• The forum software that supports hummy.tv has been upgraded to XenForo 2.3!

    Please bear with us as we continue to tweak things, and feel free to post any questions, issues or suggestions in the upgrade thread.

DLNA over powerline adapters

mole_hill

mole_hill

Member
I'm not sure if this issue is unique to me but I cannot link two of my HDRs via the media > storage > network method.

I have 3 HDRs, one is connected to the router by Ethernet cable and the other two by TP Link pass through powerline adapters.

My wired HDR can see both powerline connected HDRs and they both can see it. However neither of the powerline connected HDRs can see each other.

Is this a known issue with powerline adapters or is there another explanation?

I have posted here as I am running CFW and thus there is a chance I'm doing something wrong with that. If its totally unrelated perhaps it should be moved.

Thanks
 
I have three HD-FOXs and two HDR-FOXs, all but one HD-FOX being on Devolos. All the HD-FOXs can see both HDR-FOXs, and the HDR-FOXs can see each other, but it is a bit tricky (using virtual USB mounts) because one has to avoid deadly embraces.

My two HDR-FOXs (on Devolos) can see each other by DLNA just fine (but I don't use it that way).
 
I doubt it's the powerline connectors - the only issue I have ever found is that the HDR can sometimes fail to connect to the network at all because the connector doesn't come out of sleep mode quickly enough when the HDR starts up. That was easily solved by connecting via a hub which prevents sleep. Once connected the powerlines seem to be transparent.
 
Thanks for the responses. I've done some more testing...

With all 3 HDRs fully awake:
  • On a Windows 7 laptop all HDRs load WebIF on Chrome, appear as media servers in Windows Explorer, and are FTP (betaftpd installed on all HDRs) and Network Drive "live" through Windows Explorer (SMB packages installed on all HDRs).
  • The powerline HDRs both see the ethernet wired HDR as a USB drive (Foxlink installed)
  • The wired HDR can see both powerline connected HDRs via the DLNA media > storage > network method.
  • Each powerline HDR can see the wired HDR via the DLNA media > storage > network method but not the other powerline connected HDR.
I removed foxlink as that was the only thing consistent about the two powerline HDRs but that didn't help.
So I'm stumped.
 
socrates said:
I doubt it's the powerline connectors - the only issue I have ever found is that the HDR can sometimes fail to connect to the network at all because the connector doesn't come out of sleep mode quickly enough when the HDR starts up. That was easily solved by connecting via a hub which prevents sleep. Once connected the powerlines seem to be transparent.
Click to expand...
I had occasional failures of the DHCP because of this, but I have solved it by switching to manual.
 
mole_hill said:
Each powerline HDR can see the wired HDR via the DLNA media > storage > network method but not the other powerline connected HDR.
Click to expand...
If you telnet into one of the powerline connected HDRs and go to the command line (cli) then can can you ping the other powerline connected HDR? If you can then I have no idea what the problem is; if you can't then you need to describe the network topology in more detail.
 
IPNightly said:
You don't say which model of Powerline units or the version of firmware, but perhaps the TP Link support may be able to help. I don't know if this relates to your setup but might be worth investigating ;
http://www.tplink.com/en/article/?faqid=484
Click to expand...


Thanks IPNightly. I gave it a go tonight.

I checked the router and it appears to have the IGMP (whatever that is) enabled by default so I left those settings alone.

The next step was the TP-Link firmware.

I have two PA251's (power pass through), one connected to the router and the other to one of the HDRs. The other powerline HDR is connected by a TP-Link PA210.

I upgraded the firmware on both PA251 units with the BETA software relatively easily.

Now for my mistake... I couldn't see an exact match of BETA firmware for the PA210 so in a moment of madness gave the PA211 firmware a go. Needless to say that was stupid of me and the PA210 unit no longer functions! I don't seem to be able to reinstate the firmware as it is no longer recognised by my PC.

MartinLiddle said:
If you telnet into one of the powerline connected HDRs and go to the command line (cli) then can can you ping the other powerline connected HDR? If you can then I have no idea what the problem is; if you can't then you need to describe the network topology in more detail.
Click to expand...

I would have tried this step (with a query about the commands etc) but now I can't!

I assume that my issue was from the start a TP-Link issue not a Humax one.
 
My problem is now fixed so thought I'd post in case anyone else gets the same issue.

I managed to get my pair of pass through powerline adapters working again with the TP-Link beta firmware. This is available on http://www.tplink.com/en/article/?faqid=484 as IPNightly posted.

My other powerline adapter was unrecoverable due to my own error of trying to upgrade its firmware with an incompatible version. Even if I hadn't wrecked this adapter it would no longer have been useful as TP-Link do not appear to have a beta firmware upgrade for that model. TP-Link support were not particularly helpful with my query regarding how I could restore the adapter to working order so I ended up purchasing another powerline adapter identical to my working pair of pass through adapters.

The new adapter arrived today and after refreshing it with the beta firmware all appears to be working now. I can now see one powerline connected HDR from the other powerline connected HDR for the first time so I'm happy.

It does seem amiss of TP-Link to have standard firmware on their products which is not fully compatible with home network DLNA sharing straight out of the box.

Does anyone know if is there any way of changing how the boxes present their "name" on the media > storage > network screen as you can't tell which box it is till you drill into the sub folders?
 
Unfortunately this is only possible by extracting the firmware, editing it specifically for each box, creating a .hdf from the edited firmware, and installing it as a firmware update. This process would of course need to be repeated any time the firmware was updated.

If you install custom firmware, you can share (decrypted) content between Humaxes on the USB list instead of the Network list, then you can call them anything you like. You also gain full control over the remote recording (bookmarks, resume, trick play, delete, move, etc).
 
That's great thanks. The instructions on the wiki were first class. I've done my 3 HDRs. It took a little while and I'm not relishing doing it again on another CFW version!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top