Hopper Causing internet connection issues with router?

rvtechnician

Well-Known SatelliteGuys Member
Original poster
Aug 21, 2010
28
0
Columbus, Ohio
Hello,
We had a new system installed yesterday. 1 Hopper, 2 Joeys, 1 Sling. Everything seemed fine except we were having internet connection issues with speed and connectivity after the install. After a couple of support calls to Dish and our ISP, we now know it is a problem with the Hopper in the network. We now have the Hopper disconnected from the ethernet cable and the internet is back to running normal. With the Hopper connected, it switches on/off constantly with it being mostly off. This can be seen on the network set up screen as it refreshes it says connected then not connected. This was ongoing for almost 20 hours until we disconnected the Hopper from the network. I've looked around in the set up, but cannot see how to make any changes. A call to Dish support seemed to be little help as they only want to send a tech out. I don't think there is any problem other than the settings. I already tried changing ethernet cables and connection ports. I also have done multiple hard resets on the router and Hopper. This was an existing ethernet connection that was changed over from Direct TV DVR to the Hopper. No problems before the Hopper. Any help is appreciated.
Router is a 2012 Apple AirPortExtreme. ISP is NextGen Access sent via a repeater to an antenna on our house. It all works great without the Hopper.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hello,
We had a new system installed yesterday. 1 Hopper, 2 Joeys, 1 Sling. Everything seemed fine except we were having internet connection issues with speed and connectivity after the install. After a couple of support calls to Dish and our ISP, we now know it is a problem with the Hopper in the network. We now have the Hopper disconnected from the ethernet cable and the internet is back to running normal. With the Hopper connected, it switches on/off constantly with it being mostly off. This can be seen on the network set up screen as it refreshes it says connected then not connected. This was ongoing for almost 20 hours until we disconnected the Hopper from the network. I've looked around in the set up, but cannot see how to make any changes. A call to Dish support seemed to be little help as they only want to send a tech out. I don't think there is any problem other than the settings. I already tried changing ethernet cables and connection ports. I also have done multiple hard resets on the router and Hopper. This was an existing ethernet connection that was changed over from Direct TV DVR to the Hopper. No problems before the Hopper. Any help is appreciated.
Router is a 2012 Apple AirPortExtreme. ISP is NextGen Access sent via a repeater to an antenna on our house. It all works great without the Hopper.
it shouldn't clog up your bandwidth when it is just delivering Sat channels. however, there have been reports that if you download/stream a movie/tv show from OnDemand/Blockbuster@Home that it will cause your Internet to come to a crawl. i downloaded one movie from BB@H and it did slow my network traffic down. Hopefully they get this corrected for you.
 
No, we are not downloading anything. The fact that the internet is off almost the entire time it's connected to the Hopper prohibits downloading.
 
I'm confused, Your title says HIC is causing internet connection issues with router. but you don't mention a HIC device at all in your problem? It sounds to me like you just have your router plugged into one of the internet ports on the Hopper?

My understanding is that a HIC is an actual seperate device (HOPPER INTERNET CoNNECTOR).

Anyway,
Can you plug a laptop or something else into this existing internet connection and have it work fine without dropping in and out?
If so, then you have a problem with your HOPPER and a tech would most likely have to come out and replace it.
 
Okay, sorry for the mis information. This is an Ethernet hard wire network connection for the Hopper. The same ethernet hard wire works properly with a direct tv dvr, and 4 different laptops we tried today. All Ethernet and wifi connections work properly until the Hopper is connected. When the ethernet is connected to the Hopper, the internet stops working. When it's disconnected from the Hopper, the Internet works fine.
 
rvtechnician - there are two LAN ports on the Hopper. Have you tried both? One may be defective - bad nic, shorted pins, etc.

Also, that existing ethernet cable may be a crossover cable. I don't know what the DirecTV system uses. If so, that might cause an issue. Have you tried another cable?

Finally, have you tried using an HIC, and connecting the LAN to that instead of directly to the Hopper? Again, there may be an issue with the Hopper's LAN ports.
 
I have tried another cable and both top and bottom ports on the Hopper. I do not have an HIC. Dish has scheduled a service call, but it's 5 days away and I have no confidence that there is a hardware issue. Based on my limited knowledge of our network settings, I think there may be an issue with those.
 
