Power Failure: Enter Setup Key

[ajhieb]

So I had a power failure last night. When power was restored this morning, everything came back up fine... except the Echo. It's been sitting at the "Enter Setup Key " screen all day (and after several reboots)

Yes, I know I can just enter the setup key, and create another account, and then go in and modify all my login scripts so I can get access to the shared media, and then go in and modify permission on the necessary files to get everything working right. I know I can do all that. It's just a big headache, and I shouldn't have to do that.

Even outside of the scope of the Android/win8 compatibility, and all of the other things that never came to fruition.... I've completely given up hope on any additional functionality being added. I know that's a pipe dream at trhis point. But it's rapidly approaching a year since the last firmware update, It would be nice to know if they Ceton has any plans at all on addressing outstanding issues with the Echo, or if it is officially out of development now.

[adam1991]

My first thought is, this may have exactly nothing at all to do with the Echo. I've had this kind of thing happen a couple times with XBox.

Is there a specific reason you're blaming the Echo here?

I have to say, you've chosen to have a rather complex setup inside an environment in which things are known to happen. I've often said, and continue to say, that the farther you move away from a stock WMC setup the more heartache you'll have. Either learn to accept that, or don't do WMC. Do something else (Myth, whatever).

[tzr916]

Did you try rebooting the HTPC?

I've seen this and just rebooting the WMC HTPC cleared it.

[ajhieb]

My first thought is, this may have exactly nothing at all to do with the Echo. I've had this kind of thing happen a couple times with XBox.

Is there a specific reason you're blaming the Echo here?

I have to say, you've chosen to have a rather complex setup inside an environment in which things are known to happen. I've often said, and continue to say, that the farther you move away from a stock WMC setup the more heartache you'll have. Either learn to accept that, or don't do WMC. Do something else (Myth, whatever).

I'm blaming the Echo because:

1) This is a known issue with the Echo. It happens every time the Echo changes IP addresses.
2) This has never happened with my XBoxes, and it didn't happen with any of my XBoxes this time so it seems pretty clearly an issue isoloated to the Echo.

And the issue isn't with the "stockness" of my setup. Installing MediaBrowser, didn't cause my Echo to lose its mind. Using file server didn't cause the Echo to lose it's mind. Using a login script to give access to said file server didn't cause the Echo to lose it's mind. Unfinished, buggy firmware cause the Echo to lose it's mind. My setup makes the remedy more of a headache, but it is still a problem that shouldn't happen in the first place.

That said, the whole reason I'm using a WMC/Extender environment is so I can watch encrypted cable and use it as a whole home DVR. Last I checked, Myth, whatever can't do that. If there was a viable alternative to WMC, I would certainly look into it. As of now, there isn't.

[ajhieb]

Did you try rebooting the HTPC?

I've seen this and just rebooting the WMC HTPC cleared it.

No luck with that.

[adam1991]

And the issue isn't with the "stockness" of my setup. Installing MediaBrowser, didn't cause my Echo to lose its mind. Using file server didn't cause the Echo to lose it's mind. Using a login script to give access to said file server didn't cause the Echo to lose it's mind. Unfinished, buggy firmware cause the Echo to lose it's mind.

That wasn't my point. I never suggested that your setup caused this to happen.

My setup makes the remedy more of a headache

THAT was my point. Your post was primarily about the headaches this situation caused, headaches that came about not because the Echo needed set up again but because you've chosen to do quite a few non-standard things that must happen when you add an extender.

And I said, and still say, that the farther you move from a stock WMC setup for whatever reason, the more headaches you bring onto yourself for any number of reasons. You have to expect that, and accept it. You may not realize where the headaches are until you start experiencing them, but you will have them. Accept that, or don't do WMC. Or don't do the customizations, I guess.

That said, the whole reason I'm using a WMC/Extender environment is so I can watch encrypted cable and use it as a whole home DVR. Last I checked, Myth, whatever can't do that. If there was a viable alternative to WMC, I would certainly look into it. As of now, there isn't.

It's not the encrypted digital cable that requires WMC. The tuner handles that; with the cableCARD in place and everything set up, the tuner decrypts the digital signals that you're allowed to have and then passes them on to the recording system. Myth can handle this just fine.

But if any of those recordings have DRM attached to them, only Windows and the extender setup can handle that. My cable system has zero DRM on the channels I pay for, so it's not an issue. But then, I don't get any of the premium channels--HBO et al. Maybe those get sent with DRM attached. I wouldn't know. Anyway, you can see for yourself which of your recordings have DRM attached to them, simply by looking at the recording either in WMC or in Explorer. If what you record doesn't have DRM attached to it, you are free to have something else do your recording and playback. Just make sure it plays nice with your chosen tuner setup.

https://www.google.com/#q=ceton+and+mythTV

https://www.google.com/#q=hdhomerun%20p ... d%20mythtv

[ajhieb]

That wasn't my point. I never suggested that your setup caused this to happen.

Well, you say that, but then you follow it up with:

THAT was my point. Your post was primarily about the headaches this situation caused, headaches that came about not because the Echo needed set up again but because you've chosen to do quite a few non-standard things that must happen when you add an extender.

