Connecting wirelessly

[clemenzina]

PS - you can call me Clem. Sorry about the long name, but it's a treasured leftover from happy old Napster days

 

[clemenzina]

The reason I've been convinced that my custom firmware installation failed is because I was told that I should see mention of the custom firmware when I reboot after said installation, and I have not.

Nothing daunted, I just ploughed ahead and followed instructions for full web interface and I got this:



Now what shall I do?

Plenty of time, as I'll be recording stuff this evening.

 

[Black Hole]

Do what it says on the tin!

What you see after stage 1 is exactly what I said you should see: "Cust FW 2.12" flashed up on the FRONT PANEL DISPLAY during boot-up. Like I said in the guide.

 

[clemenzina]

It looks as though I'll have to do without the CF, I am completely lost now.

 

[Black Hole]

What part of "Please restart your Humax" do you not understand? It needs a reboot. Having rebooted, reconnect to the WebIF.

 

[clemenzina]

What part of "Please restart your Humax" do you not understand? It needs a reboot. Having rebooted, reconnect to the WebIF.

Whatever makes you think I would NOT have restarted the box when the instructions in my screenshot above clearly state to do so?

There's no need to get shirty with me, I warned you I was a bit dozy. I have been very kind to you in ways you will never know, as long as I maintain this amazing level of self-restraint.

Anyway, have recovered from temporary glitch and am about to read thru the list of packages - if my first smart (Android) phone is anything to go by, Hummy won't know what's hit him

Thank you all for your assistance!

 

[Black Hole]

Whatever makes you think I would NOT have restarted the box when the instructions in my screenshot above clearly state to do so?

Maybe this?

It looks as though I'll have to do without the CF, I am completely lost now.

Sorry if I got it wrong, but conversation by text can be error prone, which I why I often appear to be labouring the point (an effort not to be misunderstood, frequently unsuccessful). Sarcasm in particular is easily misinterpreted.

Had you reported exactly what you had done and what happened I would not have been in the dark.

 

[4291]

@Clem Are you now reporting success, and can see the Webif Main screen on your laptop?

 

[clemenzina]

@Clem Are you now reporting success, and can see the Webif Main screen on your laptop?

Yes thank you, 4291, I don't know why but the first time I tried to load the WebIF I got the download page again. I can't wait to install some packages but am tied up with other stuff until later, dang!

How can someone called BlackHole not be in the dark? OK, that's a duff one Trouble was, I had read too much, got swamped with open tabs and then kept losing my place in the procedure. As hinted, concentration is not a strong suit these days.

You and others have obviously worked very hard (and are still at it) to make Hummy a product I will value. I hate Humax for making solid performers with shortcomings that get on my nerves. From now on, the good should far outweigh the bad

 

[Black Hole]

Inside a black hole is all the light that can't be seen on the outside! That which leaks away is Hawking radiation.

 

[clemenzina]

Inside a black hole is all the light that can't be seen on the outside!

I've thought of many retorts to that, all best left unsaid

Today I can't load the WebIF, it times out. BBC iPlayer loads OK in Humax portal and programmes play.

EDIT = Cured by rebooting laptop

EDIT2 = No it isn't, can't open Package Management, that times out Hummy isn't appearing on my network in Control Panel - does this mean I need to try setting up wifi again? Is cable connection no good for WebIF? My laptop is on wifi so I've just connected it via cable router>laptop, no dice, I imagine I'd need to connect laptop>Humax with a cable.

Do I need to go somewhere else to discuss this problem?

 

[Ezra Pound]

I Is cable connection no good for WebIF? My laptop is on wifi so I've just connected it via cable router>laptop, no dice, I imagine I'd need to connect laptop>Humax with a cable.

Do I need to go somewhere else to discuss this problem?

LAN cableing Laptop to router and router to Humax is fine, if anything better than WiFi. Connection from Laptop to Humax is possible but will require manual setting of LAN details to both Laptop AND Humax because there will be no DNS server to provide IP address's. If you goto the Humax LAN settings and click apply you should get a 'Connected to Network' message
BTW
If you do use a LAN cable connected to your Laptop don't forget to turn the Wi-Fi off.

 

[Black Hole]

Do I need to go somewhere else to discuss this problem?

I've thought of many retorts to that, all best left unsaid

 

[clemenzina]

LAN cableing Laptop to router and router to Humax is fine, if anything better than WiFi. Connection from Laptop to Humax is possible but will require manual setting of LAN details to both Laptop AND Humax because there will be no DNS server to provide IP address's. If you goto the Humax LAN settings and click apply you should get a 'Connected to Network' message
BTW
If you do use a LAN cable connected to your Laptop don't forget to turn the Wi-Fi off.

This is an entirely unknown area to me. Just now I plugged a cable from the router into my laptop, which had been using wifi. I thought that a cable would automatically take preference and take over the internet connection, didn't know that wifi should be switched off, but when I switch off wifi via Fn+F3 (which has the wifi symbol on it) I lose internet.

It is not going to be practical to connect laptop and Humax with a cable - I had blithely thought that the router would act as a "messenger" between laptop and Humax.