I don't know if they charge for it. I don't think the service call is going to help because I think it's either a compatibility issue with the Apple AirPort Extreme router or the software. I'm 99% sure the hardware is fine and 100% sure it's not the Ethernet cable or ports. I have tested all those. The light is on at the Ethernet connector on the Hopper when the cable is attached. The Hopper connects after a few seconds. It just keeps disconnecting/ connecting. When this happens the entire network connects/ disconnects from the Internet in unison. In settings, network connection status, it shows connected, then not connected and changes almost every time it refreshes. Same with server connection and Internet connection. These are the exact same connections we transferred from the Direct TV DVR just minutes before the Hopper was installed. It was working for the last 6 years without any problems. The only difference from my point of view is the settings. Direct TV has changeable settings and the Hopper does not. The direct tv DVR settings did not work when we originally connected it either. We had to change the settings and then it worked fine. When I told the tech that. Today, he said the settings cannot be changed. If this is the case, it may not ever work. I've never seen a network device that doesn't have changeable settings until now.
 
I don't know if they charge for it. I don't think the service call is going to help because I think it's either a compatibility issue with the Apple AirPort Extreme router or the software.

For what it's worth, my downstairs Hopper is connected to my Apple Time Capsule, via HomePlug, and the upstairs Hopper is connected to an Airport Extreme, which is set up to extend my wireless network. No drop out issues at all.
 
Yeah. The Apple routers, despite being pretty, expensive, and part of a closed eco-system, still need to adhere to ethernet and wi-fi standards. As such, I would say that the OP's issue is probably a problem with the Hopper. Just because the LED's are lit does not mean it is communicating properly on the LAN. It only means that it is physically connected to it.
 
GaryPen said:
Just because the LED's are lit does not mean it is communicating properly on the LAN. It only means that it is physically connected to it.

Exactly. That's what I currently see with ethernet hooked up to my Joeys.

Sent from my iPad using SatelliteGuys
 
I realize the light on doesn't mean it's working, but the fact that it is actually working when it cycles to " connected" does mean its capable of working at least intermittently. A couple of things I notice from the network connection status page: it has taken the ip address from another device. Since we have had the Ethernet cable in/ out so many times, it changes the ip each time, but always "steals" the ip from another device. The MAC address is incorrect according to what everything else that DOES work with our router uses. The subnet mask is incorrect according to what everything else that DOES work with our router uses. The airport extreme router setting has to be set to "static" not DHCP for it to work with our particular ISP. I called our ISP and talked with support. They offer no advice for the Hopper. He did tell me that he can see the Dish DVR as connected when I have the Ethernet connected. I still cannot wrap my head around how this could possibly work with every conceivable router when the settings cannot be manually edited. An example: we have 2 complete set ups for surveillance systems connected to this router. Neither would work when initially connected via Ethernet cables to this router. We had to manually change the DHCP to static, the subnet mask to match the router and input the correct MAC address, primary and secondary DNS settings IN EACH DEVICE. The Hopper does not allow any changes. Both techs at Dish support told me there are no known issues regarding this and neither could get any additional information from engineering.
 
More mis- information from me: I must have been confused about the settings from "wired"to " wifi". I connected the Direct TV DVR back with the same Ethernet cable and checked the settings there. The settings appear to be the same as the Hopper settings. The Direct TV DVR connection works fine by the way. No interruption in Internet. I left the Direct TV DVR connected to the ethernet and then connected another Ethernet cable to the Hopper and now right back to the same problem. Perhaps the Hopper is bad. I'll have to wait for a service call to try the wifi with the Hopper as I do not have an HIC.
 
It sure sounds like there is an IP address conflict between your Hopper and another device on your network. Check your Hopper's IP address, then disconnect the Ethernet cable from the hopper and try to ping that IP address from a computer. If you get a response with the Hopper disconnected, you'll know that some device is already using that IP. Even if you don't receive a response back to a ping request, I would assign a different IP address. Find an IP on your subnet that is not in use and manually set it on the Hopper.
 
The Apple AirPort Extreme has the capability to easily see the ip addresses for every device. The Hopper is choosing the ip that was being used by the DirectTV DVR which is now disconnected. We tried disconnecting the Hopper Ethernet and then reconnecting which resulted in it changing ip's taking the ip from one of our iPads that wasn't on at that moment. That change did not affect the result. Once we connected again with the iPad, the Hopper changed the ip back to the previous one it was using. We confirmed all our devices and each has it's own ip including the Hopper
 
Talked with Apple support. They asked if the Hopper is considered a router itself. I told him I don't think so, but I'm not certain. He said if it is a router, it needs to be connected completely different and have a different set up. If it's not a router, then the Hopper is bad. He said the fact that this is disabling then entire network tells him that the connections via Ethernet are good including all the cabling.