...basically trying to but the blame back on me. And again I say, a malfunctioning Echo isn't my fault.
To be very clear. I caused the headache of having to setup the login scripts etc. A malfunction Echo caused me to have to do it again. See the difference? I don't mind doing it once. That's expected. To have to repeat the process however is not. That has nothing to do with the intricacies of WMC, and everything to do with the fragility of the Echo.

And I said, and still say, that the farther you move from a stock WMC setup for whatever reason, the more headaches you bring onto yourself for any number of reasons. You have to expect that, and accept it. You may not realize where the headaches are until you start experiencing them, but you will have them. Accept that, or don't do WMC. Or don't do the customizations, I guess.

Say whatever you want. Preach to me about anything else that might not have anything to do with the actual problem. I don't really care as I pretty much tuned you out a year ago. My main point in posting was to see if Ceton might possibly have anything to share, not to have you critique my setup.

It's not the encrypted digital cable that requires WMC. The tuner handles that; with the CableCARD in place and everything set up, the tuner decrypts the digital signals that you're allowed to have and then passes them on to the recording system. Myth can handle this just fine.

But if any of those recordings have DRM attached to them, only Windows and the extender setup can handle that. My cable system has zero DRM on the channels I pay for, so it's not an issue. But then, I don't get any of the premium channels--HBO et al. Maybe those get sent with DRM attached. I wouldn't know. Anyway, you can see for yourself which of your recordings have DRM attached to them, simply by looking at the recording either in WMC or in Explorer. If what you record doesn't have DRM attached to it, you are free to have something else do your recording and playback. Just make sure it plays nice with your chosen tuner setup.

Sorry. My mistake. I assumed (that's on me) that anyone reading this forum would be able to figure out what I meant when I claimed the necessity for WMC as my backend. So to clarify, I need WMC as I'm a TWC subscriber, and pretty much every single channel they offer now is encoded, encrypted, DRM'ed, scattered, smothered, and covered. It won't work with Myth. It won't work with XBMC. It won't work with Jriver. It won't work with OpenElec. It won't work

[adam1991]

...basically trying to but the blame back on me.

no, you're misreading me. There's no *blame*; there's only acceptance of the fact that the farther you move away from a stock WMC setup, the more headaches that will occur.

You've *chosen* to do some things that cause you work when adding an extender. No big deal, but accept that even with XBox you run the risk of the system suddenly needing the extender set back up again.

That's all I was commenting on. Really. You were complaining about all the work that's needed when the inevitable happens. Call it blame, call it acceptance, call it whatever you want--it happens only because of choices you made early on.

I'm not saying that an extender SHOULD need setting back up. I'm simply saying that in my experience with WMC, sometimes that does happen--even with XBox.

That the Echo is much worse about it, I don't disagree at all.

[adam1991]

Sorry. My mistake. I assumed (that's on me) that anyone reading this forum would be able to figure out what I meant when I claimed the necessity for WMC as my backend. So to clarify, I need WMC as I'm a TWC subscriber, and pretty much every single channel they offer now is encoded, encrypted, DRM'ed, scattered, smothered, and covered. It won't work with Myth. It won't work with XBMC. It won't work with Jriver. It won't work with OpenElec. It won't work

Well, then, I apologize if I assumed clear communication. Because there's a huge difference between encryption and DRM, and because the Ceton tuner handles the encryption part and Windows handles the DRM part, I assumed that when you said "encrypted" you meant "encrypted". I guess it was my fault that I didn't first clarify with you what you really meant by your use of "encrypted" before typing out an explanation that assumed you meant "encrypted".

[STC]

To prevent the problem in the future configure your router / DHCP server to allocate the same IP to the Echo.

[adam1991]

To prevent the problem in the future configure your router / DHCP server to allocate the same IP to the Echo.

looking at his posting history here, I assume he'll come back with some argumentative "reasoning" as to why he can't possibly do that.

The REAL reason would be, doing that would take away something he could use to complain about the Echo (more).

[Jimmersd]

Might be a good idea to take a step back and tackle this from the perspective of WMC finding the Echo at the correct IP address .

Go to WMC Tasks/settings/extender there should be an icon that ID's your echo along with its expected IP address. The icon should have an exclamation point to denote that WMC is having a problem connecting to the extender.

Here you have 2 options. Either confirm that the IP address displayed on the Echo setup screen is the same as the one in WMC. If not, then change the IP address assigned to the Echo in your router or managed switch to a dedicated IP address that matches the one expected by WMC and reboot both devices. If you're using a managed switch you will need to reserve the IP for the mac address of the echo.

Or delete the instance of that extender from WMC and reinstall the extender using Tasks/settings/extender/add extender. Either way it should resolve the issue.

I highly recommend, that if you're not already doing so, to use Static or Reserved IP's for anything on the network that might expect to find the same address after a system/network reset.

When you power down your complete network and reboot, the device that assigns IP addresses is usually the Router. The DHCP protocol doesn't poll the devices to ask what addresses they want or are expecting to have. It just assigns address. So it is possible that this is where your problem is located. WMC is a little stupid about reconnecting to the same extender on a different IP.

