All sorts of problems with my sling adapter

[griz_fan]

Hi - I recently added a sling adapter to my Hopper (with one Joey). I've had it for about 3 weeks. It worked at first, but now it fails more than it works. I'm using it entirely on my home network. It works well on our Windows 7 computer, but I'm having problems using my Mac and iPad. It worked at first, but now I error 36 on my Mac, and connection failed on my iPad. I'm running iOS 6 on my iPad, and Mountain Lion on my Mac. I have ethernet from my Hopper to my Airport Extreme basestation. We have CenturyLink DSL (12Mb/s down, .8Mb/s up). I've reset my router, uninstalled/reinstalled the iPad app, and reset my hopper. so far, no luck. Any suggestions on how to get this to work?

 

[griz_fan]

I tried using Dish's chat support over this issue, what a joke. "Unplug your router, computer and Hopper, and then try it again". When that didn't work, the chat rep told me it was a problem with my ISP, despite the fact that I told him other computers work, and I also told him that I had no problem with Netflix or Amazon Prime streaming to any device. $50 paper weight...

 

[mx023]

i think its obvious your problems are the apple products.
have you tried using firefox on yer macs? and Sometimes issues like that can be due to settings on routers. for instance, mine works fine at home.. go to friends house, doesn't work on his wifi but works fine on my 3g connection? would lead me to believe it's something to do with his router/settings.
doesn't make sense to me that PC works fine and apple cpus aren't and they're on the same network, but then again i'm no network engineer.
btw jk about apple slam.. im a windows/android kinda guy

 

[dishninja]

I have seen this issue before myself, I agree it is problably in the setting of the router itself. JMO.

 

[jimdandyvi]

If you are having problems using the Sling adapter only on your home network LAN then your ISP has nothing to do with the problem. Your ISP's speed is only important if you are trying to Sling video remotely.

Go into your router setup and if the firmware allows it setup static IPs for all or at least most of the devices that regularly connect to your home network. If nothing else it will insure that all devices are on the same subnet.

Once you get the Sling working on your LAN you may need to set up port forwarding to make it work well on the WAN. I'm not sure about this on the Sling adapter, but I do have to forward Port 5001 to my SlingBox. For port forwarding to work you need need to set up the Slingbox with a static IP.

Another thing to look at under your networking setting is the network seeing your MAC and IP as part of your home network or what ever you called it. If it is not then it is not going to let them connect to all or some of your network resources including shares and maybe the Sling adapter.

 

[griz_fan]

I plan on doing some more troubleshooting today. Earlier, I tried a Windows 7 notebook on the wireless network, and that failed, too. I also tried my Macbook over ethernet, same error (error #36, where it can connect but the connection was interrupted). This is all on my home network, so all over the LAN. I have a Windows desktop connected by ethernet to try, too.
The frustrating part for me is that this did work when we first got it. I watched a few shows on my iPad just to test it out. So I'm not sure what changed.

I also ran the test on http://dishconnectivity.sling.com with these results
Home network:
Congratulations - you will be able to watch TV remotely with the ViP®922 SlingLoaded™ DVR or Sling® Adapter.

Your computer:
Your computer needs to be upgraded for remote viewing. Click on the link below for minimum system requirements

I question the results for my computer, which far exceeds the minimum requirements.

In addition, all of my devices (iPad, computers, Apple TV, PS3, Wii) have zero problems streaming video from iTunes, Amazon Prime, Youtube, Netflix, etc... So if the connection is robust enough for these services, I'm not sure why the Sling adapter is having problems....

Thanks for the advice so far, though, and I will keep digging and post my results back here...

 

[Stargazer]

Welcome to the world of sling (Dish Network). It only works half the time (at least with me) and sometimes buggy at that.

 

[griz_fan]

Every device in my house can connect to the Sling and see what's on the DVR, but none of them can play anything. I've now tested Windows and Mac, wired and wireless, iPad, iPhone. I've reset my hopper. Not sure what to do next.

Is it even worth my time to call Dish on this? Based on the chat session I had with Dish support the other night, I'm worried I'd just get another BS answer....

 

[eddwall]

When you are connecting at home.....hit the button on any remote and check your tuners.
Is the sling connecting to a tuner and what is the tuner connected to?

I have a 2H/4J system since day one, and two sling adapters (1 per Hopper). For the most part I have had real good success with my slings, when I had trouble it was usually a network issue (bandwidth). And let's face its hard to trouble shoot, because you are always away from your home when you try to use the sling adapter.

I read a thread about someone's sling connecting to a unsubscribed channel and the sling was stuck in never/never land.

Well it's true !!! On Monday (9/24) one sling worked and the other didn't....and I said I will trouble shoot when I get home...

Got home and tried to connect to the faulty sling,
pushed the RED button from the TV w/Hopper and noticed I was connected to a tuner, but to a strange channel that I don't subscribe to. I use my IPhone to connect to my slings, while the iPhone showed "starting connection in Master Bedroom" it just stays hung up to nothing. I tried to do everything from resetting sling adapter to resetting the Hopper. It didn't matter. I tried to connect to DVR on that Hopper, but it still connects to the strange channel. I think the channel was (MGM-HD). I tried to get the channel number from the Hopper/Joey, but it hung up that TV as well.

I realize DISH needs to fix this problem, but here is a temporary workaround..

The only way I could get my sling to start working is to get to change channels !! And with the iPhone locked up it wasn't going to happen.

So what I did was to busy all tuners...I turned on one Joey, I put the Hopper in (PIP) mode which tied up two more tuners. Then I tried to connect with my IPhone. I got the"all tuners are busy" message" ......from there I was able to get to my sling menu on my phone. It is the area where you change channels / live feed / DVR functions.

I dropped the Hopper out of (PIP) mode, which freed up a tuner. I pressed the LIVE button on iPhone and connected back to sling and of course the strange channel, BUT this time I have access to my channel changer buttons on the iPhone and I changed the channel to a good channel.

Boom.... I am again connected and working & watching from my sling again . Once I got on a valid channel everything has worked fine for 72hrs. I have noticed this happening several times on both of my slings over the last month or so.

I know it is not a FIX , but if we can find out what is causing the sling to get stuck on unsubscribed channels that would clear up a lot of problems.

In the meantime you can at least try this workaround and get your sling back to working .

 

[griz_fan]

Here's an update. After trying a bunch of things, I finally made some progress when I tried different USB ports (in this case, the front USB did the trick). Then - I ran into another problem. But, eddwall's suggestion above solved that problem. Now, I'm on to the next problem. I can now watch recorded shows, but now... I'm not seeing all of my recordings. When I access dishonline.com on my computer, everything shows up. But when I try to access my DVR recordings on my iPhone or iPad, I'm not seeing most of my recent recordings (most of of the PTAT from the last 2 days are missing).