embassy2934's profile

Teacher

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21 Messages

Thursday, April 18th, 2013 7:51 PM

unwanted wireless tv traffic

Whenever I turn on a receiver (stb) the RG transmits the Uverse tv stream to the receiver twice: once over the HomePNA interface and simultaneously over the Wireless network.  The wireless tranmission is superfluous as I don't have any wireless receivers (they are all connected via house coax cable).  It uses up so much bandwidth that no devices can connect to the access point, so I need to suppress it.  I have upgraded the RG and tried to use MAC filtering to block the receivers from the wireless network, but neither has any effect.  Any ideas on how I might prevent the RG from sending the TV signal over the WLAN?

Teacher

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21 Messages

11 years ago

All I have is the RG.  I don't own any other router.

Teacher

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21 Messages

11 years ago

My configuration is very simple.  The RG is the only router I own.  Its only input is the AT&T DSL line.  The two outputs are coax and wireless - I don't use any Ethernet ports.  The coax was installed around 1990 by the builder to make the place 'cable ready" as was the custom then, so it's not cat5e I don't think.  The coax cable comes out of the RG and goes to a splitter which sends the Uverse TV signal over three other coax runs which terminate at wired STBs.  This is all that is on the HPNA network.  I have several devices that regularly connect to the RG via WiFi:  a laptop, my smartphone, a printer, and a Blu-Ray player.  When I press the Power button on any of the STBs the "Wireless" light on the RG blinks very rapidly, the laptop connection slows down and drops out a lot, and the phone loses its connection and tries repeatedly to re-connect, using up battery power rapidly.  Looking at the RGs statistics (Settings/LAN/Status) you can see that packets transmitted on HPNA closely matches those transmitted on Wireless, so the same information is being sent over WiFi as over HPNA - namely, the consolidated Uverse TV signal.  If I turn off the STB everything goes back to normal.  Maybe the RG sends each packet first over WiFi, then when it doesn't get an acknowledgement (because the STBs don't have any WiFi adapters), resends them over HPNA.  Maybe if I could get it to send the TV packets over HPNA first the problem would go away. Or  maybe I should get a separate router for WiFi and chain it off the RG?

ACE - Expert

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34.7K Messages

11 years ago

This is very strange.  (Correctly functioning) RGs do not broadcast IPTV over WiFi.  They only transmit it out the ports where STBs are responding, e.g. the HPNA Coax and any Ethernet LAN port where an STB has responded.

 

When using Wireless receivers, there is a seperate WAP used for that, different frequency (5 GHz), different protocol (802.11n).

 

You can get a flood of Wireless traffic from your own routers when you connect them to the same "leg" from the RG as an STB and the exact symptoms you're talking about.

 

 

Teacher

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21 Messages

11 years ago

Thanks, that is some interesting info.  If I do get my own router I expect I will chain it off one of the RG's Ethernet ports, so that would be a different "leg" than the STBs.  Probably the best thing I can do now is schedule a tech visit.  Thanks again.

New Member

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25.7K Messages

11 years ago

Try going to Settings, then Diagnostics, then click on "Reset to Factory Default State". You will need the Master Password off of the RG, to do this.

Teacher

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21 Messages

11 years ago

I did the reset to factory default with no problem, then did some data gathering and calculations to measure Wireless and HPNA transmission rates with a STB on and off.  I did this by looking at Traffic Statistics for Wireless and HomePNA1 on the Settings/LAN/Status page, taking readings at one minute intervals.  Here is the data with one STB turned on:

 

TIME     Wireless Pkts    Delta      HomePNA1 Pkts    Delta

12:57       41940                               41922

12:58       72960            31020         72926                  31004

12:59      104683           31723        104608                 31682

 1:00        135126          30443        134989                 30381

 1:01        166271          31145         165936                30947

 1:02        198561          32290         198203                32267

 1:03        228864          30303         228464                30261

 1:04        259416          30552         258971                30507

 1:05        290584          31168         290130                31159

 

AVG w/ STB on:            31080                                     31026

 

So, with one STB on the RG transmits around 31K packets per minute on both the Wireless and HPNA interfaces.  Here is the data with the STB turned off:

 

 1:08       323197                             322440

 1:09       323462                  265      322657                   217

 1:10      323684                   222      322760                   103

 1:11        323864                 180       322842                   82

 1:12      324187                   323       322946                   104

 1:13      324476                   289       323212                   266

 1:14      324725                   249        323403                  191

 1:15      324955                   230        323512                  109

 

AVG w/STB off:                    251                                       153

 

So, with the STB off the RG transmits only minimal traffic over the two interfaces and the rates are not correlated.  With it on the RG transmits 31K packets per minute over both interfaces with the rates closely correlated.  Conclusion:  the Uverse TV stream is being transmitted over both interfaces concurrently.  Problem to be solved:  how to stop the TV transmissions over Wireless.

New Member

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25.7K Messages

11 years ago

Something is pulling wireless traffic. Turn off the Wireless radio on the RG and see what happens. Also, you can try by running a Ethernet line to a box, from the RG, and see what happens.

Teacher

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21 Messages

11 years ago

After turning off wireless, all TV traffic went over HPNA only, generating about 11K packets per minute.  When I ran an Ethernet cable from the RG to the STB there were huge amounts of traffic on HPNA and on the Ethernet ports in use (one connected to the TV, the other to the laptop I was using to control the test), to the degree that I couldn't access the RG.  I figure that although a STB has connections for both coax and Ethernet, only one should be used at a time.  So, I disconnected the coax from the STB, removing it from the HPNA network.  Running the TV off Ethernet there was minimal traffic on HPNA (for the other STBs in the house that were off) and the laptop's Ethernet port, and about 11K packets per minute on the Ethernet port driving the STB that was on.  This would be proper behavior for STBs connected via Ethernet cable.  Then I turned Wireless back on.  Immediately I got equal amounts of traffic on both the Ethernet port connected to the STB and on Wireless, in this case around 10K packets per minute.  Conclusion:  any time Wireless is enabled the RG tries to double-send the TV signal over WiFi and whatever network the STB is connected to, no matter whether that is HPNA coax or Ethernet.  So, the problem isn't caused by old house coax cable, or the RG (since this is a brand new one that I got to try and fix the problem), or the firmware, since that is the same for everybody and I'm the only one getting this problem.  It is probably not a setting in the RG since it has just been reset to factory defaults.  So, maybe it is something about the STBs that is causing the RG to try and double-send the TV signal.  Maybe I need to upgrade those.

New Member

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25.7K Messages

11 years ago

Something is not right. I would have a tech come on site, and look things over. There is something missing here, because you should not be getting the packet flooding that you are getting.

Teacher

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21 Messages

11 years ago

Thanks to everyone's input I have a lot better understanding of the issue when I do get a tech on site.  It should interest them since apparently it has never been seen before.  Thanks again.

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