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Interesting that both Freetime and YouView boxes are now suffering from intermittent unexplained* bugs with no resolution in sight. Is this a basic flaw in the hybrid manufacturer/service provider model? Ultimately (IMO) one party needs to be responsible for design and implementation.
* unexplained to the users
So, rather than disrupt my network by turning off the DHCP server, from what people have explained, it looked to me like the box needs to see an ethernet connection to a network port, to enable networking (and networking setup) in the Humax’s GUI.
So, I connected it up to a spare switch that had no other connections, and that enabled me to manually set the box up. So, now it’s got a static IP, and I have control of it’s network settings, I now have the ability to change the default gateway. If I don’t hear anything from Freesat (and possibly, even if I do), I may build a pc with two network cards*, run a transparent proxy on it, and point the default gateway on the Humax box to the transparent proxy. Then I’ll be able to see what it’s doing (or at least, where it’s trying to connect and using which protocols on which ports (I can’t find this info anywhere on the internet)).
We’ll see (I don’t really have time, so I’m not sure *when*…).
Cheers,
Matt.
* – perhaps I could use a single network port on a spare RaspberryPi to frig this…hmmm…
Why not just download Microsoft’s Network Diagnostics tool.
It is quite easy to use and lets you see the activity from particular host and protocol.
One additional point: Several users who tuned their routers / freetime units off at night had more problems.
REPASSAC – 1 hour ago »
Several users who tuned their routers / freetime units off at night had more problems.
Also, those who powered up the STB before the router. I experimented with this and was able to reproduce the problem – which I had not experienced while following my usual practice (router always on, STB in overnight sby).
An interesting thing I’ve noticed recently – Showcase seems to be loading more quickly, recently. Following the update, and the initial error reports, Freesat did some tweaking, over two or three weekends, which resolved the issues for most users, and left us with a markedly longer Showcase-loading time. During the past week it seems to be loading faster again, though not as fast as it used to. Anyone else notice this?
I’m having problems at the moment. In the Network Connection it says I am connented via the ethernet connection but all that is showing in the box on the next screen is BBC iplayer & ITV Player.
On Demand only shows the Showcase picture and nothing else.
Any suggestions ?
PS I also have problems with my Broadband connection so I wonder if that is causing these problems as well. Sometimes there is just too much Broadband traffic through Congestion and I wonder if when I unplugged the other night because of a lockup then it didn’t get the other On Demand settings because of the Internet Problems
Hebridean – 6 minutes ago »
I’m having problems at the moment. In the Network Connection it says I am connented via the ethernet connection but all that is showing in the box on the next screen is BBC iplayer & ITV Player.
On Demand only shows the Showcase picture and nothing else.
Any suggestions ?
PS I also have problems with my Broadband connection so I wonder if that is causing these problems as well. Sometimes there is just too much Broadband traffic through Congestion and I wonder if when I unplugged the other night because of a lockup then it didn’t get the other On Demand settings because of the Internet Problems
The message you get on the network screen is normal. Somewhat confused by your other comment. Selecting ON Demand shouldn’t show Showcase options but 9 icons (assuming non Scottish postcode) BBC iplayer, itv player, 4 OD, Demand 5, YOutube, CURZON Home Cinema, Hopster, BBC Sport and BBC News
Showcase is a separate entry in the home menu.
OK Problem Solved. On Demand IS there, its just the picture icons that aren’t. Hover over the blank boxes and you get the text at the top of the screen telling which channel it is and then when you click on the blank box you get the whichever channel it is.
grahamlthompson – 26 minutes ago »
Hebridean – 6 minutes ago »
I’m having problems at the moment. In the Network Connection it says I am connented via the ethernet connection but all that is showing in the box on the next screen is BBC iplayer & ITV Player.
On Demand only shows the Showcase picture and nothing else.
Any suggestions ?
PS I also have problems with my Broadband connection so I wonder if that is causing these problems as well. Sometimes there is just too much Broadband traffic through Congestion and I wonder if when I unplugged the other night because of a lockup then it didn’t get the other On Demand settings because of the Internet Problems
The message you get on the network screen is normal. Somewhat confused by your other comment. Selecting ON Demand shouldn’t show Showcase options but 9 icons (assuming non Scottish postcode) BBC iplayer, itv player, 4 OD, Demand 5, YOutube, CURZON Home Cinema, Hopster, BBC Sport and BBC News
Showcase is a separate entry in the home menu.