Good Luck.

[grinchy]

I'll just post that I had the same exact thing happen to my Echo during our last power failure - the Echo was the only one of my devices I had to re-add; none of my 3 Xboxes or 2 DMA's extenders had issues. It's just an annoyance I've come to expect from the Echo - just as all other extenders have their own "quirks," this is one of them I occasionally see on the Echo in this type of circumstance. Meh.

[ajhieb]

To prevent the problem in the future configure your router / DHCP server to allocate the same IP to the Echo.

Ultimately, this is probably going to be my long term solution. On a vaguely related note, I do wish the Echo supported Static IP assignment, but I know feature requests are a pipe dream at this point.

Thanks to everyone offering help and suggestions.

[Jimmersd]

To prevent the problem in the future configure your router / DHCP server to allocate the same IP to the Echo.

Ultimately, this is probably going to be my long term solution. On a vaguely related note, I do wish the Echo supported Static IP assignment, but I know feature requests are a pipe dream at this point.

Thanks to everyone offering help and suggestions.

I have mine set up with reserved IP's. No problems here.

[Madcodger]

To prevent the problem in the future configure your router / DHCP server to allocate the same IP to the Echo.

Which takes about two minutes. Once. And lasts until you buy a new router. Good night, this is a lot of back and forth for something so simple.

Yeah, I think Ceton needs to do a bit more with updates, etc., as well. But this is far from the battle to fight. The router-based solution is just too simple.

[IownFIVEechos]

To prevent the problem in the future configure your router / DHCP server to allocate the same IP to the Echo.

Which takes about two minutes. Once. And lasts until you buy a new router. Good night, this is a lot of back and forth for something so simple.

Yeah, I think Ceton needs to do a bit more with updates, etc., as well. But this is far from the battle to fight. The router-based solution is just too simple.

It is unfortunately not that cut and dry. I have had mine in a static IP since day one. But it will occur. One time when the internet router which is on a separate subnet was down I got the issue. While it is easy to dismiss it, for those living it; it is not pleasant. I would think/hope people would have empathy, especially with a guy who seems to be taking the extender to another level with login script etc. What I think Ceton did was install a default Windows Embedded environment on the echo. That allowed them to change the splash screen and create a http setup screen. I do not think they have much options to make any fixes.

You can also get it to occur if you turn on the echo before the Media Server is up and ready. While you would think you can then just restart the echo, most of the time you must re-pair it. The xbox of course does similar things but a restart usually fixes it. Also when it happens to an xbox you do not have to factory restore it like the echo most of the time.

I say 'Windows Embedded' as if I have a clue? Is that what they are using on this? If so why can we not run Windows Embedded on a PC to create an extender? Please excuse the ignorance.

[barnabas1969]

To prevent the problem in the future configure your router / DHCP server to allocate the same IP to the Echo.

Ultimately, this is probably going to be my long term solution. On a vaguely related note, I do wish the Echo supported Static IP assignment, but I know feature requests are a pipe dream at this point.

Thanks to everyone offering help and suggestions.

The Echo was the most expensive paperweight I've ever purchased. Thankfully, I sent it back while it was still in the (extended) warrantee period.

That said, I set ALL of my extenders (no matter what the brand name), and ALL of my tuners, AND my HTPC to statically assigned DHCP leases... because they work better that way. I've had strange problems in the past with tuners and extenders, and after setting a static DHCP lease for them, the problems went away.

[IownFIVEechos]

To prevent the problem in the future configure your router / DHCP server to allocate the same IP to the Echo.

Ultimately, this is probably going to be my long term solution. On a vaguely related note, I do wish the Echo supported Static IP assignment, but I know feature requests are a pipe dream at this point.

Thanks to everyone offering help and suggestions.

The Echo was the most expensive paperweight I've ever purchased. Thankfully, I sent it back while it was still in the (extended) warrantee period.

That said, I set ALL of my extenders (no matter what the brand name), and ALL of my tuners, AND my HTPC to statically assigned DHCP leases... because they work better that way. I've had strange problems in the past with tuners and extenders, and after setting a static DHCP lease for them, the problems went away.

For us Echo owners we get more Hiccups than the rest, that is what the OP is about. Once you learn the quirks you adjust accordingly and have a fairly decent experience. My gripe is in the way the company treated us. I love the small form factor, it is gorgeous in the rooms.

[barnabas1969]

For us Echo owners we get more Hiccups than the rest, that is what the OP is about. Once you learn the quirks you adjust accordingly and have a fairly decent experience. My gripe is in the way the company treated us. I love the small form factor, it is gorgeous in the rooms.

The small form factor isn't worth the headaches. If you want stability and a "clean" look, hide an XBox behind a piece of furniture (but don't block any air vents), and use an IR repeater.

Or, use a Linksys DMA-2100, which isn't much bigger than the Echo.

I just sold my DMA-2200, and I'll be listing a DMA-2100 and an HP X280N on e-bay this weekend. After that, I only have two more HP X280N's that need to go. I'm replacing them all with XBox360-S and XBox360-E.