Extender connects but won't play with new WRT1900AC router

[fatlenny]

I have 3 extenders, an xbox 360 slim, linksys dma2200, and Ceton Echo. When I got a new router, the Linksys WRT1900AC, all of my extenders originally worked. Then, at some point, the Ceton and Linksys extenders stopped playing content even though I have no problem pairing them. After some tinkering failed to produce any results, I desperately reset the router and even re-configured WMC with my InfiniTV tuner. When I paired the extenders again, they all worked again.

But now it's happened again, and nothing seems to work. When the two extenders are configured, they correctly show all my the content on the WMC PC. But when I select a recorded tv show, the screen goes black like it's trying to play, then nothing happens. It just fails to stream. The same thing happens when I select Live TV. Something is clearly blocking the streaming. Meanwhile, the xbox 360 extender works fine.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I can't figure out what the problem would be. Some router setting that allows the xbox stream but not the Echo/dma2200 stream?

[Crash2009]

What tuner do you have model #? there are several models USB, ETH, PcIE 4 or 6

What is the model # of the NIC in the HTPC?

What OS are you using?

Are you using your router as a switch? if so, Don't do that.

Plug everything into the same switch, including the HTPC.

Extenders and HTPC can communicate with each other without a router. We only need router to assign an IP.

[fatlenny]

Thanks so much for the quick reply. I'm running Windows 7 on my HTPC and have a Netgear Gigabit switch connected to my router. The HTPC was connected directly to the Linksys router while the extender was connected to the Netgear switch. Based on your feedback, I moved the extender connection so that it was also connected to the Linksys router, and presto, IT WORKS!

I still don't understand why it matters. All the components were obviously networked and able to talk to each other. Regardless, I'll be sure to keep them on the same router or switch from now on. As an aside, the xbox 360 remains on the Netgear switch and it continues to work unperturbed.

Thanks again! This has resolved months of pain.

[DrSmith]

Does anyone know what the root cause is? I once tried to have my WMC HTPC 2 wired switch hops from my extenders and I saw the same behavior as OP - WMC menus appear on extender, but streaming is black screen. As soon as I put my WMC HTPC and extenders on the same switch everything worked fine.

I have my home LAN configured as a single subnet, with one DHCP server, so I don't think it's a routing issue, something about multi-hops.

[Crash2009]

Thanks so much for the quick reply. I'm running Windows 7 on my HTPC and have a Netgear Gigabit switch connected to my router. The HTPC was connected directly to the Linksys router while the extender was connected to the Netgear switch. Based on your feedback, I moved the extender connection so that it was also connected to the Linksys router, and presto, IT WORKS!

I still don't understand why it matters. All the components were obviously networked and able to talk to each other. Regardless, I'll be sure to keep them on the same router or switch from now on. As an aside, the xbox 360 remains on the Netgear switch and it continues to work unperturbed.

Thanks again! This has resolved months of pain.

I'm sure someone around here could give us both a highly technical explanation. This will do for now....Routers have enough to do all ready. Switches don't route, and routers shouldn't have to switch. Ideally you should have all your TV stuff on one switch. The routers switch-ports should be reserved for wireless access points (WAP's)

As I recall your 360 has a 10/100 Ethernet port, your switch likely does a better job of switching 10/100 through it's gig (1000) port.

[Crash2009]

Does anyone know what the root cause is? I once tried to have my WMC HTPC 2 wired switch hops from my extenders and I saw the same behavior as OP - WMC menus appear on extender, but streaming is black screen. As soon as I put my WMC HTPC and extenders on the same switch everything worked fine.

I have my home LAN configured as a single subnet, with one DHCP server, so I don't think it's a routing issue, something about multi-hops.

All I know is what works and what don't.

I have a Layer 2 switch. It switches mac to mac. It doesn't care what the IP is, so it makes decisions quicker than some of the router's I have used. It appears that the router has to think about it, and the switch doesn't.

Here is a quote from the page in the following link:

The switching algorithm is relatively simple and is the same for most of the routed protocols: a host would like to send a packet to a host on another network. Having acquired a router's address by some means, the source host sends the packet directly to that router's physical (MAC) address. The protocol (network layer) address is that of the destination host.

The router examines the packet's destination protocol address and determines whether it knows how to forward the packet or not. If the router does not know how to forward the packet, it typically drops the packet. If it knows how to forward packet, it changes the destination physical address to that of the next hop router and transmits the packet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAN_switching