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New DLink Router- PAIN- OH PAIN- then Inspiration

J

JerryL

Well-known member
File under no good deed... :)

My cable company ISP has a new service that can deliver over 100mpbs :) I have gigabit switches in the house (cisco/ linksys something or other- they are rack mountable and automatically set themselves up). My old router was a cisco/linksis rv0041 and worked great but it severely limited throughput- it has a gigabit switch but the WAN port is only 10/100. On speed test websites I could see no better than 33mbps with it but plugging into the new cable modem I could see 98! I figured the 100 speed WAN port would be enough but maybe I misunderstand or maybe you just need a lot of overhead or perhaps the port speed is for both ways so you have to divide by 2? I dont know. But I decided it was many years (4) so I would upgrade the router. I don't need wireless but there are almost no gigabit WAN routers without it now days. My research led me to the D-Link 855. Im very impressed with it and it setup very easily. I am getting 98mbps from the speed websites - of course real world is more limited but the point is my router and switch are not getting in the way anymore. However, my K user and installer webpages were no where to be seen and I could not find the servers on the DHCP list. And even more enjoyable was that my movie players were not finding the mothership. But they were blue- not orange- so I knew they were finding something....

I tried everything I could think of- and that involved playing with various firewall items etc. Nothing was working. I was about to email K support when it occurred to me that the router had an IP of 192.168.0.x - every router Ive seen has used the 192.168.1.x convention and even though Ive restarted the K servers and switch they are connected to (which is directly into the router) maybe the K servers and gear would like a router that uses the 192.168.1.x convention better. So I changed the router's IP address and I also changed the range for the DCHP list from 192.168.0.100 to 192.168.1.100

This didn't seem to work at first. It was yesterday morning and I was running out for the day. When I came home I was expecting to be emailing K support for any advice they would have but... guess what... the gear all adapted and it all works fine now :)

Btw- though I have the wireless radios turned off, this DLink 855 is pretty impressive.
 
DHCP issues the IP address for each item on the network and when they need to renew their license (generally every 24 hours by default) they will eventually get on to the same subnet as the issuing DHCP server. You can force reboot to have them do it sooner. Quickly changing subnets is a pain in da butt if you have a lot of devices on the network...
 
Here is a document, that I authored, on Network and Gigabit that may help. In regards to Gigabit networking and speed I HIGHLY suggest 3 things.
1) you get a router that supports Jumbo Frames
2) all your systems support Jumbo Frames
3) you have all IP address set to Static (Fixed) and NOT DHCP.

Here is the link to the document called Networking 101. This will explain basic networking concepts and Gigabit concepts and why you should use Jumbo Frames.

Also, for those that download this document, I would like feed back on this document. I am working on/authoring a 5 part networking series that goes from basic networking, as this documents does, to very advance networking issues using fiber. They will be for both residential and commercial applications.

Hopes this helps anyone who has networking questions.
 
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And then it all came crashing down. I don't know why nor do I have the time to figure it out- I am a technical person but only learn things when required to. :)

Even though every computer was set to a static IP and the router had all the addresses reserved every day the router would basically go bonkers and require a reset. Then it was fine until the next day.

I grew tired of this quickly and replaced it with a Linksys WRT610N. Its been up for about a week now with no problems whatsoever. And against your advice I just left it to assign the IP addresses with DCHP. I understand the short comings of this kind of setup but one thing I noticed is the K server tells the router to never reassign its IP address.
 
