L can't connect

Community Archives WD TV Live Networking
1

When I connect the WDTV Live with cable to my Linksys WAG54GS, I can’t get even basic network connection to work; the network LEDs on the back of the device blinks rapidly for a moment, then the network settings change from all zeros. Most of the time it change to

IP address: 169.254.57.205
Subnet mask: 255.255.0.0
Gateway: 0.0.0.0
DNS: 0.0.0.0

which as far as I can tell is completely wrong (my router is 192.168.1.1). [edit: apparently 169.254.57.205 is a special IP address sometimes used if no real address can be obtained, to allow the creation of a small local Windows network with no Internet connection]

Sometimes it change to
IP address: 192.168.1.106
Subnet mask: 255.255.0.0
Gateway: 192.168.1.1
DNS: 192.168.1.1

which looks about right for my network. Still no network connection. Sometimes the DNS is set to 212.159.6.10 which I think is my ISPs actual DNS. With this latter setting I did briefly have a working connection; I could ping the WDTV, view its content by browsing \192.168.1.106\ from my PC, and even view some YouTube videos, but it only lasted for a few minutes. With the DNS 192.168.1.1 I also briefly had a connection once; I could see the description of some YouTube videos, but no actual videos, and it only lasted for a minute. Configuring the network settings manually yields no better result.

The above is when I just plug the network cable in and view the network settings from the “Network setup” screen. When I press the “Automatic” button on that screen, most of the time I can’t get an IP address but sometimes it completes successfully, but still can’t access the network. When selecting “Check connection” it most often fail on the “DNS Server”, but even on the few occasions the connection checks out it still doesn’t actually work.

Interestingly, I’ve never ever seen the “Selection your network type: Wired or Wireless” screen that the Users Guide show on page 54. Do you guys see it? Every time you plug in the network cable? Can’t find it in any of the menus.

Another thing is that when I first got the device I plugged in a wifi dongle that turned out to be unsupported (never saw the network type dialog then either) and it prevented the device form shutting down. Can this have caused my problems? I’ve reset the device several times since (Factory Reset in the menu and hard reset by pressing the tiny button in the hole next to the USB1 port). Yet my mates hdx media player connects no problem.

Any ideas? Thanks!

2

I’ve never liked DCHP… especially when I’m trying to forward ports to specific machines, I like knowing that the IP isn’t going to change on me.

So I didn’t even try the automatic settings when I got my Live… I just manually entered the IP I was planning to assign the WDTV, the subnet and the gateway, and the Preferred DNS IP from my ISP.

I then tested the connectivity and it said everything was fine.

So, pick an unused IP and try manual settings:

  • 192.168.1.x
  • 255.255.255.0
  • 192.168.1.1
  • xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

You can pick any unused number (up to 255) for the “x” and you can get the Preferred DNS IP (“xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx”), if you don’t know them, by going into _ Change Adaptor Settings _ in _ Network and Sharing _ and going into the TCP/IPv4 properties for your adaptor.

3

Thanks for the reply tried it everything says it’s right but then resets it self to where l was before.

4

I’ve never had it revert the settings on me.

Try this:

  • select “Reset to Factory Defaults”
  • then push the paperclip reset
  • once the unit boots after the reset, unplug it and leave it unplugged for at least 10 minutes, if not longer
  • while it’s unplugged, make sure the non-supported wifi dongle is no longer connected
  • while it’s unplugged, make sure the Cat5 cable is firmly seated in the socket
  • plug it back in and when it boots, go to the network setup and try entering the information manually again
  • have it check the connection
  • see if it resets to bad values or keeps the entered values
5

All done will give it 30 min then do as suggested.

Thanks for your advice

6

You’re welcome.  I hope it works out.

The 3-step mega-reset (reset-to-defaults,paperclip,unplug) is generally the first step when things go wrong with these little boxes, although the order isn’t critical AFAIK.  Sometimes one of them may be enough, but it’s easier to just suggest all 3.

7

It works. Thanks very much.People like you make this world less stressful.

Cheers

Ellathai