upstairs PLA to the router will cover both devices plugged in downstairs. Or maybe not, and you do need two cables, and Left and Right matters.
But as you talk about only having one cable from the PLA upstairs, then either this will have been covering both YouView box and DVD Player downstairs, or the DVD connection will never have worked, even before. The above investigation may give us a better clue as to which….
My PLA attached to the router only has one socket and I run 4 PLAs around the house from this, some single and some double ports with no problems whatsoever.
Go to Settings/Broadband Connection on the YouView box. What do you see?
Are there now three green lights showing on the upstairs PLA?
Try a flight of reboots - router first, then when it has settled, the upstairs PLA, then when that has settled, the downstairs PLA, and then finally the YouView box (touch On/Standby and keep your finger there for just over 8 seconds until it soft reboots).
I’ve no idea how you reset the PLAs; maybe a reset button somewhere, or failing that unplug them in turn for two minutes each.
Try my advice immediately above.
”Wired” button?? None of my YouView boxes have a Wired button?
If it’s a new BT Pro box, I suppose it might have such a button? (@kodikid or other Pro box owners?)
In which case, try switching it off, and see if it offers you a WiFi connection you could make.
Ah yes, I have two of these. Still the latest box from YouView themselves, and not superseded. And pulling the Ethernet connection out does indeed make the button top right say ‘Wired’.
The Help Connecting button shows graphically how to connect and pair PLAs - well worth a look to ensure you are doing things like that. And I am reminded that you should check the PLAs are directly in wall sockets, rather than on a mains extender cable.