I have just spent the best part of 2 days tearing my hair out with networking issues, I should have consulted this thread sooner! I am using a DLINK DIR-300 as the router/WAP for my K-system/ProntoPro and I'm seeing the same things as mentioned above.
Server disc and player lights are blue, so they're happy enough with what they're seeing. Client list in the DHCP router however is either not seeing them, or seeing only the player, or is listing them multiple times in the client list but with different IP. eg, it lists the MAC address of the server correctly, but in the LAN DHCP client list it has been assigned 3 different IP (192.168.0.101, 192.168.0.105 and 192.168.0.106). Control of the system via the K Web Tablet application is intermittent, frequently losing contact between the devices. Also, the Installer Web Utility can't find the system. I can ping both the server and player reliably from a PC on the LAN. I set the server with a static IP 192.168.0.51 at one point when the Installer Web Utility was working, but I was still able to ping it at its old IP 192.168.0.102. I have now waved the white flag and will read the Networking 101 document.
The DIR-300 worked well for ProntoPro system control, but as soon as I attached the k system to it things went haywire.
Finally, I have an issue with the server where the lights on the face plate aren't working, nor is the power button. The on/off micro switch underneath the face plate isn't working either. I pulled out that little circuit board underneath the contact pins and the wire harness was connected.
 
I am by no means an expert but I can tell you the Linksys I bought has been in continuous operation since that time with no problems at all. I hope you get this resolved soon- I know how frustrating it can be.
 
You say the server lights are not working and power button does not work, does that mean the server is "off?" (If so, I'm wondering if you have a power button contact problem which has occurred on some servers. If that is the problem, it has to be serviced.)

Regarding the router, frankly not sure what would cause that. It sounds like you did everything correctly. When I encounter these types of issues I just swap out routers to test the router itself.

As an aside, I've gone to hard-wiring my routers and using a WAP made by Pakedge. These have been bulletproof for us.


Jim
 
Just to help and what we do in general in our projects with regards to networking:

1) For routers we use the Linksys/Cisco RVS4000 or RV042. We do not use routers with built-in wireless.
2) The Access Points we prefer are the Netgear WG102/WG103 and the Pakedge W3. If you need to increase wireless coverage of a single AP, a Luxul booster-antenna is great.
3) We set-up static IPs on almost everything on the network. These IPs are given out of the DHCP range of the router. For example: Router is 192.168.1.1, DHCP range is 192.168.1.2-192.168.1.30 and the static ips start from 192.168.1.31 and up. We always do this with Kaleidescape products.
 
cinelife said:
You say the server lights are not working and power button does not work, does that mean the server is "off?"
Click to expand...

No, the server works fine, I can ping it from a PC on the LAN, the blue disc lights are on, I can spool up a movie, only the face plate does not have any lights, the power button does not work, and the small micro on/off switch beneath the face plate does not work either. The only way to turn off the server is to pull the power cord out of the back of it.

I need to find someone with a 1U server in my area (Perth, Australia), then I can attach my server faceplate to theirs, and theirs to mine, and see what happens, to isolate the problem.
 
UPDATE: I bought a HP ProCurve 1080g-8 switch to connect up my K-system and it works! The DLINK DIR-300 I originally tried didn't work very well with K, the server and player kept losing contact with each other. However, a tip for anyone trying to set a static IP in the ProCurve using Firefox for Mac to login to the switch. Firmware P.1.6 (which the switch shipped with) appears to save changes to the static IP, but in reality it doesn't. The switch reports back to the browser that the changes have been saved, but then if you ping the new static IP it can't find it, but it can find it at the factory default IP. I updated the firmware to P.1.8 and the static IP configuration change will now save as advertised.
 
hope this helps

It is good to see there is much support for this on here. I have to agree with a few of the installers here.

I will state what i do with any integration system as well kaleidescape.
If we are doing a wireless network in the house, that should be on its on, this way not one person could access or change anything in the system.

For the system, you can use wireless or just a regular router. We tend to do static on all ours for remote access. With Crestron and other systems like that we change the ending ip for example 10.0.1.50 or as many know the ip 192.168.1.50. that would be where we start and put anything that needs ip on crestron .51.52 and so on .
On Kaleidescape we start with 10.0.1.70 and do the same as the crestrons. you never want to start with .1 or .100, or .200 cause when a router comes out of a box and when you set up computers, they start at .1 or .100.

i never really had any issues with any linksys as long as it is a cisco model.

I hope this may help some, keeping this order helps you remember everything too and works great if your doing home integration. Wish all the best and anyone has questions feel free to message me . Sorry for the long message.
 
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