Stream box CS2017 Channel Failed

[unisoft]

Hi VM,

Right so after original Stream box being replaced and working for a few weeks, a few days ago I rang Customer Services to report error code CS2017. The box is happily connected and passes all diagnostics tests and the catch-up apps work on the box without fault.

It is just the Live TV channels (free or subscription) that give a black screen and CS2017 Channel Failed message and to ring Virgin. I have a subscription I can't use at the moment.

It looks like my box is either denied on the network for live tv or a node/network configuration issue. CS told me that Stream has no live tv channels so I think you owe me a refund for subscriptions then 😉

[Megan_L]

Hi Unisoft,

Thanks for coming back to us, we've had word from the team that this issue has been worked on and they need you to see whether the issue is now fixed. 

Could you please try re-adding entertainment channels on your Stream Box to see if this is now possible?

Thanks,

Megan_L

[unisoft]

Hi Megan_L,

If I don't have a current subscription to Entertainment, then the Freeview channels should still be working and they just say channel failed CS2017 error on every channel. The catch up apps work fine on the VM Stream, and VM Stream diagnostics says everything is fine. I don't want to cancel Sky Stream unless the VM Stream can be made to work. It's the main reason I gave up on VM Stream as it was just annoying.

[Matthew_ML]

Thank you for letting me know this, I will send you a PM so we can look into this.

Please look out for my message in your inbox. Cheers

[unisoft]

Hi Matthew_ML,

This is now working. What I found is that VM do NOT allow DNS over TLS using adguard DNS servers. My router does DNS over TLS and uses Adguard DNS to automatically block adverts and other "adult" content from any device on my network.

This is not unusual and customers should be able to do this as its perfectly normal. It looks like either VM block DNS outside of their own DNS servers or Google's DNS servers, OR they "track" user activity which adguard blocks (correctly) as a tracker.

Now, I suspect that the latter is the cause as sounds more likely in that VM track exactly what a user is viewing for statistics for numbers of viewers watching a channel and data mining on exactly what is popular. DNS over TLS would not be liked as inspection could not be carried out on the DNS lookup requests.

This is an "undocumented" change as the Stream used to work fine with this DNS setup - the faults when I first had Stream were a combination of faulty box which was replaced and buggy (early) firmware.

So in essence, this really should be fed back to the department responsible as users setting their own DNS on their own router should not be a blocker. At the moment, for the Stream device only, which is isolated from other devices on my network via a VLAN, I have created a DNS exception to use Google's DNS servers for this device and it's working with that.

So yes, ability for VM to snoop and track what a viewer is watching via unencrypted DNS look ups and no blocking of tracking beacons looks like a requirement for VM Stream!

[Matthew_ML]

Thank you for letting me know and for posting this.

I will take note of this, have a wonderful rest of the day. Cheers