DirecTV killing my network?

[solleyman]

I'm at the in-laws with a ton of kids with new Christmas presents and the internet connection here is terrible.

Apparently, they had DirecTV come out about a month ago and install a new box, along with some new capability to watch any show from any room (I'm not too familiar with DTV...).

The in-laws report that their internet has been slow since the install, but since they don't do much online, they haven't been motivated to call DTV. Well, now we're motivated, but I figured some of the folks here might know the answer while I wait eternally on hold.

When I ping google.com -t from the command prompt, I get somewhere around 15-20% lost packets with time lags of about 900ms avg with max around 4000ms. The lost packet occasionally say "request timed out", but most often say "General Failure".

I've power cycled the DSL modem/router, as well as the new router associated with the DirecTV show sharing.

Any thoughts or suggestions are welcomed. Lots of sad kids looking at me as the only quasi-knowledgeable network person.

Thanks.

 

[nsafreak]

Let me make sure I understand this correctly, you have two routers on the network now, one installed by the phone company and one that was installed by DirecTV? My initial guess would be that both are trying to act as routers at the same time (handing out IP addresses, routing packets, etc.) when one should be in bridging mode. I'm more familiar with Dish installs than I am DirecTV (Dish uses MoCA for their whole home service) so I'm not quite sure how the DirecTV STBs are hooked into the internet. Is each STB plugged in via CAT 5e or are they just using the RG-6 coax cable? My initial thought would be to see if there's a way to access the administration page for the DirecTV router and set it so that it's only acting as a bridging unit and not handling DHCP or routing duties.

 

[nsafreak]

Ok, I looked through DirecTV's website and read the manual on their whole home HD DVR units. It looks like the client units talk to the main unit on the SWiM network (similar to Dish but using a different standard in RVU as opposed to MoCA) so the only DirecTV unit that should be on the network directly would be the main DVR. It looks like it may be possible to have other setups though that may be using the network cabling. Need more information as to what model STB units are in the install to give further advice.

 

[imagoon]

The DirectTV "router" isn't a router at all. It is a Ethernet to SWM bridge for accessing the VOD for directTV. You can remove it entirely and run the units via their Ethernet ports if you wanted. I highly doubt the DirectTV gear is doing anything to cause transmit errors but you can test by just unplugging the gateway.

The tech is called "DECA" and the "DirectTV box" is called the Internet gateway.

 

[smitbret]

The DirecTV box is called a Cinema Connection Kit (CCK). Its only purpose is to create a connection between the HD receivers on the system and the router. Each HD unit that shares recordings gets assigned its own IP address by your router and the DVR recordings are shared across the network.

If it's hardwired in (the little box is about the size of a deck of cards) then just unplug it from the router and see if it improved your internet speed. If it's wireless, just sitting in the coax line with no ethernet cable, then just unplug it and see if that improves your internet speed.

None of the devices do any kind of IP addressing or need constant connection to the internet and I would be very surprised if that was causing your issue.

 

[smitbret]

The DirecTV box is called a Cinema Connection Kit (CCK). Its only purpose is to create a connection between the HD receivers on the system and the router. Each HD unit that shares recordings gets assigned its own IP address by your router and the DVR recordings are shared across the network.

If it's hardwired in (the little box is about the size of a deck of cards) then just unplug it from the router and see if it improved your internet speed. If it's wireless, just sitting in the coax line with no ethernet cable, then just unplug it and see if that improves your internet speed.

None of the devices do any kind of IP addressing or need constant connection to the internet and I would be very surprised if that was causing your issue.