One little box...

New Linksys Modem/Router

So I had a call from my wife on Friday while I was at work;

"The TV isn't working, most of the channels are black"

Oh-oh. I'd sold the migration from set top box to WMC on a number of grounds, including ease of use. I was not helped by the fact that the weekend I migrated, my Satellite supplier updated the EPG UI, for the better.

Anyway, I figured there might be an issue with the software on the MediaServer and gave her the nuclear option of rebooting. That didn't work so I said I'd have a look when I got home.

On inspection, it did indeed seem that many of the TV channels were black with only free to air channels playing properly.

During setup, I knew this happened if the DVBLogic end of things was not set up correctly, the dreambox was down or one of several other things was preventing the dreambox helping decrypt the channels.

I immediately thought there was an issue with the card entitlements renewal. The dreambox is supposed to take care of this but it seemed like about a month since the migration to WMC and I thought it might need a night  in it's old home in the satellite box.

Next day, still no joy. I popped the card back in the dreambox and checked entitlements. All was well. Something else must be wrong...


Wait. What's that clicking noise coming from the broadband modem? Closer investigations revealed that while it was powering up, no other lights were on. As the broadband modem handles DHCP, some Gb ports and, of course, broadband access, it turned out many many wired home features had gone down;

-no internet access
-no internal access to/from devices with dynamic IP addresses
-no access to encrypted TV channels (dreambox not accessible)
-failure of squeezebox access to LMS (no networked music)
-failure of SABNZBD to process downloads due to inaccessible media shares

All because one little box failed.

So off to PC World for a replacement. I ended up with a LinkSys e3000 broadband router which is a pretty nice piece of kit - very easy to set up and some nice features, though the WiFi range is not as good as the previous Huwaie unit supplied by the telco.

I also got a bonus second little box: they had a Logitech Squeezebox Radio on closeout special at €79. Bargain. Since my son commandeered our other squeezebox radio, I've had no music or clock on my side of the bed - now rectified!