2nd V6 Box lost connection suddenly

[CannonFoddr]

First a bit of background.
 I have 2 v6 boxes -

* The Main box is located upstairs in my Bedroom & has a Network and Coaxial cable connected
* The 2nd box is downstairs in Living room - there is only the coaxial cable connected
(I live at home & pay for the cable - hence why main box is in my room)

My Mum has just had a problem with the box downstairs.
She just finished watching a recording she had (couldn't watch her usual Saturday programs since Football was on & her programs were 'cancelled'), went back to the menu to start another recording & ended up with nothing but a blank purple screen but with the PIP in top right corner - & none of the buttons on Remote would do anything (the only thing it could do is adjust TV volume)

Looking at the front of the V6 box I noticed 2 red LEDs showing - the 'Double arrow' & the 'Wifi' - both were solid & not flashing. Can't find any info about WHAT these are meant to mean but I guess it's something about connections.

I checked Virgin Status page to see if there's a intermittent problem - Everything showed 'No Problems'

I then checked the main box & internet connection(s) - Both Wired & Wireless - & all were working (although for some reason the remote wouldn't turn on the box - power switch did though - but THEN the remote could turn off/on the box again)

So seeing it's just the 2nd box at fault I did the usual "Turn off the box, wait 30secs & turn it back on". Nothing changed except on the main menu I then saw a message about "Connection Problems press OK to go to settings" (or words to that effect) - which I did

It took me to connection setting & so I tried to 'reconnect' but it kept coming up with 'Network cable disconnected', which is weird - there's no network cable available to plug in.

It took me a while to figure out how to change from 'Cabled' to 'Wifi' connection & tried reconnecting - I found my Wifi signal & logged in 

As I'm typing this out I'm up to 20% 'Loading Information' (the last thing on the list) so it's seems things are working. (at least she can go & watch her other recordings now)

I'm puzzled - why did my 2nd Cable box suddenly decide to change from it's 'Wifi' connection to 'Cabled' ?? 

BTW, after finally figuring this out, my Mother then said she had other problems especially when switching the box on.

On occasions she said that she sometimes "get the picture but the sound goes choppy, but I swap channels for a few minutes before going back & it seems to settle down" - whatever this means, don't know if it's connected to this sudden connection changeover

[japitts]

I can't quite follow your whole tale, but if it helps...

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@CannonFoddr wrote:

First a bit of background.
 I have 2 v6 boxes -

* The Main box is located upstairs in my Bedroom & has a Network and Coaxial cable connected
* The 2nd box is downstairs in Living room - there is only the coaxial cable connected

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All VM TV boxes need two connections. A coax that carries the TV feed, and an internet connection for OnDemand, streaming & EPG/software updates. It sounds like your second box connects your homehub using wireless, and your first box uses Ethernet.

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@CannonFoddr wrote:

Looking at the front of the V6 box I noticed 2 red LEDs showing - the 'Double arrow' & the 'Wifi' - both were solid & not flashing. Can't find any info about WHAT these are meant to mean but I guess it's something about connections.

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The double-arrow means the V6 doesn't have a working internet connection, the WiFi means that it's trying to connect that way instead.

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@CannonFoddr wrote:

It took me a while to figure out how to change from 'Cabled' to 'Wifi' connection & tried reconnecting - I found my Wifi signal & logged in 

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If an Ethernet cable is connected to a V6, that will disable the WiFi - by design.

[CannonFoddr]

 It sounds like your second box connects your homehub using wireless, and your first box uses Ethernet.
Correct - The Main box (upstairs) has a cable connection & Coax & the 2nd box (downstairs) only has the coax cable so it must connect via WiFi. Sorry if I didn't make that clear

If an Ethernet cable is connected to a V6, that will disable the WiFi - by design

If  that's a thing then I can understand it - a sort of 'Default mode' if a cable is detected, but how did the 2nd box suddenly change from 'Wifi connection' to 'Cabled' while watching/ending a recording ??

I could understand the box going into a sort of 'default mode' IF it was turned off from the mains & it somehow lost it's programmed settings (a bit like how a pc's BIOS resets to default if the backup battery is flat & you turn off the the PC) - however this isn't the case.

I am wondering if there is a normal reason for this to happen or is the box starting to fail or is it something else

[japitts]

Do you have a spare Ethernet cable anywhere? If you do, then try plugging it into the "offending" (connected wirelessly) box purely for the purpose of triggering "I have an Ethernet cable connected and WiFi is disabled". The fact the cable is connecting to thin-air is irrelevant for this test, although an error in the network connection screen should be the consequence.

Then remove said Ethernet cable.

Does the switching behave as expected?