Can no longer watch recordings on another V6 box

[John_Co]

I have had two V6 boxes for a little over a year now and until around Christmas could watch recordings from the Bedroom box on the Living Room box and vice versa.

Some time around Christmas this stopped working in either direction and when I tried to look at the recordings on the other box, I got a message saying something like "connecting...this can take up to 30 seconds" then a C423 error, even though each box is connected via Ethernet.

I have a mesh "router" and the boxes are connected to different mesh units, but things worked fine like this for a year or so, apart from the odd glitch when I had to restart both boxes or connect in the opposite direction.

I have tried all the usual things but nothing has worked. I have tried switching to Wi-Fi even though the current help suggests that you have to use Ethernet, and using Wi-Fi made no difference.

When the boxes were connected via Ethernet, going into Network Settings showed an Ethernet connection and the IP address and MAC address for each box matched what my router showed for them. The router showed them both on the main network via a wired connection. The IP address for one box was 192.168.68.120 and the IP address for the other was 192.168.68.121 so they were both on the same subnet.

I can access online content such as Amazon Prive Video without problem on each box.

I even tried saying "I no longer have this box" and after doing that I got a message saying there was no compatible box found.

When I rebooted the boxes after that, going into My Shows does not show the other box.

I am on the Ultimate Oomph bundle and my package shows:

• Virgin TV V6 Box, powered by TiVo
• Additional TV Box

Should it say "Additional TV V6 Box"? I never checked before.

Is there anything else I can try before I call Support?

[japitts]

C423 relates to a connectivity problem between the V6 & router, so testing each separate box to use OnDemand services independently of each other is the best test to start with.

Also if you have a mesh router, the first thing that VM support are likely to suggest is that you connect each V6 to your homehub directly and stop using modem mode - that router is a variable that VM don't directly support and even advice on here has to be, to rule out.

Have you tried restarting each bit of kit in the equation (each V6, and the router) separately? I don't have multiroom so am not directly familiar with the keypresses to add new boxes, my fellow VIP @jbrennand  is - and may be able to help here.

Finally, your bill entry is completely irrelevant to this and will have nothing to do with it.

[jbrennand]

Sorry John & japitts. I do indeed have multi-room but just added the boxes in the prescribed fashion and all has been well. I doi recall having a similar issue a few years ago though on not being able to see one of the boxes. I resolved it with help from the forum users on here. If no-one can help sort it I can try a search of my old posts.

Although.... I do have 1000's of posts across several fora and I am not sure how to limit a search just for my user name in the one forum 😳

[japitts]

Thanks for that John, in that case my advice to the OP would be to restart each of the bits of kit (router, and each V6) in turn - it really shouldn't matter, but something's clearly gone awry so reinstating each connection in turn might just give it a prod.

Ruling out the mesh router would be another test - not easy, not desirable, but it's all that VM support are likely to suggest and it's a good process of elimination.

[John_Co]

I powered off each Virgin box and reconnected the Ethernet cables, then powered them on again. Things are now back to how they were when I first posted:

1. Each Virgin box is connected to my router via Ethernet (confirmed both on the Virgin boxes and on the router)
2. The IP addresses are as I originally posted
3. Each Virgin box can access the Internet and on-demand services
4. Neither Virgin box shows the other under My Shows

I am not going to reboot the router as there is absolutely no indication that there is a problem with that and I have a lot of things connected to it, both via Ethernet and Wi-Fi, that I am not willing to disturb unless there is clear evidence that it is necessary.

[ozsat]

When I've had this issue I have found just powering box V6 boxes off at the same time and then restarting them both again (within a few seconds of each other) resolves the issue.

It seems as if it is a wifi issue - perhaps a neighbour is now using the same wifi channel.  Have you tried changing wifi channel manually?

[Tom_W1]

Hi @John_Co, thanks for your post although I'm sorry you're having issues with multiroom recording.

I would advise to ask you to try and reboot your Virgin hub, as this has been online for 272 days as things stand.

I appreciate this might be an inconvenience, as you've got your third parter routers connected and it may take some time to re-set things up, but without attempting this we can't rule out that this is or isn't the issue.

I'd also recommend trying to put your Hub in router mode and enable the wifi on there, to see if your V6 boxes work with the multiroom function on the Virgin Media Hub's wifi.

Please let me know how you get on.

Regards

[John_Co]

Given that I am using the Virgin Hub in Modem Mode and everything is connected to my Mesh Router, I don't see the point in rebooting the Virgin Hub/Modem as my Internet access is working well. I have just done a speed test on my Router and I got a download speed of 640.9 Mbps and an upload speed of 42.1 Mbps.

I am not going back to the Hub Router and it's Wi-Fi. I have 21 devices on my home network at the moment, the majority via Ethernet (including the two V6 boxes) and some via Wi-Fi. I would not be able to use most of my devices without my Mesh Router.

I did another experiment earlier today which was to dig out some old power line adapters and connect each V6 box to one of those via Ethernet. With just the two V6 boxes on the power line network, they could not get on the network and they could not see each other. I then added a third power line adapter and connected it to one of my Mesh devices and then the two V6 boxes did get network addresses, the same ones they got when they were connected to two different mesh devices. They could then get on the network again, could connect to Amazon Prime etc. but still could not see each other.

[John_Co]

Can you tell me how the V6 boxes attempt to find each other on the network? That might provide a clue.

Can you also tell me why a V6 box would not be compatible with another, as I did get the message for a while that no compatible device could be found.

[Travis_M]

Hi @John_Co

Thanks for posting on our community forum!

Could you try and connect the box directly to the VM router and see if the TV box works?

Regards