Might be referring to the “Discover Showcase” images that appear in “On Demand” to the left of the player icons?
Hebridean – 9 minutes ago »
OK Problem Solved. On Demand IS there, its just the picture icons that aren’t. Hover over the blank boxes and you get the text at the top of the screen telling which channel it is and then when you click on the blank box you get the whichever channel it is.
Mine did that yesterday, left alone for an hour or so the icons came back without doing anything.
Hebridean – 8 minutes ago »
OK Problem Solved. On Demand IS there, its just the picture icons that aren’t. Hover over the blank boxes and you get the text at the top of the screen telling which channel it is and then when you click on the blank box you get the whichever channel it is.
The icons have been known to vanish temporarily. My theory is that this happens when Freesat are tweaking the servers. Seems to happen mostly at the weekends. Could also be due to heavy traffic, I suppose.
REPASSAC – 12 hours ago »
Why not just download Microsoft’s Network Diagnostics tool.
It is quite easy to use and lets you see the activity from particular host and protocol.
One additional point: Several users who tuned their routers / freetime units off at night had more problems.
Thanks. That would require having a Windows box to run it on…(which I *could* do in a VM I suppose). However, looking at it, it seems designed to analyse the network as seen by the computer it’s running on, it’s not able to insert itself into a network conversation between two other parties (the Humax and the router), as far as I can tell (on a modern network you’d need it to do ARP spoofing to do that, I think (and that’s getting into a whole other low level)).
My router/switches are never off, and due to a lack of total reliability of recording, I early on stopped my Humax going into sleep/standby, which has improved the reliability of recording programmes to nearly always successful.
I’ve build a VM (Kali/Backtrace Linux) to run a mitmproxy (a transparent proxy that you can inspect and even modify packets). I just need to finish that, and then I will point the Humax at it and fingers crossed, it’s not using HTTPS).
Cheers,
Matt
mutant_matt – 14 hours ago » My router/switches are never off, and due to a lack of total reliability of recording, I early on stopped my Humax going into sleep/standby, which has improved the reliability of recording programmes to nearly always successful.
Your box is always awake? Do you reboot it from time to time? Had you recently rebooted at the time you first experienced the loss of access to the Showcase/On Demand portals?
Just wondering what might have thrown your box into suddenly losing access.
REPASSAC – 2 days ago »
To recap on the history of this issue:
At the start there were no problems with showcase or on-demand.
freesat then introduced a new version of on-demand and at the same time, a software release which included support for it.
I may be mistaken, but wasn’t it a new version of Showcase? I got the impression that Showcase effectively became a gateway to On-Demand, so that if the checks for connection to the Showcase server failed, that failure could affect the On-Demand checks, perhaps through the delay caused by the Showcase failure.
Quote:Problems commenced for some they were dire, for others infrequent.freesat attributed the problem to “their end” but were not specific. The conclusion most came to is that it was a server load/slow response problem. New software was issued and for nearly all users the problem ceased or became very infrequent.
What is clear is that on boot several checks take place to confirm proper internet connection, which are in addition to the standard network ip acquired test. There seems to be separate tests for on-demand and for showcase as users can loose either or both.
Agreed, except that it seems to me, again, that it’s the new Showcase that’s basically at fault. The problems with On-Demand seem to have been either a consequence of the Showcase-connection failure, or else just the temporary disappearance of icons – which are probably dispensed by the Showcase server.
Just speculating.
JamesB – Yes indeed, I meant to write showcase rather than on-demand.
I seem to recall users losing access to only one of the two services but which service was lost changed. Guessing here but I assume more than one freesat server is involved – one for showcase and another as the on-demand infrastructure (The separate services themselves being hosted by their providers).
It seems a fair assumption that prior to the showcase change, the only pre-check that took place, was an ip being obtained. Now there are several tests, of which the new ones expect a prompt response from freesat’s server.
The showcase Icon’s are a very minor problem and I guess that they are indeed loaded from the showcase server.
Yes. I agree.
And (speculating further) Freesat want Humax to resolve it by changing the checks, while Humax think Freesat should resolve it by addressing the server issues. Meanwhile the affected customers, because few in number, are left to put up with it or go for a swap.
Disappointing, if that’s the way it is.
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