Internet Services Don't Work

I can’t get any of the internet services to work i.e. youtube, flicker live 365. I have the latest firmware v1.01.17 (loaded via USB) but still no access. I know there is a connection as I can access the videos on youtube for example but the problem is playing them - the player screen comes up but then nothing - the time counter does not move. The same happens with the other services and the firmware update. I should mention that one time a video did start then lasted about 30 seconds. No luck since. I have no problems accessing these services via PC through the same router/switch so I don’t think that is the problem. Also there seems to be full connectivity in every other way - shares, USB PC access etc. Anybody got any ideas? Thanks.

Hmmm.  Sorta sounds like a bandwidth issue.   What kind of internet connectivity do you have?

I have 8 meg broadband and I can view all videos etc on my PC and laptop so I don’t think it is a bandwidth problem - I get about 5 meg download speed most days. I was wondering if it was something to do with mtu or rwin?

It seems to me that you are getting blocked by your router’s firewall… you could temporarily disable it to see if the problem is fixed, in which case you could add a couple rules to give it full access. If not it might have to do with the configuration of the DNS server, you could double check that you’ve put the gateway IP there, or directly a DNS of a working DNS server, like openDNS  208.67.222.222

I’ve got 8 meg broadband with ausual download speed of 5 meg so i don’t think it is the bandwidth. Also i can get the videos etc ok on PC/Laptop. I was wondering if it was a TCP RWIN/MTU issue?

I’m pretty sure all the tcp/ip settings are ok as I have no problem with local access and the settings are the same as my PC\Laptop which work fine through the same router. Also I get the three green lights for connectivity on the streamer and I can actually get the thumbnails for videos and access the live365 site. The only problem seems to be actually playing the content that is available.

Well the firewall isn’t a “TCP/IP” setting, all I’m just suggesting is that you that you give it a try, since it takes basically a minute to drop the firewall from the router. If you don’t wanna do that you could also temporarily put the WD TV live’s local IP on the DMZ to bypass the firewall just for that one. The fact that other PC’s in your network can access those websites and play their content doesn’t automatically guarantee that the router is not gonna block internet streams to the WD TV live.

I have a strong feeling that the type of behaviour you wrote above is typical of a firewall,it coulld be identifying the incoming video streams as an attempt of connection on an unopened port and therefore it just proceeds to block it.

Have you tried going into the settings and resetting the unit to the factory defaults. I changed the setting once for something I did not have a clue about, but thought it sounded like it was something I should change. Unfortunately when I tried to play some mp3s all it would do is show the graphic spinning like it was loading with no results. I thought maybe my mp3s were corrupted so I went on to try another movie and arghhh, it wouldn’t play either.

Then the thought hit me, I changed a bunch of settings. I went back, reset the settings to default, and WALLAH! I was good again, problem resolved. Needless to say I’m a little more cautious about changing the settings now.

Hope this works for you if you haven’t already found a resolution.

I 've just tried the DMZ option and factory defaults but still no luck. The reason I thought it might be RWIN or MTU related is that I had to adjust the MTU size to connect to my ISP originally through this router. (ISP Tiscali and the router is a Tenda WBR-T2.). As yet I’m not sure how to totally disable the firewall and as I’m connecting the streamer to it via the ethernet switch on the router I can’t easily connect directly to the phone line either.

I’ll do a bit of investigation tomorrow as I’m off to bed now. Thanks for the all your help anyway. Any more ideas please let me know.

Try bypassing the router entirely. IE, plug the WD into the ethernet port proved by the cable modem (or whatever you have.)  Take the router out of the path in all respects.   If it works, it’s your router or configuration problem.

Hi there - I solved it eventually. Turns out it was the MTU setting on the router. I needed to download some new firmware to be able to change it though. I changed it to the BT default of 1458 and now everything works perfectly. I’ll try a bit of tweaking some time to optimise things but it seems ok now. Thanks again for your help.