The reason I bought the cable for the Humax (I had to get a longer one than I already had here) was because when I couldn't get Humax to recognise the router in order to set up wifi, someone suggested it might be easier to set up if I got connected via cable first and downloaded the Custom Firmware... I didn't realise that TWO cables would be needed :-/ Shall have to look for the thread.

I have not had any problems setting up wifi on other gadgets here.

EDIT - What if I remove the cable (connecting the router and the Humax) from the router and plug it into my laptop temporarily - so that laptop and Humax are connected via cable? Would that help me set up wifi?

 

[Black Hole]

This all sounds very odd.

It's no great hassle (in my opinion) to link the PC directly to the Humax by cable. The is a slight risk a normal cable won't do it (in theory it needs a cross-over cable, but a lot of kit will auto-switch these days), but give it a try.

With the PC connected to your network by WiFi, disable the WiFi (you probably have a button for that) but don't turn the PC off (this ensures the PC has been allocated an appropriate IP setting by DHCP). Connect the Ethernet port to the Humax by cable. Bring up a command console (type "cmd" in the start button search) and type "ipconfig", take note of what it says is the IP address and subnet mask is.

On the Humax, in Internet Settings set Manual and configure the same subnet mask, and the same IP address except the last digit. Select "apply", then you should be able to reach the WebIF on that address from your browser.

 

[MartinLiddle]

Just now I plugged a cable from the router into my laptop, which had been using wifi.

Lets go back to square one. What make and model of router.

 

[clemenzina]

BlackHole, I'll "take in" your post in a minute, first I'll respond to Martin. I don't know if Martin saw our struggles trying to get wifi up 'n running a few days ago, better say now that Hummy would NOT recognise the router and that all settings have been published on this forum and found to be OK, and that I already have 5 laptops, a Technika Smartbox, a Samsung TV, and the neighbours connected up, and my limit is 32 devices (does that cover it BH? ).

Oh and the dongle was from Play.com and has been used by other Hummy owners.

Router = Huawei HG532.

 

[jack616]

clem

If a new pair of eyes on this helps I would suggest you do the following:

Do this - dont assume it works:
Connect your laptop to your router by cable.
Disconnect the humax from the router and remove the wifi from the humax
Turn off the laptop and router wifi
open a browser and enter 192.168.0.1 in the address bar
You should see a router config page or password request (ignore it for now)
(if not you have a problem to report here)

This will prove the laptop can talk to the router AND you can look at configuration
of the router (see below)
Next enter yahoo.com to prove the laptop can communicate through to the internet.
All that proves one half of your connection is perfect and you can rule issues out.
This should take you 5 minutes.

Next - remove the cable from the router to your laptop.
Connect a cable from the humax to the router.
Attempt to connect the humax to any portal on the net.
Depending on what happens here you will get an idea of what is going wrong.
A) If it connects fine this tells you the humax is fine and the router is happy with it
so just dissconnect from the portal
plug the cable from your laptop back into the router
and enter your humax address into the browser address bar
if this does not bring up webif you have a firewall or IP address issue
OR you have blocked the humax in the router somehow (which is why the 192.168.0.1 above)
B) if the humax did not connect to a web portal above the humax is either blocked by the router (as above)
or it is incorrectly configured - so check the IP address gateway DNS and mask on the humax

All this sounds complex but again it shouldnt take more than 10 minutes
One last thing comes to mind - if you have the same IP address hard wired or mac addressed on your router
on 2 devices you may experience all sorts of "apparently" random problems - from your above message I'd double
check every IP address in use. (There may even be a table in your router settings )

Once you have a wired connection running correctly start to look at the wireless. Its much easier that way.
I find it helps to draw a small network map with pencil/paper and write on IP addresses and stuff when
I'm fault finding. Take the numbers directly off the devices - dont try and remember them as some devices
can change settings if something goes wrong.
I would personally recommend you manually configure an address to the humax - this will help you fault find
because you always know what it should be. Also ensure you have the correct netmask gateway address (probably router .1)
and dns on the humax.
I would also recommend you start with content share - off and FTP server off. And turn these on only when you are ready and tested
working with the simple connections.

In other words - step by step and assume nothing...

 

[Black Hole]

I've had a quick check around the Web and the default configuaration page for the HG532 appears to be 192.168.1.1 not 192.168.0.1. "1" is not by any means universal, my router control panel is at 254.

The idea there may be conflicting IP addresses might also extend to mismatching subnets. Good point.

 

[clemenzina]

the default configuration page for the HG532 appears to be 192.168.1.1 not 192.168.0.1.

Correct. I posted a screenshot of the router settings on 1 October:

The idea there may be conflicting IP addresses might also extend to mismatching subnets. Good point.

I have had alerts re conflicts in the past, this is what Advanced IP Scanner v2 says today, with 2 laptops and the neighbours unconnected, and the Samsung TV not showing up. The Netgem is the Smartbox. I don't know what the Gigabyte is, could it be the hardware inside the Samsung?

Nothing takes "5 minutes" here (except merely plugging anything into the back of the Humax), due to space constraints and physical and mental limitations, so I've posted the above as a holding operation, hoping something can be gleaned from it.